Vertical Dish Drainer

Materials: BYGEL wire baskets, hooks and rails; MAGASIN cutlery caddy. Tools: Pliers, Drill, Screwdriver, Wall anchors and screws.

Description: Washing dishes right-to-left is awkward in this space. The wall literally leaves no elbow room.

This layout also leaves kind of a dead wall. Since UP is the way to go in small spaces, I decided to try out a vertical dish drainer.

It's surprisingly sturdy and functional. I was concerned about the dripping pooling water but, honestly, most of it drips into the sink or onto the stainless ledge.

Using a dish/tea towel takes care of that or you can dry right away. A quick sponge wipe will do it, too!

For larger items, I cover the right-most sink with a cutting board and a microfiber pad made for dish drying. That can be pushed over to catch and absorb any drips from above.

1. Mount rail using appropriate wall anchors and screws.

2. The first basket hangs in the standard fashion. See the close up of how and where to connect the standard hook so that it hangs level and water drops down.

3. Bend standard hooks with pliers, as shown, and insert below third rail. (Hook on left is bent. Hook on right is not.) This pulls the basket tight against the hooks and makes it more stable. If it's too high on the rungs, it tends to lean out.

Also note, I reversed the orientation so that the closed portion is to the front. This helps keep the longer, heavier items in. It creates a good angle for drops to drip, too!

~ Clayton Smith, San Diego, CA

BYGEL flowers

Materials: BYGEL + NJUTA + some nuts and bolts

Description: Some day I noticed that the hook of the colorful BYGEL cups fits exactly on the guard rails in front of my window.

First I planned to fill them with real flowers but I do not particularly have green fingers. So I needed a more durable solution.

During a second visit to IKEA I got the idea to use the colorful NJUTA shower sponges as flowers.

The result is a very colorful everlasting window decoration.

How I made them:
- I used a 40cm screw thread as the stem
- next I melted a hole in the bottom BYGEL cups that fits the thread
- the screw thread is fixed with washers and nuts
- I removed the cord from the NJUTA sponges and fixed the sponges with some hot clue onto the thread
- very important: beware of not putting the flowers up in a boring pattern and keep the colors mixed! :)

~ Patrick Mast, Amsterdam

Window Herb Garden

Materials: ORE Shower Curtain Rod, FINTORP Cutlery Caddy, BYGEL S-Hook

Description: 1. Purchased Supplies (including small pots of plants)
2. Spray painted hooks and caddy holder to match the color of the curtain rod
3. Assemble

See more of the window herb garden.

~ Jill Kurtz, Bethlehem, PA

High Heels Hanger with BYGEL

Materials: Bygel

Description: Very simple hack (or different use of an Ikea accessory instead of a hack).

Using the BYGEL kitchen hanger, for organizing and showing the high heels of my girlfriend at home! saving space, and better looking!

~ Javier Lander, Spain

Hanging Desk Organization

Materials: Bygel Rails, Wire Basket, Grundtal Caddies, Grundtal & Bygel S-hooks, Ledberg Light Strip, Ivar Shelving, Goliat Computer Desk

Description: The Goliat desk fits neatly inside the space of the wider Ivar Shelves. I was using the space behind my monitor to store office supplies and whatnot, but it was cluttered, and I was always moving things to get to other things.

So I went to IKEA to pick up some organization.
I found that by using the Bygel rails, baskets and Grundtal caddies, I could get a lot of stuff both easily accessible and up off the shelf.

before

after

1 - Install Rails.
Obviously, the shelf has to come off. I used two of the 21" Bygel rails in a staggered formation with #10 3/4" wood screws and a little really strong glue. The long rail was too long, and the short ones did not provide enough space and would have to be staggered anyways.

2 - Install the brackets for the Ledberg light strip.
Always measure first. I have wanted to have backlighting for my monitor for a while, and it also provides light on the supplies.

3 - Reinstall shelf, populate with organized goodness.
These hanging baskets and hooks are awesome. I can get to everything without moving things, I can see what I have and what I'm out of. Overall, I'm really happy with how it turned out.

~ Eric Heald-Webb, USA

New Use for Bygel wire basket

Materials: Bygel Wire Baskets

Description: I needed a better way to store ribbon in my craft room. Dowels are annoying to swap out ribbon spools, especially if you're very particular about arranging your ribbon! I suddenly realized that the hanging Bygel wire baskets in my shower might work perfectly and they did :)

I went to IKEA and bought 12 BYGEL wire baskets. I removed the handles and hung them from screws in the wall instead. Now I can cut ribbon right from there or remove the baskets when working on a project that involves many spools.

I didn't want the wire handles to go to waste, so I screwed them upside down from the side of a dresser to create magazine storage for project inspiration. I also used them in same way to hang the Bygel plastic containers as a way to store scrap ribbon.

I'm not even sure if this should be considered a hack, but I can tell you that had I seen this on Ikea Hackers years ago, it would've saved me many pathetic attempts at organizing my craft room!

See more of the ribbon organizer.

~ Jillian Pimental, Plymouth, Ma, USA

Shortened pot rack

Materials: Bygel rails, Grundtal hooks, pine planks, L brackets

Description: For 10 years, my Grundtal wall shelf served me well, holding all my pots and pans within easy reach while cooking. When my husband and I downsized to a much smaller apartment (and kitchen!), I realized that there was no place for it.

The space that I had to work with was only 2 feet wide - much narrower than the smallest of the Grundtal wall shelves. I had to improvise.

Using some shelves that I had built a year ago out of L brackets and stained pine boards, I simply attached three Bygel rails to the bottom, and hung the Grundtal hooks from the rails.

It's a simple hack, but the result is super. I have quick access to all of my pots and pans, saving much needed cabinet space!

~ Charity, Los Angeles

Bygel Hanging Shower Rack Hack

Materials: Bygel Rail, Blanken Shower Shelf, Bygel metal "S" hooks

Description: Not really a hack, more of a Hackea, I used to have one of those cool shelves in the corner of my shower on an extension pole. But it was getting rusty. Leaving rust on the soap. Not wanting to replace it with something that would rust out again in 5-6 years, I started searching for a replacement. I found this corner shelf at Ikea, but had no idea how to hang it. I tried hanging it with those 3M Command hooks, but the weight was too much when the shelf was loaded. Then I thought about the Bygel rail system at Ikea. I use it in my other bathroom. But they don't make a Bygel to go around corners. But not deterred, I bought one rail, bent it 45 degrees around a pipe, and hung it on the wall above the fibreglass wall of my tub/shower. Add a couple of "S" hooks, problem solved!

~ Rob, Burien (Seattle), WA, USA

BYGEL Stiletto Shoe Rack

Materials: BYGEL

Description: I came up with a smart and cheap way to store a lot of my wife's stilettos, pumps etc. I call it the "BYGEL Stiletto Shoe Rack"!

It's made with six 55 cm BYGEL Rail from Ikea, that I attached to the side of our dresser, creating a vertical shoe rack with a storage capacity of 18 pairs of stiletto shoes.

The BYGEL Rail is very cheap and is perfect for shoe storage as the shoes don't get scratches and tears from lying up against other shoes and boots.

~ 3xL

Biltong box

Materials: Samla and Bygel

Description: Building a Biltong box with parts from Ikea is quite straight forward.

I had to buy Samla Box 57x39 with cover, some Bygel (10 items pack, just buy 4 or 5 packs). And 3,6m of knotted-link chain.

A fan from an old PC, an old power supply, some fly screen, some strip of wood (20x40mm), a broomstick, a handful of screws.

The Bygel have been sharpened on one side.

The wood has been cut to fit into the box and pre-drill: a center hole for the broomstick and 6 holes with 5 cm distance for the chain. The broomstick is cut to the fitting length and pre-drilled. Then everything is build together.

The hole for the fan has been drilled with a 6mm drill and finished with a cheap 80mm core drill. If you don't have a core drill just drill a lot of holes on the outline of the 80mm hole and cut through the remaining parts. (Don't try to cut the hole free hand...)

Attach the fly screen between box and fan. No glue needed.

The cover does not close the box beause it rests on the wood strips. This is good because it creates an outlet for the air (pressed in by the fan). If you use smaller wood strips you might need to add holes into the cover. I would suggest not to big holes otherwise they have to be secured with fly screen. And as far as I see gluing would not work with the box and cover material.

~ Holger Lembke