An Expedit-ed Workspace

Materials: 2 Expedit 2x4 Bookcases, 1 VIKA KAJ leg, 1 Lack shelf, 4 Capita legs

Description: When I first moved two years ago I purchased an Expedit 2x4 Bookcase and laid it on its side against my main wall because I liked that look. I had a Lack shelf of the same color from a previous apartment, so to add some storage I attached some Capita legs from the clearance section onto that and made a little top shelf.

Later on, I wanted more desk space and a well-coordinated living room/office, so I got an identical Expedit case, cut 45-degree angles at the ends of both long pieces, and put together an Expedit-based desk. A VIKA KAJ leg at the wall-facing corner keeps everything stable.

If you wish to pull off a similar hack, take plenty of time to measure the 45-degreee cuts, paint the interior connector pieces (you cram those into the honeycombed paper inside the cut shelves for stability and to connect it) before assembling the finished product. Also, measure the VIKA leg, as the desk will have to settle into place if put on carpet.

Altogether, I'm happy with the way this area looks, and even happier with the tons of workspace it affords me. The whiteboards on the walls are a big bonus, too. Just get some melamine panels at your local hardware store and anchor to suit.

See more photos of the Expedit desk.

~ Brad Czerniak, Canton, MI

Vika Curry speaker stand

Materials: Vika Curry leg, Ekby Statlig shelf

Description: The goal was to make a pair of cheap and simple speaker stands. Vika legs are just suitable height to bring the speaker to the ear level when I'm sitting down, and in black they will match the legs of my desk. For the base plate I used an Ekby Statlig solid wood shelf in 19cm width. To put it all together I bought an 8mm threaded rod in the hardware store and a couple of nuts and washers.

1. Vika leg has a bolt welded inside the tube at the top, where the mounting plate is screwed on. It had to be removed to make room for the threaded rod. It's spot welded in 2 points behind the plate, and it comes off after some rocking back and forth with large pliers. I have also drilled a hole on the side for stealthy speaker cable routing.

2. Ekby shelf was already suitable width at 19cm, I only had to make one cut to make it appropriate length. The central hole is for the mounting rod, and the second hole is for the cable. I carved a rough round shape matching the leg for easier centering later. I've used some furniture oil on the wood to make it a little darker and more durable.

3. Feed the rod through, put on the washer and the nut. Do the same on the top side of the base and tighten.

4. Feed the cable through and assemble! The top plate tightens the whole construction to make perfectly vertical and solid. Because there's a nut and a cable under the base plate, stick 4 rubber floor protector pads of suitable height under the plate.

Or for some little extra hi-fi-ness, a set of speaker cones/spikes could be used. They might be more expensive than the rest of the stand, though ;)

~ Max, Finland

Stool in the Japanese style

Materials: IKEA's stool, acrylic paint, silver ink

Description:
1. buy stool
2. paint it by black acrylic paint
3. process sandpaper on the edges stools
4. paint the picture by the silver ink
5. covered with polyurethane varnish

that's all!!!

~ Ataka, Russia

Bomull became roman

Materials: Ikea Bomull bedspread

Description: I needed FIVE panels (big and small) of roman blinds for my bedroom, and those upscale textured and nice upholstery fabrics are out of my current budget set for window dressing...so I remembered my favourite unbleached cotton from Ikea....the BOMULL bedspread! With the perfect width and length, these fit into my budget perfectly.

After one whole day of sewing, it's my 1st attempt at roman blinds by the way, thus I am not familiar with it..much.....

I have 3 small windows and 1 extra wide extra large window dressed in zen....

I even had some extrasss....not much, but enough to make a twirly skirt for my 4.5 year old :D

See more of Joey's Bomull roman blinds.

~ Joey, Malaysia

A heightened headboard

Materials: Ikea Malm Bedframe, plywood, batting, fabric, staple gun, L brackets, screws

Description: I owned the Ikea Malm bedframe and wanted to add height to my headboard. With a quick trip to a local hardware and fabric store, I came home with plywood, L- brackets, screws, a staple gun, batting, and fabric. In a couple hours I completely transformed my bed from blah to BAM!

before

I first added 18" in height to the headboard by attaching a piece of plywood that matched the width of the Ikea frame. I did this with (3) L-brackets each requiring (2) screws and a scrap piece of plywood using (8) screws.

I next wrapped the plywood and then the entire "new" headboard in a couple sheets of batting stapling it across the back on the sides and top.

The last step was wrapping my heightened headboard in the linen fabric I chose stapling it again on the back across the top and sides.

It really was a piece of cake and I love the visual impact my headboard now has in the room!

~ Meghan Posner

Cabinet to hide the boiler and fuse box

Materials: Pax Wardrobe

Description: I had an ugly, 1970's cabinet that hid our boiler and our fusebox. I wanted the cabinet to match the kitchen just a few feet away.

before

The challenge was that there's lots of pipes and electrical wires that can't be moved.

I purchased one 100cm wide and two 50cm wide Pax wardrobe cabinets with doors that matched my ikea kitchen.

The 100cm wide cabinet was used to hide the boiler. I used only the two side panels, the bottom toe kick and the doors. The board meant to go at the top of the cabinet was cut into several pieces that allowed the pipe, but still provided the needed stability. Holes were cut into the sides to allow pipes and wires.

One of the 50cm cabinets was used to hide some pipes and a fusebox. The cabinet was assembled according to the instructions with only half of the back and holes cut into the side to accommodate a large pipe.

The third cabinet was assembled with no hack. It's nice to have some extra storage.

I love the final product. I was pleasantly surprised to find the chipboard tolerated cutting and drilling with no problems at all.

~ Jules, Vancouver bc

Loft bed frame and elevated laptop stand

Materials: MALM and Magasin

Description: Here are two of my Ikea hacks.

The first is a bed frame I made...

I recently moved from a house into a small apartment, and needed somewhere to store all of my things, but still wanted a clean, clutter-free look. Ikea had the answer. I simply found a chest of drawers that I liked from Ikea, and bought four of them - the MALM 3 drawer chest. I then built a simple bed frame to sit on top, and turned it into bed with 50 cubic feet of storage space underneath (including the drawers)!!

The frame wasn't hard to build:
I measured a queen sized mattress, and cut large pieces of lumber to fit around that. Those exterior pieces of lumber were reinforced in the corners. Then I got smaller pieces of wood (2x2's, I think) and attached them so they'd run along each inside edge of those exterior pieces. Then I placed 2x4's on top of those runners, and they reached from one end of the frame to the other, acting as slats for the platform. Once the slats were in place, I just placed a large piece of chip board on top! I also added a couple other finishing touches, such as adding small pieces of wood to the inside edges of the chest of drawers, where I cut out a notch, which I used to hang a small curtain on a dowel to hide the spaces.


My second hack is a laptop stand...

This hack is extremely easy. I simply started with a Magasin wooden dish drainer from Ikea, and cut off the longer supporting legs on the "back" side. Then I attached it to a wall using Command 3M small wire hooks, and voila!! I used 5 of these strips because I wanted to be sure it would support the weight of my laptop. I really like the look of a floating laptop, and this dish drainer worked perfectly.

I can also remove the laptop stand from the wall completely if I wish, or fold it up completely. Or, I can fold the top portion up and use it to support a text book on the lower portion. Or finally, I place the laptop on the top portion, and either fold up the bottom portion, or use it to store my mouse, wireless keyboard, etc. Very versatile!

See more photos here.

~ Angie Andrade, Stillwater, OK

Stolmen curtain pole

Materials: 1 Stolmen post, 2 Stolmen end fittings, assorted bangles, split rings (keyrings), eyelet screws, curtain hooks, screws

Description: Despite scouring the shops and internet, I couldn't find a curtain pole to fit snugly into the niche of our large window without needing cumbersome and ugly central fittings. The extendable Stolmen post offered the perfect solution.

As the Stolmen post has a diameter larger than most curtain rings, my husband came up with the idea of using bangles instead. We made these into curtain rings with an assortment of eyelet screws (for the larger ones) and split rings (for the smaller ones). 

We used Stolmen end fittings on one end to stop the bangles sliding past the change in diameter where the Stolmen post extends (in case they get stuck):

Although this stops the curtain being pulled all the way back, we lose only a small amount of light due to the size of the windows.

We extended the Stolmen post into the window frame and screwed it in place for extra stability.

The result, a neat and colourful alternative to the usual suspects!

~ Shel, London

Stolmen bike rack the return

Materials: To hang 2 bikes: for the 'stand': 1 Stolmen post, 2 Stolmen end fittings, 4 Stolmen hooks, square metal tubing, bike inner tube, nuts and bolts, screws. for the 'stabiliser': 2 Dignitet curtain wire packs (i.e. 4 end fixings), Stolmen bracket, steel with a 90� twist, nuts and bolts, saw

Description: This is an adaptation of a hack posted in 2008, which my husband found whilst searching for a sleek storage solution for our 2 mountain bikes. We liked the idea of using the Stolmen post to make use of our incredibly high ceilings and an awkward shaped niche in our office (that wouldn't fit a standard wall mounted bike stand). We also hacked the Stolmen post to hang our bedroom curtains and wanted to see how many uses we could put it to in our home!! However, as we have a suspended ceiling, we couldn't fully utilise the expanding feature of the post to secure the stand in place, so we had to hack another Ikea product to create a stabiliser.

We followed Michael's hack from 2008 for the main bike stand, except that we used inner tube to cover the hooks for a more durable finish: [picture bike hanger]. We also screwed the post into the floor for extra stability.

To make the stabiliser, we (i say 'we'; i mainly just watched and documented progress with my camera!!) cut the twisted steel to size and then clamped it to the Stolmen post with a standard issue Stolmen bracket and a bolt. After some battling with the wall studs, we placed Dignitet end fixings on the walls behind and in front of the post to prevent the post being pulled forward by the weight of the bikes and also to provide some support in case of inadvertent clumsiness on my part.

We then connected the curtain wires over the steel and clamped them in place with another piece of the cut steel and more bolts, like so:

It took longer than Michael's half an hour, but we think the result is pretty funky.

~ Shel, London

Billy bar table

Materials: 1x BILLY bookcase, 1x VIKKA AMON table top, 2x VIKKA BYSKE table legs legs

Description: After moving into a small flat, my wife had the brilliant idea of combining our bookcase with a bar-type dining table. We searched high and low on the net for similar ideas but the closest thing we found was the expedit desk (ugly and too small for us).

Much to our relief her inspiration paid off and we are now very happy with our new dining table/bookcase combo.

Here's what we did:
1. fastened the billy to the wall to ensure it's stable.
2. attatch vikka byske legs to vikka amon table top (holes already drilled).
3. place free end of table on the fixed shelf of the billy (approx 105cm high). All we did to fasten the table top was put some velcro tape between it and the shelf - works perfectly but a more secure method could be found (some little L brackets maybe).

Too easy! We finished off by buying 4 tall franklin stools and a benno to put our dvds in.

~ Rocky & Yvette, Perth Australia

Magazine rack

Materials: Lekman box, wood sticks, 4 wheels

Description: I needed a magazine rack in the bathroom so we buy a Lekman box and my husband added to the container a frame with wheels. The frame is not connected to the container but we have had not capsizing or slide.

~ Luxra, Italy

Candle dish birdbath

Materials: Ikea Bigarra Candle Dish, 3, 4' wood dowels

Description: I bought the Bigarra Candle Dish to use as a - GASP - candle dish.

A few days later I began thinking about making a birdbath from scratch because most of them are either too expensive or too ugly. Oftentimes, they are both.

Realized the candle dish was the perfect shape and size for the sleek/organic look that I wanted. Ta Da!

Just hammer the dowels at least 12" into the ground. Use a level to make sure they're even and place the dish on top.

Full instructions on staining dowels etc.

~ Karen Bertelsen, Ontario, Canada