Motorized Ikea sculptures

Let's get arty with Jeff's exhibition of sculptures of Ikea furniture.

It's from an exhibition called Catalog that consists of 5 sculptures made from Ikea products. He says, "The Catalog (Blue Tables) are made from Lack tables, each one is cut and reassembled and includes a motorized leg that tilts the table gently up and down. The result is a wave-like motion.

Another piece, also part of this exhibition, an 8.5x11 foot section of "crumpled" Kvist bamboo floor. Sadly, I think Kvist will be discontinued. The piece also includes three live stalks of Dracaena 'lucky bamboo' that I picked up at the IKEA marketplace."

See more of Jeff's Ikea sculptures.

Craft table for 4

Here's a craft table to rival Spring Chick's.

Peter says, "I made a craft table using various Ikea parts a few years back.

It comprises of 4 Helmer draw units as legs, a self made and distressed plywood top, 2 Tertial lamps clamped down and an Anordna wire basket in the hole in the middle to hold glue bottles, dog biscuits and the such. As you can see it has room for at least 4 people to sit at the table, each with their own set of drawers and ample leg room. Currently one side houses a computer, the other my wife uses for painting and the remaining two sides hold an array of our current chaotic projects."

See more of Peter's craft table.

Stencilling the Poang

Vidya gives the Poang chair a swift makeover.

She says, "My husband and I have always disagreed about the Poang chair. He loves the comfort - I don't like any of the fabrics that it comes in. The cover we have for it is plain white and it is so boring.

So I took a stencil and some orange paint and painted orange flowers all over my Poang chair. It took me around 2-3 hours to do it and cost me practically nothing.

I have no artistic skills and the stencilling isn't very even. But I'm quite pleased with the effect and the chair looks a lot more fun now. You be the judge."

Wall stickers on Ikea furniture. What fun!

Wall decals were all the rage a while back. Now they've made their way onto furniture too. Rick gives a chipped Ikea Klubbo coffee table the cover up. It's a pretty simple way to refresh tired furniture.

See more of Rick's vinyl covered coffee table and chair.

Dual-side chalkboard easel

What do you do when you have twins who want to draw on the chalkboard at the same time? Dave solves this easily.

He says, "I took 2 of the Ikea Mala easels, and swapped the whiteboard side of one with the blackboard side of the other, to make 2 easels that were pure blackboard/whiteboard, not mixed. That's a lot simpler with toddler twins."

See more of Dave's chalkboard easel.

Vote for the Hack of 2008

Ikeahacker had a bountiful year in 2008 and I received some really fabulous hacks. Continuing with tradition, I'll shortlist 20 of my favourite hacks of the year. You guys can then vote for the one you think deserves to be called the hack of 2008.

Pinot and Dita's fabric wall art
It's only little cut outs of Ikea fabrics but the end result is gorgeous.

See more here

Salad bowl speakers
This hack takes the humble Blanda Matt salad bowls way out of its territory and does it with aplomb too.

See more here

Mirrored vanity
Jule turns a frowned-upon desk into a looker. Glamorous, even.

See more here

Slim entryway table
Simple but works incredibly well for the space. And don't you just love those shapely Fintorp legs?

See more here

Elevated dog bowl stand
For 22 bucks, Brett and Melody's dog bowl stand can stand up to more pricey branded ones.

See more here

Spring Chick's craft table
Four kitchen cabinets join forces to become one ginormous gorgeous craft table.

See more here

Helmer, the 24 core Linux cluster
I still have no idea what this thing does but Lifehacker voted it the top mod for 2008. So it must be doing some thing right.

See more here

Sliding countertop
Magda slides out extra countertop space when she needs it, slides it in when she doesn't. There's also a dedicated one for the coffee machine. Nice.

See more here

Hi-gloss desk job
Jonas opted for a door instead when we wanted a super huge table.

See more here

Barnslig USB drive
I like cute.

See more here

Ramvik TV and music console
Control your TV, play music and games from the comfort of your coffee table.

See more here

Dekad clock guitar amp
One of the more ingenious hacks of 2008. This alarm clock doesn't just go 'brrrrrrriiiinng'.

See more here

Angie's George Nelson-inspired jewelry cabinet
One of the best use of the Fira chest of drawers. Storing jewelry never looked better.

See more here

Eugene's compact banquette
In 2006, Andrew's daybed turned banquette was the hack of the year. Will Eugene's kitchen cabs turned banquette repeat history?

See more here

Coffee table train
Steffen build his train set into the Vinninga coffee table. My nephews will love this.

See more here

Fan cooled media cabinet
Ryan punches some holes in to the Lack shelving unit for some air.

See more here

Fold down Ivar desk
This desk tucks in neatly behind sliding doors when not in used.

See more here

Stolmen bike rack
Great way to store bikes. Great looking too.

See more here

Bekvam sink
The kitchen cart becomes a bathroom sink pedestal.

See more here

Kid's art table
Chalkboard table with rolling paper dispenser, magnetic holder for markers.

See more here.

So what do you think? Get clicky clicky. Voting ends 15 Jan 2009.

Happy New Year and how to sleep on higher ground

Happy 2009! Made any resolutions? Broken them yet? Let's start the year with this super cool Malm bed with lots of storage.

Andrew says, "We had an idea to somehow add under-bed shelving to a Malm king bed using the Lack shelving unit. The original thought was to add legs to the Malm and slide one Lack under each side. The problem came when we couldn't find a way of attaching legs that satisfied both my structural/safety concerns and Jennifer's aesthetic sense; either they'd be attractive but too small or not well-attached, or ugly but bulky and secure.

The beginnings of a solution came from an Ikeahacker post on headboards which linked to aerialsoul's Malm headboard hack. The main inspiration we took from this is that the best way to add to a Malm bed is to just buy another set. We're using the headboard from one set as the footboard, and our headboard is made from the second headboard sitting atop the two footboards. Everything works together to make a cohesive, connected bed. We couldn't be more pleased!

Supplies list:

2x Malm king bed, black/brown 
2x Lack shelving unit, black/brown 

4x 6' 1x4 lumber, used as cleats to secure the three pieces of the headboard
2x 24" 1x4 lumber used to reinforce the repurposed headboard where it doesn't have interior structure
1x 24" 1x6 lumber, same
1 qt. black paint, used on the sanded lumber
wood glue, various wood screws and random Ikea hardware
8x plastic furniture feet for easy movement on carpet (4x for each of two Lack units)

Check out Andrew's blog post  or the assembly photos and final product."

***

It's getting tougher and tougher shortlisting the top hacks for the year. I hope to be able to make my final selection tomorrow and get the post done. So watch this space. Click here to see 2007's.

Next, on a totally unrelated note, but I am a big fan of Leo of ZenHabits (who is also part of LifeRemix) so I just got to bend my rules to sneak this in. He has just launched his new book, The Power of Less. I love his stripped down principles for life and nuggets of succinct truth. Do hop over to check out the book and if you pre-order it before 1 Jan midnight, you get 3 bonus giveaways too. 

Please also join me to welcome Easy Appliance Parts as our new Sponsor for 2009. They offer over 1 million appliance parts in stock for do-it-yourselfers. Wow. So if you need to replace a part in your microwave or dishwasher or fridge, you know where to go.