4 Bennos, not quite enough space

Materials: Benno, router, drill, wood dowels

Description: We recently moved, and the spot we wanted to put our 4 Benno towers to put our DVD's on was about an inch too small.

After coming up with many terrible ideas, trying to figure out a different place to put the shelves, and checking this site for ideas, I decided to just take two of the shelves, and have them share one of the side panels.

All I had to do was flip over one of the panels & using a router, made a groove for the backing. Then I drilled through the peg holes so that I can put shelf pegs on both sides. (That was the tough part, as the board splintered when the drill punched through.)

Then I drilled some holes to add wooden dowels & wood glue to keep it together and stable.

~ James, Southern California

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CD storage/sofa table

Materials: BENNO DVD tower, EKBY OSTEN shelf

Description: Having built the Benno tower, saw it off at around 50cm (tall enough for 3 CDs), and use the piece which would have been the top to create a tiny 3-CDs-tall version of Benno by drilling two extra holes on each side at the top of your sawn-off tiny Benno and using the screws it comes with.

Then make another of these from the remainder of the Benno, using what was the middle shelf as the bottom (leaving the same 8cm section at the bottom as a base) and creating a top for it from a spare side piece, attaching using nails or screws.

Then, place the two small units the length of the shelf apart and nail, glue or screw the shelf on to the top. This should create a CD storage unit which can sit between the sofa and the wall, so you have a surface to place drinks/remote and also some CD storage!

~ Katie Steckles, Manchester

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Lay down and roll over Benno

Materials: Benno DVD tower,Ekby Tore brackets

Description: I am into papercrafting and I needed some small storage above my worktable. I bought a Benno DVD tower with the intention of laying it on its side. I cut some off of the bottom of it to allow it to fit in my alcove space. When I was assembling the piece I discovered that they provided channels for the piece of hardboard on the back to slide into.

I decided to roll it over and make the back into the front. I cut the hardboard into thirds. I drilled finger holes in two of them and put them on either end to hide some of the clutter. I applied iron-on melamine edging to cover the raw edges of the top, bottom,and center support.

I had a scrap piece of hardboard left over from another project so I cut it to fit on the back. I joined the shelves in H configurations to further divide the space behind the doors. The whole thing is supported by three Ekby Tore brackets. It gave me all the storage I needed for the items that I use most often.

~ Nancy Leigh Leidy, United States

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Bill-enno alcove storage

Materials: Billy, Benno

Description: Hi, everybody! Not a lot to this and unfortunately I didn't take step-by-step photos, but I think it's quite clear what went on.

Put simply, I built an 80cm Billy and attached it to the wall and used it with the glass doors for some time before deciding that additional storage would be useful.

The alcove that the Billy sits in is luckily the perfect depth for a Billy and a Benno to sit one behind the other, so I built four Benno towers and bolted them together before putting wheels on the bottom and then attaching that build to the front of the Billy, with four hinges, to function as a door.

The movement of the door is hindered by the pile of the carpet, but it could be fixed by raising the door and adjusting the wheels - but I haven't got round to that yet. I could have put larger hinges on, but it's stable enough without. The rope handle is simply fed through a hole in the side of the Benno where the middle, fixed shelf is.

Having taken the glass doors off the Billy, I put them on the front of the Bennos to finish it off and they could do with being sited a bit further back, but overall we're happy - it fills the space available with useable storage!

Eoin, Hertfordshire, UK

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Built in Bookshelves with Window-seat for under $350

Materials: Billy bookcase, Benno Tv Bench

Description: We wanted built-in bookshelves and I have always loved the idea of a cozy windowseat to curl up in while reading a book.

The wall we wanted to build the shelves on was 158" wide, with a slightly off-center window. We decided to use the BENNO Tv Bench as the windowseat. Two31" wide bookcases on each side would be too wide and one 31" and one 15" would be too narrow. So, we had to cut two 31" inch bookcases down to size and then drill our own holes in the end of the shelf that we cut so that we could use the adjustable shelf pegs.

We decided not to use the backing board, we filled the track in with joint compound. I brought a shelf to Home Depot and they matched the paint color very well--although I got semi-gloss and the IKEA finish has slightly less of a sheen, but the line for the track is invisible after being filled and painted.

We removed the baseboard trim behind the bookcases and on the side. We measured from the rear wall to where the studs were on the wall. Once the bookcases were in place, we measured from the rear wall to where we knew the studs were and screwed the bookcases to the studs. We then screwed the sides of the abutting shelves to each other. Then my husband screwed ferring strips to the beam above the shelves and into the top of the shelves, so they are securely attached at the top and sides.

We decided the top of the Benno TV Bench was not deep enough, so we made a brace for the wall, screwing a 2X4 into the beam. We bought a 24 x 48 piece of alder, which we sanded and stained, then affixed to the brace we made on the wall, as well as the top of the BENNO.

Finally, we nailed 2" lattice to cover the space between where the bookcases meet. We replaced the baseboard and picked out nice crown molding for the top of the bookcases. We filled the nail holes and painted everything with the paint we had custom mixed to match the shelf we brought to the home improvement store. We bought some drawer pulls for the front of the Benno so it looks less modern and more traditional.

We love our new built-in shelves and the windowseat has become a favorite reading nook!

See more of the built-in Billy with Benno windowseat.

~ Theresa Novak

Benno book shelves around the corner

Materials: Benno CD/DVD shelf

Description: I have a lot of pocket books spreading around the house. The normal bookshelf is too deep for this small size book and I have no more space.

Most of my pocket book size is about the same size as a DVD case. Aha! I put three Benno shelves around the pillar at the corner and joined them together with "U" shape locking pin (given with the pack, strengthen with double side adhesive tape. This unit can contains more than 200 pocket books and I can now easily access my favorite books.

My house is also cleaner by utilizing the useless area with budget of $100.

~ Oldbot, Thailand

There's more to Benno than meets the eye

Materials: Ikea "Benno" racks & "Dioder" LEDs

Description: I fixed six-and-a-half DVD-racks together in such a way that two of them - screwed to one another as a unit, can be moved to reveal the hidden contents. By pulling the added handle it turns outward, by a pin and hole pivoting construction : holes in floor and in added topping plate, pins in corner below and above both jointed racks.

As you are looking at the ugly backside of the pivoting racks I glued nostalgic black&white cardboard pictures of some Paris quarter to it. In the extending topping plate I made 3 holes to insert the LEDs, illuminating the contents of the racks.

Not visible on the topping plate are two more LEDs, illuminating the plants on top of the racks. It took me a couple of hours to get it right, but it works perfectly. If closed, you can't see that there's more to the Benno than you would expect.

Look at the photos I made to see what I mean. To make room for my large right stereo speaker I sawed 1 Benno into two halves. One half I fixed with it's backside to the side of another rack. The other half I use as a cupboard for things like socks.

Updated: 25 April 2012

There were some questions about how I constructed the six Benno racks in such a way that two of them act as a door, by swaying open and to by means of a pin and hole pivoting system.

I took some more pictures and made some drawings in order to make clear how it works. Basically it is a very simple way of making a heavy object pivot. Maybe you have heard of Agamemnon's castle in Mykene, on the Pelopponesos peninsula (Greece): this (still) has an entrance called "the lion's gate" which in the very past contained a heavy wooden door that pivoted by means of a pin and hole system.

Hinges would not be able to carry the weight of this door. By the way, I used felt pieces under the swaying racks to make them move effortlessly on the floor. Which happens to be an Ikea "laminaat" floor that is by now almost 20 years old (and still going strong !)

Thank you all for being interested in my hack.

~ han jonkers, Netherlands

Benno-Over-Bed

Materials: Benno CD tower

Description: When we moved to our new place I needed a shelf above the bed and had a spare Benno CD tower. I decided to use three angle brackets I had surplus as they would be mostly hidden.

First I trimmed the bottom off the Benno unit so it would match the top, then reassembled the unit with Gorilla glue & fresh dowels - I overbuild as the 'bottom' shelf would be hung from the brackets.

I had to cut some small notches in the backing where the brackets would poke through.

I firmly fixed the three brackets to the wall, note the wiring made safe from a previous light fixture I wanted to hide in case it came in useful at a later date.

Then I mounted the Benno unit - the top shelf is on top of the brackets.

There you have it - clutter that would otherwise have clogged up bedside tables or the windowsill now has a place & a usable unit didn't end up in the landfill.

~ Cakefool, Walsall, UK

Billy-Benno bookcase & DVD Block

Materials: 2 Billy Bookcase, 2 Benno CD Towers, power drill, screws

Description: I have three of the old 60cm Billy Bookcases, and I've moved that many times that they've become a bit rickety, even went tightened up. I decided I'd like to have a bit of a bookcase screen near the door of my new apartment, but the billy's would never stand on their own.Instead I put 2 Billy and 2 Benno Frames together (including backs) and screwed them to each other.

The Billy's are attached to each other via the top and bottom fixed shelves. Each Benno is attached with back flush to each side of the Billy bookcase, via the top and bottom fixed shelves (one Benno on each side)

As luck would have it, after fitting the shelves in the Benno's to the right height for DVD's, there are just enough spare shelves to make a third rack between the two. To do this, it's easy to get some shelf clips to hold them in place (although you might need to take the Benno's down again to drill holes for them). However, all I had were screws, so, I have marked where the shelf should sit, and placed three screws (one to each side, and one at the back, into the side of the Billy bookcases) only half way into the wood, thus providing protrusions to keep the shelf up (i.e. the shelf sits on top of the screws)

Now I just need to find another 60cm Billy to do the other side of the room!! To the Ebay machine!

~ Juniper, Sydney, Australia

CD Rack as a backsplash and copper wall

Materials: BENNO and RUBRIK

Description: Sliced BENNO sides to form a neat backsplash and wall top shelf. Used 5 as-is RUBRIK doors to decorate a boring wall.

~ Pradeep Bhanot, Foster City, California

Benno TV bench add-on

Photo courtesy of IKEA

Materials: Benno TV bench, white shelves, dowels, drill

Description: I wanted to place my stereo next to the TV but I didn't want it to look messy with all the cables. So i built this add-on for my TV bench.

I connected the shelves with some dowels without using screws or angle brackets. It took me about half an hour to build this and another 1 1/2 hours for installing and cleaning up. :) Now everything is in place and it fits perfectly between two Billy bookcases.

See more of the Benno TV add on.

~ Tobi

Home office to reading room

Materials: Effektiv units, Billy bookcase, Benno DVD-tower, Lack side table, Signum cable outlet kit, Valborg cushion cover, Inner cushion, Rundel Wastepaper basket, Ludde Sheepskin, drawer-runners, metal angles

Description: We decided to change our home office into a reading room. The computer desk had to go because we wanted to get a room in which we could chill and read a book without being reminded of work.

We placed four Billy bookcases (31 1/2") and one Billy (15 3/4") into the room each enlarged with a height extension unit to have enough space for our books. In the corner we added one Benno DVD-tower to get a transition to the three Effektiv-combinations which should contain our folders and our computer. Our color is beech.

We decided to buy three plinths, five low add-on units and five high add-on units.
In the left part, we integrated our computer. We put a low unit on the plinth and added two high units. The low unit contains our laser-printer and the print-out paper. It is hidden behind two wooden doors. The first high unit contains our computer. I took two Billy extra shelves (had to cut 1/2" from the width), two pair of drawer-runners and some metal angles from the home improvement store to built one sliding keyboard shelf and one for the scanner. As fronts we selected the roll-front for the middle high units on the left and on the right. All three top high units got aluminum/glass patterned doors. The four low units got drawers with wooden fronts.

In the middle of the room we put an armchair and a footstool (that were in our living room before) and a Lack side table colored in high gloss red which perfectly fits into the room.

The room is illuminated with a Floor up light, a ceiling lamp and three bookcase lights which are mounted on the Effektiv-combination.

Now we can relax with a good book while the computer is hidden behind the roll-front.

~ Carsten, Germany

Benno TV Bench Gets New Life as Paul McCobb Inspired Cabinet

Materials: Benno TV Bench, Waddel Tapered Legs, Grasscloth

Description: My husband has had this Benno TV bench since his bachelor days. It is at least 8 years old. Ikea doesn't sell this anymore. When he bought it looked sleek and fresh, but lately had really started to bug me.

the old Benno TV unit

I was about to Craigslist the sucker when it dawned on me that we might be able to give it a new life without too much effort. I was inspired by the teak and grasscloth cabinets and credenzas in Paul McCobb's planner group. (pix, right)

Step 1: Stain the tapered legs. This was the most time consuming part. It took 5-6 coats to approximate Ikea's "medium brown" finish. The legs and brackets were purchased online at Home Depot.

Step 2: Saw off the elongated sides of the Benno bench. My husband accomplished this pretty easily with his circular saw.

Step 3: Attached the legs and angled brackets to the base of the cabinet.

Step 4: Cut grasscloth to size and affix it to the existing glass doors. We roughed up the glass doors with sandpaper first and then used Elmer's spray adhesive. I was able to keep the cost down by using wallpaper samples from Seabrook Wallpaper.

Step 5: Reassemble the cabinet and enjoy!

It's not perfect, but I think it turned out pretty well. Definitely an improvement.

~ RiDas, Washington, DC

BENNO & BILLY build a spice rack with doors

Materials: BENNO, BILLY, NEXUS

Description: Our spice rack (V�RDE) is placed directly above the stove so all spices became oily and sticky � the time has come to change this.

The problem was we didn't find a nice rack (with doors) which is not too deep to fit above our stove. And to fit some deeper boxes it can't be too shallow.

Solution: take several IKEA items and fit them together.

Step 1: Take a BENNO DVD shelf and cut it down to 70cm (so it fits the NEXUS door). Cut BENNO on the bottom side because you don't need the kicking plate if it is hanging to the wall. To fasten the lower board "copy" the drill holes to the bottom of the side boards. Switch upper and lower board (for optical reasons). Shorten the back wall and cut away the upper corners so you can use the wall attachment angle joints out of PAX (or any other package). Measure and drill the holes for the door (if you have a FAKTUM kitchen you can copy the measurements).

Step 2: Build the BILLY height extension (add holes in the back wall for angle joints and cut away corners for the heating pipe). Fasten the extra shelf as bottom board with screws.

Step 3: Fasten both shelves to the wall and connect them for more stability. Attach doors. (Door handle on NEXUS is an unused one of our kitchen � we couldn�t find an appropriate knob at IKEA)

Materials used:
� BENNO DVD/CD shelf unit (40x106)
� NEXUS Door (40x70)
� BILLY Height extension unit (40x35)
� BILLY Extra shelf (36x26)
� BILLY OLSBO Glass door (40x35)
� PAX angle joint (for wall attachment)
� Door handle (any)

~ Thomas, Bremen

Front Hallway Bench - work in progress

Materials: Benno television bench, Vippa hooks

Description: My children would come home from school and dump their book bags and jackets on the floor in the entrance way. I tried setting up a wardrobe, but they simply dumped their items in front of the wardrobe. (BTW, I have good kids. They're just happy to be home from school.) Our local IKEA had Benno t.v. benches on sale for 29 Euro and an idea was born. If the back is strong enough to hold a flat screen television, it will surely hold three back packs and jackets. Plus, for that price, I had nothing to lose trying to create a hallway bench/storage system.. I also bought Vippa wall hooks because they seemed the sturdiest.

Step 1: Assemble Benno t.v. bench.
Step 2: The back of the stand is three panels. Install one Vippa per panel. Each panel is approximately 16" wide, so I sited the location for each hook 8" from the edge on the outside panels then found the middle of the center panel (8" mark). We used a laser level to them line up, but used that mostly because we like to mess around with the laser. I didn't bother to place anything over the hole in the middle panel since it will be covered by a book bag/jacket, but I may change my mind later.

I put hat/gloves/mittens/scarves in the drawers below - one side for boys, one side for girls. I didn't install the shelves to make more room in the drawers.

Future hack ideas: 1) Now I'm trying to think of a way to hack the sides and back of the drawers to make them as tall as the drawer face. Any ideas as to how to do that out there in IKEA Hacker land?

2) I may have a cushion made for the bench part. I like the idea that if they don't hang up their book bags, they may at least throw it on the bench. I don't want to discourage that.

3) I originally bought two Benno since they were so cheap. But since they were an impulse buy, I hadn't actually measured the front hall space. Two won't fit side by side at our place. If your hallway has the space, having two side by side should work. It looks wicked cool in my head, anyway.

4) I think I'm going to get an etched glass kit from the craft store and decorate the glass portion of the drawers. I'll post an update if that works out.

~ Tracy Lee, Vicenza, Italia