Miniature Car Display

Materials: Ribba X 9

Description: Wanted a cool display for my collection of Miniature Coal Made Cars.

Connected 7 horizontal RIBBA's with 2 RIBBA's, one on each side.

You can play with the height/distance to fit your needs

~ Saar Machtinger, Israel

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High sleeper bookshelf (KURA+RIBBA)

Materials: KURA + RIBBA + 3 screws

Description: My son was sometimes keeping books on his KURA high sleeper, but as he is a big boy now, he also needs his space in the bed.

I also had this RIBBA laying around and decided to add them together.

RESULT:
The RIBBA (mounted sideways) provides an excellent bookshelf! Books/Comics slide in and out easily.

A very simple IKEA hack, required:
1) KURA bed
2) RIBBA
3) three decent screws

Just mount the RIBBA to the KURA as shown in pictures.
I used a longer (190cm) RIBBA than is current sold in the (Dutch) IKEA, but a 115cm also works.
I shortened the RIBBA to make it fit exactly and put three screws in the existing holes of the RIBBA and... DONE!

~ remco, Netherlands

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Shadow box thing

Materials: 50 cm Ribba frame, piece of 3mm MDF, 2 cans of flat white spray paint

Description: 1. I removed the glass from the frame (but you could keep it if you wanted). I cut a piece of MDF to fit the frame, for a back, and painted it white.

2. I measured my largest ornament (it was the yellow horse on the bottom row) to get the size of the squares. I ruled the squares onto the MDF.

3. I sawed 3 cm strips of MDF and painted them white, including their front edges.

4. I cut them to size and glued them in place to make little shelves.

5. I put the frame back together. It was fiddly, but easy enough, and I'm happy!

~ judith, australia

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Monitor stand with Ribba photo frame legs

Materials: EKBY JA„RPEN shelf, RIBBA frames

Description: Dual monitor stand, or desk shelf.

1. Remove packaging from items
2. Remove the stand and matt paper from the photo frames
3. Choose four screws that are not so long they will push through the edge of the shelf.
4. Place shelf (top down) on workbench
5. Place a photo frame at the end of the shelf with glass side facing away from the shelf, and long side against the shelf. The frames are slightly shorter than the width of the frame. I consider this a design feature to accommodate cables, or you can use the space to brace it with some MDF if you need to put heavier items on the shelf.

6. Hold the frame firmly in place (a helping hand is useful) and drill on a slight angle down through the photo frame into the shelf at two places.
7. Insert the screws into the holes and tighten.
8. Repeat steps 5-7 with the other frame at the other end of the shelf.
9. Choose two photographs and insert them into the frames and replace the matt paper and stand.
10. Flip the shelf over to stand on the frames.
11. Admire your handiwork

See more of the monitor stand.

~ Peta Hopkins, Gold Coast, Australia

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Real computer in a picture frame

Materials: 1x Ribba frame (25x25x4,5cm), old laptop, sharp knife, black paint, some plywood (3mmx25cmx25cm)

Description: Image you bought a new laptop, what to do with the old one?

1. Disassemble the old laptop and make sure the motherboard fits in the 25x25cm frame.

2. If it fits continue and remove necessary accessories from your laptop (I reused the power, LAN and USB connectors and the power switch). Now use the knife and cut out some holes for those connectors in the frame. Don't care about the small frame the secures the glass, we'll come to it later.

3. Cut the plywood to 25x25cm and cut out the mounting points from the laptop case and glue them on to the plywood and install the motherboard.

4. Buy some cables to connect the hard drives to the motherboard (I build my own cables)

5. Find a good spot for a hard disk (or 2) in the frame and use some small metal hinges to install it. There should be some metal in the old laptop case, use that! Install the hard disks directly behind the glass so it will secure it.

6. Put everything together hang it on the wall plug in the power and network cable and switch it on.

~ Marcus Goth, Sweden

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Arduino based data logging thermometer in a frame

Materials: RIBBA frame and some circuitry

Description: I was looking for a nice enclosure to host my latest project (an Arduino based data logging thermometer with multiple sensors) and, once again, I came to an Ikea product, a RIBBA photo frame that seems to have enough space to host my project circuitry.

My idea was to put all the circuitry inside, masking the clear glass with tracing paper to have a blurry vision of the circuit boards.

The circuit boards are "sewn" with thin wires that pass on top of the boards and are ended on the back with simple knots.

RIBBA has ended being a very convenient "project box", giving the possibility to mask the inside in different ways, and resulting in a great way to show your projects!

More info and details can be found on the project page.

~ John_J

RIBBA clock hack

Materials: RIBBA frame

Description: This hack is kinda easy, but it's also quite hard to describe as it is very specific to what you want to have in the end.

The main steps are:
- Get a RIBBA frame, one of those with the mat for three pictures
- Get yourself three clockworks and possibly some watch hands you would like to use (make sure the hands fit the clock, otherwise use some superglue, to fix this ;-D). I used very quiet clockworks where the hand for the seconds never stops, looks better in my opinion.
- Mark the final positions of your watch hands and drill holes at these positions (8 mm in my case) in the back of the frame
- Prepare your clockworks: As every clockwork only uses one hand you have to cut the shafts or remove them at all. I used an scalpel and a wire cutter to strip mine down.
- Put something under your clockworks before fixing them to the back of the frame. This helps to shorten the shafts even more, so you don't need to put very much under the mat in the end and you have no problem when using the glass where it is etc.

Detail shot of a trimmed shaft

- Design and print yourself a clock-face you like, glue it onto the back of the frame
- Attach the watch hands and make sure they can run freely (you should check this earlier... ;-D)
- Put something under the mat and place it in the right position (I cut a new mat from very high white, thick paper, as the original was too yellowish and had some bucklings right after buying)
- Put everything back into the frame and enjoy your very unique and stylish clock

Back of the frame with three mounted clockworks and one hand attached for testing purposes

Some hints:
- I wanted to use the same watch hand for all clockworks. This made it necessary to glue the hands onto the bases of other hands, so they could fit the shafts. Check this before you start and keep it in mind.
- I also had to shorten my hands. Could be done with a scalpel and some super glue. Cut them at the "base", so nobody sees you shortened them...
- When you put something under the clockworks it can happen, that they can become too deep and stick out of the frame. No problem for me, as I mounted the frame with the supplied hanger to my wall. Try to use clockworks with short shafts or trim the shafts as far down as possible. Be careful with trimming, sometimes the watch hands won't find in the end...

I hope this hack can inspire some people to build interesting clocks.

You can find some more information, and my clock face on the website I provided. The blog entry is in German. See more of the Ribba clock.

~ flomei, Germany

Square Headboard with space to hide electricals

Materials: Brimnes bed, Lack wall shelf, Vika Amon, Ribba ledge, Fas spotlight, Ledberg ledlights, Hampen rug

Description: Inspired by an Ikea hack by Celine "A simple and tidy headboard"

I didn't have a lot of space around the Brimnes bed, so I used the Celine's hack to create a headboard, but I used wide Ribba ledge to get space between the ledge and the edge of the Vika Amon for electrics cables.

I used Ledberg ledlights for ambiance, and bent the arms of FAS spotlight to use it for reading books.

I also used half cut Hampen rug beside the bed, and Lack wall shelf for beside table.

Finally I saved a lot of space for the door opening area, and got little storage in the headboard, with elegant aerial bedside tables.

Thanks Ikea Hack for Ideas !

Hope it could inspire you.

~ Gastan, France

Ribba tablet/phone stand

Materials: RIBBA, cable canal, saw, drill, sandpaper, paint

Description: I needed something to stand my tablet on while using it for controlling my music at home. We recently moved to a new apartment and had a bunch of spare RIBBA picture ledges lying around.

So I ended up sawing a piece of shelf to the width I wanted. Then I used the already present hole and drilled it with an 8 mm drill, just enough room for one of Apples lightning connectors to pass through. This is not really needed but it helps the charging cable not slip away when not in use.

I chose to glue on the top lid of a spare piece of cable canal as an inner step for standing the tablet in an almost upright position. But you could skip this part if you want. After a bit of sanding and painting the sides you're done. Dead simple!

This would work in smaller pieces for say an iPhone bed-side stand as well.

~ Peter, Sweden

Turn broken Ribba frame to mail/key holder

Materials: 2 Ribba picture frames, glue gun, hooks, contact glue

Description: I've had a Ribba frame that had been knocked down and broken, I've glued it back together couple of times and the last time it happened I just put it in my closet and forgot about it.

I wanted a keychain/mail holder so I put a good RIBBA frame of the same size (believe it's 6x7) using hot glue gun together (with the broken frame in the back).

I didn't include all 4 sides, leaving the top frame piece off to make sure I can put in my mail.

I used that piece and glued with contact glue at the bottom of the frame to use that piece to hold the hooks.

I drilled 3 small pilot holes to add 3 small hooks, cup hooks were too small so I used size 12.

I used small L BRACKETS to secure it to the wall and I was done!

I did the work thru the weekend since I wanted to make sure the hot glue gun and contact glue had dried and bonded.

My first DIY & Ikea hack, never realized how many different adhesives there are until now. I could've stuck with the glue gun but I also had some contact glue so I used them both. My hooks are a bit crooked but I will leave it, and the back was set crooked but since you can't see it it doesn't bother me much.

~ Jazmin, Queens, NY

Ribba + Oppdal

Photo: IKEA.com

Materials: Ribba LED picture light, Oppdal bedframe

Description: At first I cut off the lower back Part of the Ribba LED picture light (photo below, upper left picture). I also cut off the part between the drill holes of it, so that I can put the cables in between (photo below, upper right pic).

Next I removed the front part of the headstand of the bed and drilled the Ribbas in. When put together there is only a small gap between the large front and the upper part, so one could also cut a groove into it to make everything flush.

Other items on the picture:
Ribba, Oppdal, Fejka, Rutbo, Al�ng
G�spa, MYSA VETE 240x220,2x Gosa Pinje, 2x Gosa Raps

~ Ralf B, Cologne Germany

Time to Hack the RIBBA With V�CKIS Clocks

Materials: 1 RIBBA 9"�x9"� frame; 9 V�CKIS clocks; 9 AA Batteries

Description:
1) Open back of RIBBA frame and remove mat. Leave the spacer inside the frame.
2) Insert one AA battery into each of the nine clocks.

3) Synch the time on all the clocks.
4) Insert V�CKIS clocks into the RIBBA frame.

5) BE SURE TO TURN OFF THE ALARMS.
6) Replace back of RIBBA frame.

You're done!

You can paint your frame, hang it on the wall, or otherwise customize it to fit your space.

~ E.O. Jackson, Washington, DC, United States

G33ky Art - Old Motherboards in RIBBA

Materials: RIBBA Extra Deep Frame

Description: I had a couple of old motherboards and PC components lying around. Since they were rather colourful and I had a plain wall to decorate, I decided to have them framed.

Unwilling to have a custom frame made for them, I headed down to Ikea where I found 520 x 520mm RIBBA frames (Article Number: 601.798.01) had a picture width of 490mm, just enough room for two ATX motherboards side by side, or 4 mATX.

Because the motherboard was thicker than the maximum 30mm depth, I had to remove the IO ports to make them fit. The thinned-down motherboards were then hot glued onto the frame. A few screw holes for fastening were also added for good measure.

As the frame was now much heavier than Ikea designed it to be, I was afraid the original clips would not hold. So I drilled four more holes were and threaded a thicker wire for hanging. Hope this inspires you to give new life to those old / non-functional PC components!

See more of the motherboard art.

~ Justin Lin, Singapore

Dual Phone Charging Station

Materials: RIBBA Frame (9x11), Micro-USB Y-splitter, foam sheet, felt sheet, dremel, tacky spray, epoxy glue.

Description: With two phones having to charge at the same time I needed a way to use only one outlet to charge both and have less cables running aroung. I looked online for charging stations but found nothing really cheap and which would fit my living room decor. So I decided to make one for less than $10.

1. Take the RIBBA frame apart, discard the glass panel and mat. Rip the support "foot" from the back panel with pliers. You should now be left with the frame itself and the back panel.

2. Since the back panel is slightly smaller than the frame it was made bigger by wrapping it with a foam sheet first, then wrapped with a felt sheet. Everything glued with tacky spray. Both sheets provide cushioning and a scratch-free surface for the phones.

3. Drill a rectangular hole in the frame to fit the female end of the Y-splitter. Measure, drill and use a file for the corners. Slide the Y-Splitter in the hole. If loose you can glue it in place.

4. Glue the back panel onto the frame. Voila!

~ Phong, Irvine, CA

Old screwdrivers installation

Materials: Ribba, looped screws and old screwdrivers.

Description: Bought a Ribba frame from IKEA and removed the glass and screwed in some looped screws into the wooden panel and too hold the old screwdrivers.

It has a nice look to it!

Got inspiration from this hack.

~ Viktor Meldert