Bathroom iPad Stand

Materials: BEKV�M step stool

Description: I was looking for a iPad Stand for my bathroom.... so I modified BEKV�M with a router.

~ Jo, Germany

Hanging Linear Besta

Materials: 2 Ikea Besta TV units, a double shelf + 1 with a cabinet door

Description: We have assembled some wood panels to an office environment, and painted yellow.

Adding a recovered industrial stool in the street.

~ Justine, Castillon-du-Gard, France

Hacker help: How do you recover a Solsta Sofa Bed?

Photo: IKEA.com

Materials: Solsta sofa bed & faux fur zebra fabric

Description: I have fun Zebra material and I wanted to recover a Solsta Sofa Bed for my daughter's room. Has anyone tried something like this? Can it be done with glue and staple gun?

Thanks in advance for all suggestions.

~ T.Anna, NYC

***

Updated: 10 December 2012

Hey T.Anna, this just came in from Katja, with picture instruction for a new cover for your Solsta sofa bed. Hope it helps.

~ Katja, Slovakia

OCD-Friendly Expedit TV Bench

Materials: Expedit shelving unit, Capita legs, Signum cable organizer, backing board, left-over wood from the As-Is section

Description: My husband and I live in a cozy apartment that doesn't have a lot of space. The walls are so thin and brittle we can't hang anything on them. That means everything has to sit on the floor. I hate things sitting on the floor because it means dust collects and hides in nooks and crannies and before you know it you have random rat-sized dust bunnies that randomly appear in your apartment. What's a girl with OCD to do?!

Inspired by the hack "Expedit bookshelves to fabulous TV Stand!" we went to IKEA and bought:

1 - Expedit 5x1 shelving unit
1 - set of 6 inch Capita legs
2 - Signum cable organizers

We also headed to Home Depot and bought some white backing board cut to the dimensions of the shelving unit.

Tools you'll need include screws, a drill, nails, a hammer, and a holesaw attachment for your drill.

To create the clean look you see in the photo we affixed the Capita legs to the underside of the shelving unit, nailed the backing board to it, and cut holes out for cables with a drill and a 1.5 inch holesaw attachment.

We had taken apart our old Billy TV entertainment unit and screwed some of the leftover smaller pieces of wood to the back of the shelving unit to anchor a surge protector and the Signum cable organizers to it. If you don't have any spare wood laying around you can pick up some random pieces from the As-Is section at IKEA. The cable organizers are supposed to hang from things like the underside of desks but we took the actual 'basket' portion and drill it directly to the back of the shelving unit.

Put it all together and you have a clean looking TV stand, cables that are off the ground, and an entertainment unit that takes all of three seconds to vacuum.

~ Stephenie, Toronto

Fabric-Wrapped Ikea Rast

Materials: Rast 3-Drawer Chest, Fabric, Poly-Acrylic, Iron, Ironing Board, Paint Brush, Razor

Description: For my version of the Ikea Rast Hack I decided to upholster the chest with a heavy-duty linen fabric I bought from the scrap pile of my local fabric store.

I guided my way through the upholstering process by watching the simple steps in a DIY video from Martha Stewart called, "Linen-Wrapped Table How-To" instructed by Christophe Pourny.

Step 1: Starch and iron your linen so it's crisp and has no wrinkles.

Step 2: Apply Minwax Gloss Polycrylic Protective Finish to the side of the wood you want to upholster with a paint brush. While still wet, place the linen over the wood board.

Step 3: Iron dry over the linen fabric on the wood board, this permanently adheres the fabric to the Ikea Rast.

Step 4: Cut the corners of linen at 45-degree angle; fold and crease fabric to make the corners even. Apply poly-acrylic finish to edges; iron to keep it in place and trim excess corner fabric with the razor blade. (This was the hardest step for me, watching the Martha Stewart video a few extra times really helped!)

Step 5: Apply topcoat of poly-acrylic finish to the entire Ikea Rast. This is optional but it will protect your fabric from spills or stains with a clear shiny coat. I did not do this step because I like the texture feeling of the linen.

Step 6: Add hardware of your choice. I bought my ring pulls from Lee Valley Tools and my nail heads from a local fabric store.

See more of the fabric wrapped IKEA Rast.

~ Kelly Boudreau, Florida

Tween a Lack and a Expedit

Materials: 1 LACK Wall shelf, 4 LACK Side tables, 2 1x5 EXPEDIT Shelving units, 2x4 lumber, metal plates, non-slip rug pad

Description: When we returned from Germany we knew we wouldn't be bringing back my daughter's old and beat up furniture so we decided to let her create her "tween dream" room. She picked a Moroccan paradise for her inspiration (sure, let's not make it too easy on Mom and Dad, right?) Of course we couldn't afford a room full of Moroccan furniture so I turned to Ikea hackers for inspiration.

From the Cali-King "Lackable" Headboard and Platform Bed submission I got the idea for her headboard. I used Heather's method of assembling the tables and legs to form the headboard. We used the medium LACK wall shelf (which is the exact same size as two LACK side tables) to top the headboard and to help hold it in place.

The platform bed was assembled out of two 1x5 EXPEDIT shelves that were spaced apart by a simple frame of 2x4's. The entire bed is simply pushed together and against the wall - no fastening required. We placed the no-slip rug pad on top of the platform bed and put a twin mattress (from IKEA of course!) directly on the pad. The mattress, by design, overhangs the sides by about an inch and the foot of the bed by less than two inches. We did this because my daughter has a tendency to launch herself onto her bed and I had no wish for her to stab herself on any exposed corners.

The rest of her room is a mix of Ikea furniture and decoration which were made cohesive by the liberal use of ORB spray paint and the color orange.

~ Jen in Jersey (and Germany and Japan), New Jersey, for this year.

Take part in the OddJob tool giveaway!

Happy weekend!
I've just reviewed the OddJob tool by Crescent. It's a compact 11-in-1 tool that is pretty handy to have around the house. Great for quick fixes, like tightening a wobbly IKEA stool (it has a hex bit), hammering in a nail and other minor touch-ups. 

Cresent is giving away a set of the OddJob tool to a lucky reader too. You can read my full review and take part in the giveaway here.

~ Jules