Variera panels on a Hemnes nightstand

Materials: RATIONELL VARIERA shelf insert, HEMNES nightstand, L brackets, spray paint

Description: We had a couple of old ice-cube table lamps from IKEA that didn't fit the style of our new bedroom, so I was looking to make something that would allow me to hide them, i.e. some kind of lampshade.

It turns out that the VARIERA shelf insert matches perfectly with the height of the shelf of the HEMNES nightstand. As perfectly as if someone measured them to fit into each other. The VARIERA can actually be jammed upright on the shelf of the HEMNES, creating a panel. To make it even steadier, I attached L brackets at the bottom part of the VARIERA. I used some of the shortest screws that come with the shelf, so they barely stick out on the outer surface.

I spray-painted the panels black to match the nightstand, and just jammed them in place. Now the panels hide the ice-cube lamps, baby monitor, phone charger and all their cords and the nightstands look much nicer, especially with the light on.

~ Annie, Greece

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Kitchen cart/sideboard

Materials: HEMNES secretary desk add-on unit, 2 LAMPLIG chopping boards, casters

Description: I scored a HEMNES secretary desk add-on unit in the As-Is section, and picked up a couple of LAMPLIG chopping boards.

I assembled the HEMNES add-on unit as directed, which, without the secretary desk part, leaves the top open. I decided to install the back panel backwards so the dark finish shows on the rear of the unit, that way I can move the cart around the kitchen without worrying about an ugly backside showing.

Next I installed locking casters on the bottom. Then, I attached the two LAMPLIG chopping boards to the top with L-brackets, and voila! A moveable kitchen cart/sideboard with lots of storage. I even got a couple of stools so I have more seating as well!

~ Jennifer, Massachusetts

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Campaign Inspired Dresser Hack

Materials: Hemnes dresser, sand paper, white semi-gloss paint, flat corner braces, screws, knobs/pulls

Description: This super easy hack involved painting the drawer fronts and adding new decorative hardware for a quick aesthetic update.

After lightly sanding the drawer fronts and wiping them clean, add a few coats of semi-gloss paint. Once they are completely dry, screw in the corner braces on each corner. Then simply attach the knobs or drawer pulls and you're done!

See more of the Campaign Inspired Dresser hack.

~ Lacquer & Linen

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Hacker help: How to remove Hemnes drawers?

Photo: IKEA.com

Materials: HEMNES 3 drawer chest

Description: HELP ME ! I'm moving and I'm trying to dismantle my Ikea bookcase. I can't get or figure out how to get the drawers out of the slides, so I can dismantle the rest of the bookcase.

Thank you

~ Russ, Bristol, CT

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Glamorous girly change table

Materials: Hemnes 3 drawer dresser, Wallpaper, upholstery tacks

Description: Open the ikea box. Pull out all the wood parts that are not painted (they will be the back of the drawers, the drawer sides, the 2 back braces, the drawer bottoms and the back panel. As well as the bag of screws, nails etc and the drawer runners. Put them to one side.
What you should be left with is all the pieces that need wallpaper.
I started with the 3 drawer fronts and the top piece.

I used wallpaper paste to adhere the wallpaper. But this was a dud. It didn'€™t stick the best. If I was to do it again, I would need to find something else. I was tempted to use spray adhesive.
The drawer fronts, I cut the wallpaper over sized and stuck it on. Let it dry and then trimmed it face down with a sharp utility blade.

The top panel, I cut over sized and wrapped the whole piece around and underneath. So when you flipped it over, it was stuck down with about a 7cm border around. Because the top panel overhangs the unit and you could see under it, so it is best to wrap it and it means that the wallpaper will stay securely in place. Used lots of masking tape and paint tins to hold it down while it was drying.

Next I did the top and bottom brace and the 2 panels that go between the 3 drawers. I used Mod Podge to stick these down.

Lastly I did the 2 side panels. As you can see, these panels have a profile where the centre is lower then the side bars. This wasn'€™t going to be very helpful for wallpaper. So what I did was cut down the Ikea cardboard box the cabinet came in. 4 x 400mm x 710mm rectangles. To fill in this void and make it as flush as possible.

I used Mod Podge to stick them down. One on top of the other. Great use of recycling.
I then had to cover this piece with wallpaper.
Now it was the fun part! Bashing in the tacks!

Then finish assembling your cabinet as per the instructions. Attach the new handles and VOILA!!! You did it!

See this link for more in-depth description.

~ Laura, Sydney, Australia

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Subwoofer in a Drawer

Materials: Hemnes Three-Drawer TV Unit and Onkyo Subwoofer

Description: I have an Onkyo soundsystem hooked up to the TV that sits on my Hemnes TV Unit and the subwoofer is so big that it was almost as tall as the unit when it sat beside it. The speakers themselves were pretty big too, and inspired by the salad bowl speakers I saw on Ikea Hackers, I intent to make me own, smaller, housings for speakers too.

However, when I realized one of my drawers was empty, I decided, what the heck! Why not put the Sub in the drawer!

I didn't think to take a pic of the sub before destroying, but I tore apart the box and separated all the equipment inside, cut holes in the bottom of the drawer for the speaker, for the sub's control panel (cable and power input, output level, etc.), and for the air intake. I mounted the power supply to the side. The wood on the bottom of the drawer was pretty flimsy which wouldn't insulate well, so I used wood from the original box to reinforce the the bottom and make for better sound insulation.

2 hours later, the base was booming and my living room was less cluttered! I was afraid it might rattle the slide brackets, or make my TV vibrate, but you can't even tell the sub is in there!

~ David, Brazil

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Hemnes Stove Hearth

Materials: Hemnes Entertainment center, DIY hearth and mantel

Description: I used a Hemnes entertainment center, minus the center piece. Built a false mantel, and hearth for an electric wood stove. This is the result.

~ Ken, Hudson, Florida

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T-Shirt Filing Hemnes Drawer

Materials: Hemnes Dresser (or any dresser with deep drawers), metal rods

Description: I'€™ve always thought that storing t-shirts and tank tops in drawers was inefficient and messy "if you stack them on top of each other, you'll end up with a huge, disorganized pile. Plus you can'™t see them all at the same time and you always end up looking for the one at the bottom. So I thought about storing them vertically. I tried that, but unfortunately, the mess was still there. I liked it better than the stack though, because I could see all my clothes.

That's when it hit me: we could design some sort of filing system. It would basically be two long rods (acting as rails) and then shorter rods perpendicular to the longer ones, where the t-shirts would be folded over. I thought the drawers from the Hemnes dresser were especially suited for this because they're quite deep.

You can see that the system consists of two towel rods screwed to the drawer sides and more metal rods perpendicular to the long ones. Like in a filing cabinet, you can shift the short rods along the long ones so you'€™re able to shift through your t-shirts.

Here's the how-to:

1. Measure the inside of your drawer face (for the long towel rods)
2. Decide the measurement of your short rods (the distance between the long towel rods); I decided I wanted to fit two tank tops on top of each rod, so I based my measurement on that)
3. Buy towel rods of your desired measurement (if they don't sell your exact measurements, you can cut them down to size with a hand saw) and install them inside the drawer using screws (I recommend you save one of the screws until after you insert the short rods - so screw three of them and leave one for later)
4. Buy thinner metal rods (I think they sell them in rolls). You'll need to add about an inch and a half or two on each side (so three-four inches) to the measure you obtained in 1. to obtain your total measure. Cut them to size. (So, to be clear: the distance between the two long rods + aprox. 3.5 inches = measurement at which to cut the short rods)
Using heavy duty pliers, twist the edges of the short rods to give each edge sort of a ⊂ shape, so each rod will look something like this: ⊂－－⊃ (all joined together, obviously)
5. Insert the short rods into place (you'€™ll need to maneuver them slightly!) and you're ready to use your brand new t-shirt filing system.

We installed this more than a year ago, and I'm happy to report my drawer is still as tidy and organized as the initial pic I posted.

See more of the t-shirt filing system.

~ Ainhoa

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Pharmacy Cabinet from HEMNES Cabinet

Materials: HEMNES Glass-door cabinet

Description: My husband and I were looking for a tall cabinet that fits between the toilet and the wall (39 inches) for our master bath remodel. We were so excited when I found that the HEMNES Glass-door cabinet fits perfectly! But, we wanted to change the sides to glass because we really like the look of the pharmacy cabinet. As always, I searched IKEA Hackers to see if someone shows how to do that and sure enough found this one! Since we wanted more drawers, we used the one with 4 drawers.

1. Remove the wood panel from each side piece (only the top portion) by hitting one of the legs with a rubber mallet.
2. Have the glass company make the glass. (We showed the wood panel we removed from the side piece in step 2 to the glass company so that they can take the exact measurements as well as explained what we were trying to do.)
3. Insert the glass, instead of the wood panels.
4. Assemble the rest of the cabinet. (NOTE: I had to be really careful when I was nailing the back piece to the cabinet because of the glass on the sides.)
5. Paint the sides of each shelf white.

We LOVE how it turned out! This cabinet has so much storage and looks great with our HEMNES vanity, which is another hack we did. We love HEMNES!!!

See more of the pharmacy cabinet from the Hemnes.

~ Asami

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Hemnes Dresser = Kitchen Island

Materials: Hemnes 3-Drawer Chest

Description: Kitchen islands are expensive! And they are not very cute. I took an old Hemnes 3-drawer chest (the bigger one) and re-purposed it into a kitchen island.

I took the backing off the dresser and bought a 4x8ft wainscoting panel which I cut into 3 sections. One large one for the back of the chest and 2 smaller pieces for the sides to tie the whole thing together.


Spray painted the wainscoting and used liquid nails and finishing nails to attach the back panel. Then used liquid nails to attach the smaller two side panels right onto the dresser.

I went on Craigslist and bought an old coffee table and took the top off. I looked for one that had the closest resemblance to a real butcher block to avoid doing extra work. Removed the top of the dresser and used screws to screw the new top on.

Then I bought some decorative scroll brackets to put under the overhang and decorative knobs to finish it off with a country 'kitcheny' feel :)

I saved about $200 by building this island myself and I'm super happy with the results. It's perfect for my size kitchen and decor. I also LOVE having the drawers for storage!

~ Joanne

Hemnes add on unit transformed into console

Materials: Hemnes desktop + cherry boards + cherry legs

Description: 1. Purchased 3 Hemnes desktop pieces in white. (The have to be Hemnes because those pieces are wood and you need to be able to paint the pieces.)
2. Purchased unfinished table legs in cherry wood from an online vendor (Adams Wood Products).
3. Purchased two unfinished boards from a local hardwood store and measured the needed dimensions to cut the boards.
4. Laminated the boards together using wood glue and then clamped them to hold until dry. Measured again and then cut the laminated boards to fit on top of the Hemnes desktops.

5. Built a makeshift router bit to create a pretty edge on the table top (this took trial and error on other pieces of wood to get it right).

6. Belt sanded the laminated top and hand sanded the table legs.
7. Routed the table top.
8. More sanding to finish.
9. Stained the table top and legs using stain we had from other projects.

10. Put a coat of urethane on the table top and legs.
11. Sanded using fine grit (220) sandpaper.
12. Put another coat of urethane on the table top and legs.
13. Bolted the 3 Hemnes desktops together.

14. Obtained a pint of paint which was matched to the desktops by Home Depot.
15. Painted the trim pieces which we had left over from other projects.
16. Glued the legs to the bottom of the bolted together desktops, waited for it to dry and turned the whole thing back over.
17. Set the table top on and nailed the trim pieces to the top, under the table top, bottom all the way around and two pieces down the sides of the center desktop to make it look more like one piece.

~ Terri Sanne

Vanity from HEMNES Dresser

Materials: HEMNES 3 Drawer Dresser

Description: My husband and I needed a vanity with storage for our master bath remodel. We couldn'??t find the one we liked at the local hardware stores and online, so I searched IKEA Hackers for an idea and sure enough found a vanity made out of HEMNES Dresser! Since our bathroom only had one sink, we decided to use smaller three drawer dresser.


1. Assemble the side panels.
2. Cut each leg so that the vanity will be your desired height. We used a circular saw to do this.(The height of our vanity is 36".)
3. Assemble the rest of the dresser except the drawers and the top.
4. Install the countertop and the sink. (We hired a professional since we wanted to use the same marble we used in the kitchen.)

5. Reconfigure the top two drawers as shown in the pictures. We used the leftover wood pieces found in our garage as needed. (We were too lazy to make all the pieces a same height, as you can see.)

We absolutely love how our vanity turned out! I was a little concerned about whether marble would be too heavy for this piece, but we'??ve been using the vanity for almost four months now and so far we haven'??t had any problem at all. In fact, we love the HEMNES series so much that we hacked another HEMNES cabinet to add even more storage for our master bath! Happy Hacking!

See more of the Hemnes vanity.

~ Asami

Another twinned Hemnes shoe cabinet

Materials: Hemnes shoe cabinet

Description: Do you remember the inspiring ScrapHacker's idea "HEMNES gets a double topping"?

I've decided to use it in my hallway, following the anonymous comment of removing one of the "sides" in the middle. Actually, instead of that, I've decided to keep both inner "sides" and I've removed one of the inner columns, as you can see in this photo.

First of all I did 4 mirrored holes in the rear side of the central column. Remember, the front side can not have any hole. Then I did the 10 holes in the opposite lateral side of the column. So, I mounted the Hemnes as a single shoe cabinet with 3 legs. Finally, because I don't consider myself a handyman and I don't even have a handsaw, I've kept untouched the two original top plates. Therefore the two twinned top plates have a bit of an overhang on each side of the cabinet as you can see in this final photo.

Last tip: according your firefighters, keep in mind you have to respect the hallways' standard measures.

So, ScrapHacker, you may be glad of being inspiring to someone else: me!

I hope your hack can still be helpful to more people.

~ Paulo, Canada

Longed-for Home Office

Photo: IKEA.com

Materials: Hemnes with add on unit plus one more add on unit

Description: Coveting a desk I'd found on-line five years ago and not being able to find it in my area nor probably afford it, the following was my solution.

We bought the Hemnes desk with add-on unit plus one more add-on unit to get the height I was looking for.

Hubby built the desk per the Ikea directions until he got to the add-on unit. We flipped it upside down -- so the drawers were at the top and left the middle trim piece off of the top (which is really now the bottom). He did add the trim pieces on each of the columns and then placed a shelf over the opening -- kind of makes hidden storage that no one knows about but us!

Inspiration photo

Hubby cut down the top piece to a little wider than the add-on unit and then stacked the second add-on unit on top.

I figure I got my longed-for office space for about a third of the price.

~ Carla

Built In Ikea Hemnes Hack

Materials: Hemnes and Besta systems

Description: 1.First built up stands for the bookcases to sit on top.
2.Then place bookcase on top and anchored to the wall.
3. Placed extensions on top of bookshelves.
4. Placed Hemnes TV Table in middle and Hemnes Bridge anchored to wall.
5. To finish added flat base across the bottom then base board. Between the extension and bookcase added a base board. Top finished with crown molding. Added some quarter round on sides in the middle where TV sits and inside of the bridge.

~ Sherri B

Turning IKEA Hemnes into Built-Ins

Materials: Hemnes Glass Door Cabinet with 4 Drawers (2)

Description: We used two Hemnes cabinets to make a custom built in china cabinet in our kitchen.

See more of the Hemnes built-in and this post for instructions on how to add moulding to the Hemnes.

~ Erin from {A Charming Nest}, Indiana

Hemnes stereo/TV stand

Materials: Hemnes TV stand, 3 drawer

Description: I love the Ikea Hemnes line of TV stands but they were not supportive of my big Yamaha amp. So I got creative and took out the middle drawer and shelf. Added a center leg on front & back and of course a low shelf to house the amp/dvd & cable box. Everything fits perfectly.

Also built a box around my center channel so my LCD can sit on top. Tons of storage and the cool thing is if I decide to sell in the future I will still be able to make it look like it's original form. (Monkey & Cat were bought separately)

~ Mike Maxwell, Toronto

Awesome Vintage Hemnes

Materials: Ikea fabric, Hemnes, paint, vintage brass handles, spray glue

Description: Long time ago, I painted my Hemnes. But it looked a bit like a lego-toy, like plastic. I bought a can of spray glue, some Ikea fabric, and I stuck them to the dresser. I think it looks good.

~ Anna, Germany

From dull to soul!

Materials: Expedit, Micke Desk, Branas Baskets, Hemnes Shoe storage

Description: So we started off by building the steps over the slope where the stairs go up and under the room. This is a very small third bedroom and was wasting a lot of space by having this slope as nothing could sit over it, so thought of ways we can build over the slope that has purpose. So after building the steps, we screwed a length of wood under the desk for the desk to sit onto at the right level, as the floor was uneven.

Before!

We then unscrewed one the square leg of the desk and sat it onto the custom built steps, fixing it with screws.. then put up 3 Expedit bookshelves over the desk leaving the 4th square free f or desk space.. on the opposite wall i just used a Hemnes shoe storage which i am using for fabrics instead of shoes, not much of a hack involved there! :-P

~ DrakeFace, UK