Hackeas: It's butts today

Wag the jacket
Nick made a coat rack out of a Fabian shelf and some Bastis hooks.

Nick explains, "I found my couch always covered in jackets since I had nowhere to really put them, and I found the hooks amusing, so now I hang my jackets up on my dog butt coat rack. I picked red, green and black to give it kind of an African/Jamaican theme, for no reason in particular. (They only had a few colors available.) The assembly is really simple, just a few screws and that's it.



Tail end
Gunter says, "I love Ikea, dogs and books (well, not exactly in that order) so I have grabbed a Bastis hook, glued in a small neodym magnet and pepped up a plain metal bookend with it.

Low TV table for a cozy nook

Andrew was wondering how on earth could he put his TV in his new living room when he stumbled across ikea hacking and couldn't resist creating his own TV furniture.

He says, "The following pic show the original design of the low table. A back 'wall' had to be added later on while shopping, as the back part of the Lack shelves are not as flat as I thought."



His idea is to use two small square Lack tables and a shelf. Table legs are positioned horizontally, resulting in 4 levels for visual depth. The short green backing wall also forms a divider of sorts to separate the two spaces within the living area.

The parts are glued together, not the strongest option and makes the table is a bit fragile.




And finally, this!



See more of Andrew's low TV table.

Expedit wine rack and bar

Mike turns the Expedit bookshelf into a standing bar unit.

He says, "I needed a bar unit to hold some stemware, liquor, and wine. While my new place has tons of vertical space (3 meter high ceilings), I didn't have a lot of floor space in my dining nook. Therefore, I decided a tall, vertical rack would be best. When I was unable to find one that suited me, I decided to make one out of a few parts from Ikea.

The base unit is an Expedit shelving unit, the single-wide, 5-cube 185 cm (73") model. The height, width, and depth were all perfect for this.

I assembled the unit normally, but left out the topmost inside shelf to allow for tall bottles of liquor to sit comfortably. I then added 2 stemware holders purchased online to make use of the remaining vertical space. My most frequently used wine glasses sit there, with plenty of room for long stemware such as champagne flutes. The remaining shelves hold other stemware such as martini glasses, and barware such as ice buckets, coasters, shot glasses, strainers, etc. I then added some touch-sensitive under-cabinet lighting that I had lying around (I purchased it for maybe $20 at a hardware store some years ago) to show off the contents of the unit a bit more.

Now I just needed a place for the wine. I picked up a 110 cm x 50 cm Stolmen shelf from my local store, cut it into 3 pieces to match the size of the leftover shelf that I removed for the upper portion of the unit, and then cut those pieces with a jigsaw to form a tic-tac-toe style interlocking grid for the bottom. Perfect fit! I now have a 9-bottle wine holder at the very bottom of the unit. (And for a very nominal cost, the shelf was only about $25 or so.)

Last step (not shown in attached pictures), I filled in the additional side holes where the missing shelf should be with spare finish from the Stolmen shelf. I then tucked away all of the wires, making small grooves in the wood to get them flush, and lastly covered the exposed rear of the unit with two Minde mirrors, which happen to be the perfect width!. Both were cut to 90 cm (35") each, with the seam being covered perfectly by the middle shelf. Now the contents of the unit really shine, especially with the overhead lights turned on.



Updated! February 25, 2009
Carl's version
He says, "I wanted something for the kitchen to display some glasses and tableware, but also utilising the brilliance that is the Expedit range, so after seeing a hack on your site using the range I thought I'd give it a go myself!

I used the fairly new 5 x 1 Expedit in white, drilled through 2 shelves for the 2 Rationell Variera wine glass racks, and also a pack of Lots mirrors to place on each shelf to give it (I think at least!) an even better look. Add in the campness of the mirror ball and I'm over the moon with the result that matches my white kitchen perfectly!"

Related hacks:
- Medicine cabinet turned booze hound

Ikea makes pizza delivery a breeze on your bike

Always wanted to cart home piping hot pizza on your bike? John who has a "Freeloader" hauling attachments on his bike (a recumbent) is hot to go up to Ikea and get the parts needed to make his a PizzaLoader, a brilliant idea from Xtracycle. A Gorm shelf and Lansa door handle make this pizza loader for bikes possible.

Visit Xtracycle for your PizzaLoader instructions.

Updated! February 23, 2009
John sent me pictures of his PizzaLoader.

He says, "Here's the completed PizzaLoader (with kind of a yucky-color stain, but it's what I had handy).

I had to go to the hardware store to get some longer bolts to fasten the Xtracycle snaphooks to the bottom of the Gorm shelf.  The Lansa handle worked perfectly to provide a "backrest" bar, which will also be a good connection for the little tiedown straps that Ikea has for packing your stuff on your cartop."

Expedit desks to modern dog bed

Tiffany and hubby craft a simple yet stylish bed for their dachshunds.

She says, "The bed is made from two Expedit desks. The dog bed is the Bastis Flack bed covered in Inger fabric. The blanket is made from the Inger fabric as well. I sewed their old blanket to the bottom so it was still comfy to sleep under but pretty to look at!

See more of Tiffany's modern dog bed.

Related dog hacks:
- Elevated dog bowl feeder
- Tasteful dog crate
- Kitchen bench and dog bed

It's a dining table for pooch

Have you voted yet? Voting for the Ikea hack of 2008 ends on 15 Jan. Pinot & Dita's fabric wall art is leading with Spring Chick's craft table a close second. Who gets the title? You decide. If you've not made your pick, click here and then click on your favourite.

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Noboru has another take on creating an elevated dog bowl stand. Here's his story.

He says, "My parents just got 2 new dogs. I decided to give the newest family members a gift for Christmas. I love minimalist design. The economy is in a recession and I'm broke. I don't have an electric saw to make those awesome dog feeders on IkeaHacker. What am I gonna do?

1. Head over to the As-Is section of Ikea.

2. Watch a beam of sunlight break through the clouds and cast its divine glow upon a set of Capita legs priced at $3.50! Snatched 'em!

3. Pick up some 'ole white piece of particle board from the random particle board section of the As-Is. The girl working nearby priced it at $1 because I assume she couldn't resist my sexy looks and charm.

4. Pick up 4 Bastis bowls. 50 cents each!

5. Head to my other favorite kick-it spot, The Container Store. Dropped big money on the Boot Tray. $8!

6. Drilled some holes and screwed everything together!

Voila! Le Fancy Dog Table for Le $14.50!

Minimal design, minimal price!

The end."

I've also made an update to the dog bowl stand post. Designer added his version of the Benjamin dog bowl stand.

Click to view more elevated dog bowl stands.

Related doggie hacks:
- Elevated dog bowl feeder
- Tasteful dog crate
- Kitchen bench and dog bed

Magazine file hacks

Moving magazines?
Here an idea from Kyle to ensure that your nicely sorted magazines do not end up a sheep pile when moving. Also great to keep them dust free.

He says, "Moving magazine that you've already organized into files (Kassett, for example) is not very rewarding. You can't just throw the magazine files into the moving truck and if you take the magazines out and into a box you still have to find a place for the files. To solve this problem I took the inexpensive and ugly Flyt magazine files (2.99 for five) and put them upside down in my Kassett magazine files. They fit tight and neatly without any tape (although I used some for extra insurance)."

Spice up the Flyt
Nicole cover the Flyt magazine files with wrapping paper and Mod Podge.

See her tutorial of the Flyt cover up.

Flower power for the Kassett
Katie gave the plain white Kassett magazine files a little love. Each flower handpainted with acrylic paint.

See more of Katie's personalised magazine file.