Hacker help: How to get the Trones to be green?

Materials: 3 x Trones

Description: Hi, I do have those nice Trones Boxes at home and thought about using them on my balcony for growing plants in it.

But I do not know exactly how I should do it - and therefor I am asking you all :)

I do have 2 ideas -

1) making holes on the top of the Trones but that would force me to lose space to put other plants on it.

2) open the Trones fill them up with earth - let the plants grow and if the winter comes - cut them of - close the Trones and everything is clean and ready for winter.

So what ideas do you IKEA hackers have for my Trones when the summer comes and the winter is gone :)

Cheers

~ Herbert Feutl, Austria

More hacks on IKEAHackers.net

Trones lamp hack and a cat

Materials: Ikea Trones cabinet, Ikea Hemma cord, frosted green acrylic, black tape, four screws, LED light-bulb

Description: We needed a lot of storage for our family shoes. So we got 12 Trones shoe storage cabinets and mounted them onto a wall. On top of that wall there was a hole for the traditional wall light fixture. After looking at it for a while, decided to transform one of the shoe boxes into a lamp/light box, breaking the monotony of all the black ones, covering the hole and of course providing the kind of light we were looking for.

We attached the top part of the lamp cord on the wall. Actually not the Ikea cord on the list (Hemma) since we already had one around.

Removed the "drawer" from the cabinet and cut a hole on the top center, first by drilling, then with a sharp knife, until the hole was big enough for the Hemma socket to pass through. The light-bulb we used is LED for safety and economical reasons since the light is meant to stay on all night.

We bought a frosted green acrylic with the exact size of the box. Using black tape, "drew" a frame around the edges and a "lamp silhouette". Drilled four holes in the corners and screwed the acrylic into place. (used metal screws, but they could be a bit more stealthy in black).

That was it. Our cat also seems to like it.

See more of the Trones shoebox light.

~ bricolage.108, Porto, Portugal

TRONES Shoe Cabinet Shabby Chic Makeover

Materials: 4 TRONES shoe cabinets

Description: I wouldn't call this an IKEA hack, it's more like a shabby chic makeover. We have several TRONES shoe cabinets, which we not only use for shoes, but also in the bathroom, for separating the washing and for stuff like toilet paper, cat litter, etc.

1. The white TRONES were perfect for our very small hallway, but ... sooooo boring.

2. I took them outside and removed the lids.

3. I sanded the front of the lid and and the sides of the box with a 120 paper.

4. Prime with plastic primer. I used a grey one because it will show through the paint nicely later and give the lid a used and wooden look. I prefer water soluble primers and paints - first, because I'm a messy worker and second, because the brushstrokes show more clearly with water soluble paints and I love that effect.

Note: do not paint the inner sides of the lid. I tried it because I didn't want the plastic to show when I open the cabinet, but even a thin layer of paint gets in the way and may make opening and closing difficult.

5. I found this great old board in our landlord's attic where he hoards lots and lots of beautiful boards. Best of all: I'm allowed to take whatever I want from there!

This board is thick and heavy and gives the new TRONES cabinet stability. Also, I didn't have a thing to do with it except a bit of dust-removing - it fit exactly and was just perfect! It must have been painted with a white chalk paint once and now looks like a piece of driftwood, including some rusty old iron staple thingies, which I of course did not remove.

We screwed all four TRONES together (note: do not fasten the screws too tight - the plastic might warp and the lids won't fit in anymore) and screwed the board on top of it.

6. This is how it looks when you come down the stairs - and you can see how really small the space in our hallway is (entrance door at the left, kitchen door at the right).

7. Voila! New shabby chic shoe cabinet! I made another one for the bathroom, it's not finished yet but I will blog it in the next days.

Hope you like it - if you have questions regarding supplies or anything, let me know.

See more of the shabby chic shoe cabinet.

~ Ms. Liquorice, Germany

DIY world map vs. IKEA Trones

Materials: 3 sets of ikea trones, wallpaper adhesive, sponge brush, mural printed from rasterbator.com, clear coat, electrical tape

Description: I used the technique behind Mod Podging something to adhere a mural onto 9 compartments of the IKEA Trones. I used a sponge brush and wall paper adhesive to paste the images onto the fronts and then again over the top of the images. Once it was dried I used a clear coat to seal the images. I then waited for the mural to dry and then evened out the sides of the compartments with electrical tape.

See more of the World Map on Trones.

~ Emily B, United States

Shoes storage that looks stunning

Materials: MALM, TRONES

Description: This hack is quick simple to realize.

Assemble and fix to the wall 4 TRONES boxes for the shoes storage. 2 columns of 2.

Use the rest of a MALM item (in our case the MALM bed structure) to realize the wood top.

Fix the wood part to the wall.

It's done and it cost you very little money.

~ Laurent, France