Besta small entertainment unit

Dez hacks a floating entertainment unit from the Besta.

"I haven't really done anything revolutionary here, but I thought I'd share how I used a Besta extension and hung it as a floating entertainment unit. It makes for a nice a clean installation for a master bedroom and gives it a hotel kind of feel. I ran the wires from the TV behind the wall in between studs and cut holes for the wires to go to the AV components in the back of the shelf extension. All in all, it turned out pretty well, not bad for an "as is" item and few hours of work. I'm also planning to add passive lighting to the rear of the TV as well as underlighting for the entertainment unit."

Care for some checkers?

Tim uses custom designed matt paper posters to add some ka-pow to the Expedit glass coffee table. Great for board games. I would love a Scrabble table.

Unlike this Scrabble table, the posters are not stuck on. So when you're sick of trying to get triple scores with words starting with Z, you can whip up a Monopoly poster instead.

It's pretty easy to do. Just select the picture you want and get them printed in the right size. The just lift the Expedit glass top (after you've built the coffee table) slightly to slip in the poster. The wood grain in the poster below almost fooled me. No, Ikea has not gone country.




See more of Tim's custom graphic coffee table.

Regolit Lamps

The Regolit is one versatile lamp. Marco goes for three of them, with a 'floating' base.

He says, "The blue plane is a shutter from an Ikea bathroom furniture. (name unknown) It's 40 by 45 cm. We found it at a discount some months ago. The three lamps are the well known Regolit. We used 4 fisher stoppers with a ring on the ceiling and a 2-meter long steel wire to fix the lamp. This was done to hide the electric wiring and to have a 'suspended in air' effect."




Other Regolit hacks:
- Dotted Regolit
- Regolit Jack o'Lantern
- Regolit pendant lamp
- Cocktail umbrella Regolit

Besta Vanity/Makeup Armoire

Scott's hairstylist girlfriend gets her own "make-up" booth. I love how it closes up into some super hidden away thing, keeping a cache of sprays, mousse and combs away from prying eyes. They should have this on Shear Genius.

Let's hear it from Scott. "Recently, my girlfriend decided to move in. As a hairstylist, her only stipulation was that she get a special area to prepare. Major issues: I live in an open concept loft with contemporary interior finishings. Open concept means a mess in one corner makes the whole house a mess. So, we needed something that looked modern while being able to close the doors and hide the mess. After a lengthy search of different designer options, nothing suitable was found and anything close was incredibly expensive ($3000+). A random trip to Ikea landed me in the living room section and the office area (because it's near the windows and natural light) was changed forever."

Vanity Components/Costs (Canadian $):
-1 x Besta 120x40x128cm frame =$135
-2 x Besta Norum Doors =$190.00
-2 x 736mm Lansa Handles = $25.00
-1 x Inreda Pull-out frame = $39.99
-1 x Inreda Shelf-insert = $12.99
-3 x Inreda Plastic Tray = $50.97
-1 x Inreda Box = $25.99
-2 x Inreda Bookcase Lights = $39.98
-1 x Inreda Cabinet Lighting = $49.99
-1 x Frack Pull-out Mirror = $14.99
-1 x Kolja Mirror = $24.99
-1 x Power Bar = $8.00

Total: $617.89 (approx. US$565.90)

Note: The stool isn't Ikea, it's a Pawn Stool from Gus*. Great Canadian Designers!"

Pour lighting

This is a cute one from Evan.

He says, "The lamp is made from an Ikea PS Vallo watering can and an Ikea Vedum lamp, which consists of a cluster of fiber optic cords lit by LED lights at their base. I threaded the fiber optics through the spout of the watering can so it looks like the light is pouring out of the can."



The Vedum appears to be discontinued. Guess not that many people are fans of 70-ish lighting. But it seems to have redeemed itself in the mouth of the Vallo.

Read all about Evan's watering can light.

Or if have the penchant for other 'exotic' lighting, click on the links below:
- Add light to this watering can
- Lamps from thermo-flasks? No kidding.
- Stainless steel bowl lamp
- Construction helmet lamp
- Gestalta holds up the lamps

Cozy workstation for tiny alcove

Joseph Rosario sneaks in a desk in a tight alcove, balancing one end on top of a Mikael drawer unit.

"I was looking for a desk to fit in this small alcove where a small tv stand used to sit. Originally I wanted to go for something big and simple (like the big Mikael desk with glass top). But the 47" width that I had to work with drastically narrowed down the selection of desks I could choose from. Finally I found that I could just barely fit the Vika Amon table top. For some added storage, I was going to sit one half of the table top on the Mikael drawer unit (w/o casters), and the other half with Vika curry legs. But the height sizes didn't match properly, and the table top would fall rather short. So I opted to raise it with two Vika adjustable legs and Capita legs. It brought the desk up to a very comfortable 30". Paired with a Fagrabo red Patrik visitor chair, my workstation is complete. The desk components added up to $20 + $60 + $15(x2) + $10 = $120. Not too shabby."

Super simple girly hack

Maja makes a girly hack for all kinds of knick knacks.

Here's what she did:
1. Buy one Lillholmen toothbrush holder.
2. Nag boyfriend for half a week until he remembers to borrow a drill from work.
3. Drill tiny holes in said Lillholmen.



4. Apply jewelry.

And there you have it. An earring/ring stand!

See more of Maja's earring stand.

Inexpensive kitchen island from Ikea Akurum

Danielle fits in a kitchen island with some handy hacking.

"When we bought our home 6 months ago the kitchen was a total mess without much storage or work space.

I love to cook so this just wasn't going to work for us. The budget was tight so we obviously thought: Ikea! We couldn't really afford to replace all of the cabinets in the kitchen so we went with the Akurum cabinets with the most inexpensive Arlig finish. We purchased 2 base cabinets and one upper for the shallow depth (to create a niche where my wife could watch me cook) and two tall cabinet units to flank the refrigerator. We painted the existing cabinets to match in white and with the money we saved were able to get granite countertops and a new floor installed.

We added white wainscotting to the back end of the unit from Menards and some corner trim to finish the whole thing. I just used some penny nails around the exterior of the bead board molding, just like the instructions say in so many other Ikea projects. 5-10 on the top, bottom, left and right holds them sturdy. I also ran them through the area where the stool goes just to finish it off (I couldn't get enough light down there to take a decent picture, but trust me - its there). We recently added the corner pieces with some adhesive meant for installing crown molding, it worked great and they didn't slide down the edges at all.



We're thrilled with how it came out, we were able to tuck the microwave and toaster ovens into the large cabinets by the fridge to keep a less cluttered look and the seat at the island really comes in handy."

Laundry basket storage hack

Not one to air her dirty laundry, Megan found a fantastic way to hide them away.

"I have altered a Vattern Cabinet in my bathroom to enable a laundry basket to slide in and out to hide the dirty laundry away. I achieved this using a drawer unit and a larger cupboard door instead of the drawer face."

You think this is just any other bathroom cabinet.


But voila! It slides out to reveal a special drawer for a pop up laundry basket.




See more Megan's laundry basket hack.

Is the Ikea pencil going the way of the Dodo?

Well, I've not jumped onto the iPhone bandwagon but iPhone apps have jumped into Ikea. Two app developers wrote me about their Ikea shopping apps which are great for replacing the Ikea pencil and shopping list. Personally I love scribbling with that stubby pencil. It's part of Ikea experience. Heh.

SwedeShop
The first is from Danilo who claims to be a big nerd who programs for the iPhone and loves Ikea. You can guess where this is going.

Danilo tells me, "The golf pencil and shopping list they hand out at Ikea don't cut it for me. I built an app called SwedeShop that keeps track of your Ikea shopping list for you. Here are some screenshots:

Tap out the item name, set a price and dial in the aisle and bin. And you're done. Optionally, you can set other attributes, like notes, priority or an item image. SwedeShop minds your budget for you and vibrates if you go over. It supports all international formatting and has been localized into English as well as Swedish for good measure.

And that's about it.

SwedeShop launches on Tuesday. It'll be free for one day and cost $0.99 thereafter."

See more of the SwedeShop.

iShopFlat
The other is from Jonathan, called the iShopFlat. Jonathan says, "Living in Sweden I see a lot of Ikea stuff. Now I did something I thought was funny and good for the environment. We did a small app to replace the shopping list at Ikea. It's called iShopFlat and is available on the iPhone AppStore.

Basically it mimics the list you find at the entrance of the Ikea store but also lets you check the price of your items as you go along."

It also goes for $0.99. See more the iShopFlat.

Retractable Lack coffee table

How about a side table to flips up when you need it and hides quietly when you don't. Here's what Colin did with his Lack side table.

The side table is to place all the goodies when friends come over for some poker. It's quite simple to do. Just fit a pair of retractable L-brackets underneath the Lack table and affix to the wall.

This Lack is just taking up space when it�s not in use.

So we bought a retractable L-shaped bracket from a local hardware store.

Screwed the brackets to the Lack surface and mounted them to the wall.

Pulled out for action! Reclined when not in use.

Now I am wondering what should I do with the four unused legs. Suggestions?

See more of Colin's retractable Lack side table .

Model train display case

Bruce has a recipe for a model train display case. Those swanky cases may cost you $300-400 but at Ikea you can get it down pat for $30.

He says, "Take one Ikea pull out drawer kit 39x2 (Code is 20106798 #12068) on sale for $20. Add 2 Tyglosa build it yourself picture frames#19 (70126044 supplier code 21443) for $5. Picture frames come with one rail grooved in, neat!! If you want both you have to do it. Also, you have to cut the frames to fit and screw them into the shelf from the side and back, a fairly easy thing to do.

Do a little building and you have saved over $200+."

Malma mirror mirror on the wall

Bj from London did a simple but beautiful hack on the Malma mirrors. 

"Just ten Malma mirrors, some emulsion and a idea for a pattern. Uber cheap. But love the effect. I used Photoshop to create my pattern and work out the layout, but free hand is just as good. 10 Malma mirrors painted white with leftover interior emulsion. I left a 2 cm gap between the frames and using a pencil drew in the pattern I wanted allowing for the gap. Again a tiny amount of left over grey emulsion from a spring decorating freshen-up filled in the pattern and done. I love the impact of the them mounted together and all for under �10!"



Other Malma hacks:
- Malma magic
- Art up your Malma mirror 
- Hanna's craft mirror
- Wall mirror art
- A frame up

A craft pod that hides a sewing machine

Liz hacks a craft pod with 2 Billy bookcases. Open to craft. Close to hide the clutter. Perfect.

She says, "I used two Billy bookcases, a piano hinge, two hinges for the sewing machine fold out shelf and 8 wheels also from Ikea. The piano hinge holds the two Billy bookcases together, and the sewing machine shelf has two 5.5cm hinges to hold the fold out shelf. I also screwed the sewing machine shelf on the sides to the bookcase for extra support. Not quite sure about the weight you can put on it but it's been holding on pretty strong and my sewing machine is pretty heavy."



See more of Liz's craft pod.

Solig place mat wall art

Heather who is part of a design team for her local scrapbooking store finds an alternative use for the Solig place mat. It's a wall decor and "memory board". Lots of ribbons and a few favourite photos complete the look.



See more of her Solig wall decor here.

Akrobat cabinet with wall decals

Brittany brightened her old Akrobat. Wall decals are a simple way to add some interest to a piece of furniture.

She says, "I have had this Akrobat cabinet for about 10 years or so and it has moved with me at least 3 times. Originally, I purchased it to hold my vinyl, then it became a bookcase and in its final incarnation, it has been a kitchen buffet and bar area.Unfortunately, that lovely beech tone was no longer working for me and I brightened it up with paint, decals and wallpaper for the back of the cabinet itself. While I didn't make any purpose-altering changes, it's way cuter than before.

The real fun was taking it apart and realizing that I had saved the configuration and pricing sheet - not the assembly instructions! Nothing that a bottle of red didn't fix.

Light up with a Rektangel candle

Kelly saves a broken Yankee Candle and turns it into something that she actually like better than the original. Thanks to a 6" Rektangel vase.

Since it's already cracked, she broke the rest of the Yankee Candle glass container. Then the candle is trimmed to fit the rectangular vase. Put the trimmings into the vase and microwave till almost melted. Push the trimmed candle into the melted wax and let the liquid fill in all the gaps. And there you have it!



See her instructions on her blog.