Kitchen Peninsula

Materials: Akurum base & wall cabinets, high gloss Abstrakt doors & panels

Description: IKEA HACK 1: Changing an underused bar area into a multi-functional peninsula: Now this place serves as a prep-area for cooking (we only have a little pantry-style kitchen), and a food serving station (breakfast/happy hour/ buffet style dining).

That's Bobby with our bar area in the background. Tiles are already removed. Photo below gives you an idea about the size of the area. We wanted to use all the area for cabinets. No more bar stools sitting at the edge & more space for my linens.

However, we could not place base cabinets back-to-back because of lack of space. Therefore we used upper cabinets back to the base cabinets the front side of our peninsula. Cabinets were screwed together back to back, side to side & to the wall.

To hide the cabinet seems we got the high gloss finish panel ( it also matched our high gloss finished doors) & saw it to match. Same with toe kicks. Topped the peninsula with granite. Looks great.

Cabinets used: Base cabinets :4 Akurum/ 3 drawers: wall cabinets: 4 wall cabinets. All doors. Sides & toe kicks Abstrakt high gloss white. Strecket handles.

~ Robert, Jerry, & Liane

Billy Built In with Windowseat

Materials: 2 Billy book shelves, plywood (1side finished), trim, crown molding, miter saw, jig saw, table saw, drill, screws, upholstery foam, fabric, thread and sewing machine

Description: I knew Ikea could help us 'cheapen' our built-in plans. With my super smart and talented husband our end result looks like we paid big bucks to a professional!

To replicate:
- Put Billys together, position in desired location
- Use large 'L' brackets to add window seat connecting shelves
- Add face of windowseat (ours covered a radiator so we used a jig saw to make an opening for a tin mesh section to let the heat thru and a space for the bottom to 'breathe'
- Box out top with miter saw and add crown moulding
- Add trim to the face of the book shelves for a more custom/substantial look
- Our shelves came with drawers on casters (that I couldn't find on Ikea's website, maybe they aren't the Billy or have been discontinued)so we added trim to the bottom of them to balance the visual weight of the crown moulding
- Prime and paint
- Cover cushion in desired fabric

Enjoy!

~ Lauren

Yup, another Expedit Bar

Materials: Two EXPEDIT 2x2 Bookcases, two sets of CAPITA legs, 1 LOTS mirror set, 1 INREDA stemware rack, 1 DIODER light set

Description: This hack was inspired by a lot of the other EXPEDIT bars on this site with a few individual tweaks. We had 40+ bottles of booze, a ton of glassware, and not very much space, so we decided to get two Expedits and place them at a right angle. (One day, when we have more space, we may be able to use them side by side.)

We removed some of the supports to create space for the glassware and tall bottles, and also to make a hidden nook where the two bookshelves meet to tuck in even more booze. (Keep the expensive stuff out of sight?)

The Capita legs boosted the bar to a more manageable height and lets us tuck the lighting controls, a power strip, and a Roomba under the bar. We used a manual drill to make small holes before screwing the legs into the bottom of the Expedit.

The flower shaped wine rack is from Amazon but everything else in the construction is from IKEA, including the Dioder set taped up in the back. The mirrors on top ended up working really well as giant coasters since the finish of the Expedit is not ideal for mixing drinks over or handling spills.

~ Marissa L., Los Angeles

Malm Captain's Bed for tiny NYC Apartment

Materials: MALM 6-Drawer Dresser, EKBY TONY/ EKBY BJARNUM, NISSE Folding Chair, 2x4s, Plywood Scraps, Shelving Board

Description: I have a tiny bedroom (about 6ft by 7ft) in a 3-bedroom apartment in New York City and was looking for a way to make the best use out of the space. As a student, I still wanted a desk space to do my work so that was a must. When I first moved into the space I was using the Tromso loft with the desk attachment underneath and that was about it. Being a tall person however (I'm about 6'1") I quickly found that a twin loft bed was just not going to work in the long term.

When I stumbled upon Ikeahackers and and saw some Malm hacks for storage beds it got me thinking about how I could make my own custom built for the space, and with the help of my father and uncle here is the result! I could not be more happy with the way it turned out!

The basic structure of the bed is an L-shaped table that was built to surround the dresser, which is free-standing. Since the dresser is only 63" wide by about 19" deep, the supporting structure needed to compensate for the rest of the bed, which overall is 74" wide by 54" deep. It is made of the 2x4's which were doubled up to make about 8 4x8 legs upon which the plywood top was attached. These legs were then connected and reinforced by cladding the inside with additional 2x4's that go around the perimeter. The unfinished end of the bed that was added beyond the dresser and the desk that was made to come off the end was made out of the finished shelving board which matches the finish on the Malm dresser almost perfectly!

The shelves above the desk are the EKBY TONY/ EKBY BJARNUM which were actually too big for the space. So my dad just measured them and cut them down to the right size before attaching them to the wall. The computer was put into place prior to attaching them to the wall to get the perfect height of the lowest shelf and then the books were put into place to figure out the placement of the upper shelf. The chair at the desk is the NISSE folding chair, which I am thinking about putting on the wall with hooks when not in use, but I am thinking that is not necessary as I have more room than I thought I would!

Overall the construction took about 6 hours and turned out pretty great if I do say so myself!! Would love to know what you all think as I love this site!

~ Peter M, New York, NY

EKBY Book Gallery Display Shelf

Materials: EKBY Tryggve and EKBY Valter

Description: For a recent photography exhibition I decided to showcase a book next to some framed work. While a RIBBA picture frame shelf would have sufficed, I wanted something a little more conducive to page turning while the book was stationary, so... I got hacking.

You'll need the following, give or take a few items:
- 2 x EKBY Tryggve 31 1/8" x 7 1/2" wooden shelves
- 2 x EKBY Valter 7 1/8" wooden brackets (I used black here to match my photo framing)
- Buzz-saw or handsaw
- Detail sander or just sand paper/brick
- Biscuit joiner
- 2 x biscuits
- Misc. wooden dowels (approx. 5/8" thick)
- Wood glue
- Wood filler
- Tack nails
- Hammer
- Tape measure
- Pencil
- Mounting hardware
- Paint (if desired)
- Lacquer (if desired)

Total time: ~1-2 hours (minus glue and paint dry time)
Total cost: $14 for EKBY items (all other materials were in kind)

1. Measure EKBY Tryggve shelves to desired length. For this hack, we cut the pre-existing 31 1/8" wide board down to 18 1/2".

2. Place you book on the shelf to get a sense of where it may sit or rest. Here we determined that there was too much space on the top so we reduced the 7 1/2" depth/height to 6 1/2" for each shelf piece.

3. Use a piece of scrap wood or dowel if you would like a retaining lip on the bottom of the shelf.

4. For added stability to your shelf cut a biscuit joint, glue and clamp.

5. Once your boards are joined and stable, attach dowels to the ends of the shelf. This will create a cleaner edge to the unit. As you can see, we have also added the bottom lip, for retaining the book. Smaller dowels are also glued and nailed to the bottom of the shelf for added support.

6. Fill in any gaps or holes will wood filler. Sand for smooth surface.

7. In order to mount the shelf at an angle, the EKBY Valter brackets must be used upside down, so that the angled part slopes downward. See image above for TOP and BOTTOM of where the wall mounts are.

8. Using a handsaw, cut off the unwanted end of the bracket.

9. Sand down the end of the bracket.

10. Align the brackets to the top of the shelf and mark where they should be glued and nailed.

11. Glue and nail!

12. Here is the completed shelf, pre-paint.

13. Paint as desired. I used a Behr glossy oil based paint. Several coats. Followed by a spray lacquer finish.

14. The finished and installed product!

Have fun and happy hacking!

~ Angry Alan, Providence, RI

Color-Backed Decor Bowls

Materials: Hultet Bamboo Bowls

Description: I bought three Hultet decor bowls to hang on my wall but once I got home I realized they were really dull and boring.

To remedy this I painted just the back-side of each bowl and then hung them on the wall. It's very subtle but high impact!

See more of the decorative Hultet bamboo bowls.

~ Allison @ House of Hepworths, Texas

Expedit 19" rack

Materials: Expedit, MDF 18mm

Description: I was planning to make a nice 19" rack with Expedit. But because the shelves are thin like paper, I had to reconfigure it.

What we've done: Making a sort of case with 18mm thick MDF, and put this in the Expedit.


Then there was some space left, and you see, with the original shelves, you can store your LP's.

Enjoy!

~ Thoon_Loque, Netherlands

Cool hacks for a Kool Kidz shop

Materials: Expedit, Lack, Vika Gruvan

Description: How to make a low budget shop look cool:

1.
- Glue old cartoons on the Expedit shelves
- turn wheels on


2.
-easy as pie: be creative with the Lack shelves, make your own formation!

3.
- find a table top in the cheap nook
- attach it to a chest of drawers from the cheap nook
- glue old cartoons on the front
- add some led lightning

~ Ole Andreas Finseth, Oslo, Norway