Get into the hot seat

This has got to be the first Mercedes Benz inspired hack. Nico Mertens adds seatheating to the Poang. Now, a hack you can really warm up to.

"I have pimped my Ikea Poang with heated seating and extended the headrest to suit my purposes. The idea was born when I had a discussion with my friends about leather sofas and I found out that most girls really do like leather sofas but they didn't like the feel of cold leather. Every damn Mercedes car has seatheating installed, why does nobody include seatheatings in leather chairs or sofas? My idea was born!

It took me about 3 days of research and planning. After those 3 days I started to order the necessary material which was quite hard to get.

Necessary items:
- Ikea Po�ng + Ikea Po�ng stool
- Another cushion for Ikea Stool to make straps and a bag for electrics
- Seatheating deluxe edition
- Powerful notebook adapter to deliver 12 to 13,5 Volts and up to 7 Ampere. (Please go for a good one. You don't wanna burn down the house. I had a bad experience with cheap stuff)
- Little box for electrics
- Shaped Wood to extend the upper end of Po�ng for a higher head rest.
- Wood to build a side controller for the seatheating
- Sewing machine
- Leather needle
- Thread in colour of the leather
- Paint
- Sandpaper 80 and 200 (rough and fine stuff)

The good old head-cushion got some extra two straps made out of another leather seat cushion for a stool and some weights were put in the end of those straps. The part of the cushion with the zip will be needed later...

Reason is simple: I wanted to be able to adjust the head-cushion so everyone who sits on it is comfortable. For the same reason I asked a friend of mine to form up some wooden parts which I placed at the former end of the Po�ng.

I added another few nicely shaped pieces of wood on the side. Those parts got drilled and screwed on the chair. Then the whole chair got treated with sandpaper and was repainted. Then I spoke to somebody who was able to sew me a bag out the rest of the seat cushion from the stool. It was added to the Po�ng seat and that is where all the electrics go in.

It's nice to know that if you do move houses you can still place it in the middle of a room with no annoying cables. Also useful when you want to clean up or in summer when it's hot and a seatheating is possibly not necessary.

Everyone said I am freak but now since my girlfriend's grandma sat in my pimped Ikea Po�ng she spread the word and many people want one... Meanwhile I was offered an astonishing 1000,00� from a wine consultant for that chair."

Yarn! Was that a dining table?

Misty takes the Ingo dining table yarns away from its original purpose.

"I needed a weaving loom that was long enough to weave a scarf on. I had never whipped up a loom and only weaved on those little student frame looms in the past. I saw my Ingo table and realized that it would work for an impromptu loom. The wooden spoon (hanging from some scrap yarn loops attached to the top) is the heddle that moves one set of the warp up. The Chopstick with the red ends has loops of yarn around the other set of warp strings."

See more of Misty's Ingo loom.

Lykta and Bubinga: What?

Dave shares what he calls, his first artistic Ikea hack. They turned out pretty classy, don't you think?

"I found a Centrera Lykta Lantern in the scratch and dent room on my inaugural trip to the Ikea that opened in Charlotte, NC earlier this year. It is a candle lantern with an aluminum base and glass globe. The glass globe on the scratch and dent Lykta had seen better days but I was most interested in the aluminum base which had a lot of possibilities.

I am a woodturner and always on the lookout for round fittings and pieces to incorporate into my turnings. I turned a bowl out of Bubinga wood to sit inside of the lip of the Lykta. The piece is 5" in diameter and 3.25" high."

The Billy fixed

David tipped me on this smart solution of room corners by Kurzel. [via There, I Fixed It]. The criss-crossing shelves are a nice touch.

See more of Kurzel's Billy corner bookcase.

Vink CD rack

I like how Jim hacks a rack for his Vink CD holders. It's a great space saver and adds some style to the $2.99 cheapo CD holder.

"This is a simple rack to hold a bunch of Vink CD holders. Each stand will hold 9 racks for a total of 180 CDs on each stand."

 

The stand is made from standard pine 2" x 10" stock, on top a 12" base.

The Vink CD holders are held in place by hooks.

See Jim's Vink CD holder rack instructions.

Office storage from kitchen and bath units

This is great use of a space with a sloping ceiling. Jay turns it into a fabulous work station with ample book storage.

"I wanted a solid built-in office solution with heavy duty wall-mounted bookshelves above a long (12') counter top/desk/workspace with ample storage that would fit into an 18" deep nook under a sloped ceiling.  Ikea doesn't really have anything purpose-made for this situation. Most of the bookshelves are either free-standing units or rather weak decorative wall shelves. So for the upper shelves I found that horizontal Akurum kitchen cabinets (30"x15"x12") were good for heavy books and inexpensive without the doors/hardware.

For the work surface/drawers, I found that none of the kitchen or office products were exactly the right depth/height.  The solution: Godmorgon bathroom sink cabinets (without sinks; on 4 inch legs).  Pricey, but well made with solid wood drawer interiors.  Three units fit perfectly in 12' of space, but the units are conveniently (intentionally?) designed so that they can be assembed as a 23.5" wide two-drawer half-unit.  So I did this with one of them leaving a sitting/desk space.  I ripped 96" and 49" Numerar kitchen countertops (metal edges and matching wood grain surface) down to the right depth and combined they are the perfect length.  Draw bolts and black automotive silicone adhesive made the seam practically disappear (it looks worse in the pictures than it really is). I finished off with minimal Grip drawer pulls instead instead of the large handles that were included."

Children's front facing book rack

This is simple hack but I like it. Becca found a great way to display children's books or any books for that matter, facing front.

"We made this children's book rack by adding a bar on each shelf, so that the books can be displayed facing front. This is an inexpensive Billy bookshelf from Ikea ($40). And the bars are mouldings purchased from Lowes (about $5 total)."