Thursday 26 February 2009

Ikea hacked studio space

Katie recently hacked a work space and shares it with us.

She says, "We used Faktum base units for the desks, a yellow kitchen work-top (sorry can't remember the name, it was a bargain corner find!) and the Vika Amon desk top with Vika Curry legs (this has a Faktum unit too, it was cheaper!)
The curtains are made from two Ikea duvet covers, the same pattern but different colors. And the large storage is a wardrobe (another bargain corner find!) I've used the Glis children's storage boxes for my haberdashery supplies as well as for pens and pastels! The large shelving unit is Ivar which we painted with emulsion. I love the adaptability of Ikea products and always find it best to tackle the store with an open mind, which will quite often save you some time and cash too!"

Wednesday 25 February 2009

Your version?

I had lots of fun revisiting some of the old hacks in this earlier post. So here is more. Scroll down the original post to view the new versions.

Bill's Ordning ceiling lamp


Philip's vinyl stopper


Scott's Lack TV unit with sliding doors


Blund bear monogram


Decoupaged Fira chest


Alicia's faux-apothecary Fira craft cabinet 


Ruby saves her old chair


Double workstation, reinforced!


Expedit wine bar


Akurum shoe cabinet for lots and lots of shoes


Amy's lots of photos wall collage


Scrapbooking the Apa toy box


Cushion cover handbag

Skyar to Cappiccinini

An accident and an old shell lamp turns out to be a Cappiccinini, a term Pinky coins for her new lamp.

The frame of the Skyar lamp (can't find the link), after a gust of wind tears the paper lamp shade, is given a second chance at life with a shell lampshade.


The accident


The new lamp

See more of Pinky's Capiz shell lamp.

Tuesday 24 February 2009

Making an Effektiv TV stand

Sarah needed a TV unit in her bedroom and found the Effektiv wall cabs perfect for it.

She says, "My husband and I bought a Malm bedroom set, and needed something that would work as a TV stand since the bed is so low. We had really limited space (due to the layout of the room) and everything at Ikea is around 42" long. We ended up buying an Effektiv wall cabinet, added the doors with frosted glass, and some capita legs, which brought it up to the perfect height, and perfectly sized for our 32" flat screen!"

Monday 23 February 2009

Your version?

Aah, what's life without the "New and Improved!" Over the months I've been receiving different takes on some hacks featured on this blog. Some are prettier, some just different ways of achieving the same results. I'll be uploading a few throughout the week. Check out this first batch. Scroll down the original post to see the new versions.

A prettier helmer cluster


Dog bowl for a really tall dog


Laura's loteria Rusch clock


John's PizzaLoader


Lauri's toilet roll holder headphone stand


Web server in an Emu


Brian's door stopper monitor stand

Screen printing exposure unit with a Vika Artur leg

An Ikea trestle leg makes a useful tripod for Carolina's home screen printing unit.

She says, "I wanted to do screen printing at home and needed an exposure unit. But since I am not very good at building things, I took an Ikea table leg (Vika Artur) and screwed two 500W lamps on it. The Ikea table leg was on special at $10 I think and the lamps cost around $15 each (found them at the Rona, for all you Quebecers out there, a hardware store). The length between my screen and the lamps is 24 inch which is perfect for screen burning. I have placed my coated screen on the tray, under it there's a foam cover with black paper, over it there is the transparency and a cheap frame glass ($20 at Canadian Tire, this was more expensive but I wanted the frame for something else). For now, I only did a time test. And with a white mesh small screen cover with speedball emulsion, it takes 5 min to burn my screen. I pretty happy about my end result."


Friday 20 February 2009

What's cooking?

When I saw this play kitchen I could only say "Wow! Lucky baby." This is from Lisa and it's hard to believe that this is her first hack. It sure gives all hack newbies hope.

She says, "This is my first hack, first blog attempt and first creative project ever. It was made with the Vika Furusund."

Ikea play kitchen
DIY play kitchen

The shopping list is pretty extensive. The Ikea Furusund forms the frame of the unit. The handles, knife rack and magnetic containers are also from the yellow and blue box.

children's play kitchen
kids play kitchen
Little girls' play kitchen
Ikea play kitchen
children play kitchen
Ikea play kitchen
Ikea play kitchen
Ikea play kitchen
Don't you just love the faucets?

See details of Lisa's play kitchen on her blog.

Related hacks:
- Cooking for kids
- Play kitchen for under $200

Thursday 19 February 2009

How to hide the cistern

Izzy does a terrific job covering up the cistern.

She says, "Ikea has just brought out a new range of bathroom furniture and I wanted to do a back to wall toilet with concealed cistern to match. The pictures show how to get the cistern and toilet waste to run through the Lillangen cabinet � the remote flush on top will eventually go through a piece of worktop."






Wednesday 18 February 2009

Spin it with some colour

A dash of colour adds some zing to the Expedit. Steve's Expedit vinyl station is definitely looking hot.

He says, "I've put this together over the last few weeks. It's an Expedit bookshelf that's modified for use as my turntable listening station. I ordered fire engine red contact vinyl from Ebay and covered the inner shelves (my skills from years of gripping skateboards came in handy). The lights are Ikea Dioders (I still have to clean up the wiring) and those are 6" Capita legs on the bottom. I'm pretty happy with it.

The only thing I'd do differently the next time around is to use automotive grade vinyl rather than contact paper vinyl. The heavy automotive vinyl is a little more difficult to cut but it'll hold up better over time and is available in many different colors.



See more of Steve's vinyl station on flickr.

Related hack:
- Hack a DJ console

Tuesday 17 February 2009

Hacked Hol

Eleanor shows her spiffy apartment. Love the clean lines, but wait, what's that mess of wires? No worries. A hacked Hol to the rescue.

She says, "I have a small loft which serves as kitchen, lounge, dining room and study. I carefully planned the space and I use my iMac as a TV/DVD player, the bit that let the whole space down was my printer sitting in a mess of wires.


the mess


Most of the charging stations on Ikeahacker were too small to hide my big fat printer, so I thought I'd need a larger storage area. Bearing in mind all the concerns voiced about ventilation on charging stations I thought the Hol box/table would alow plenty of air flow. In order to access the printer and because of the slope of the roof, a top opening wasn't practical, so I hacked it:

- I sawed the feet off one of the long edge pieces.

- I sawed holes in the other long piece to allow plugs to feed through one end and wires out the other.

- The base board needed to be trimmed so that it sits flush with the side pieces

- A piece of wood on the bottom of the board to act as reinforcement and receive the hinges.

- L brackets fix the base to the sides hinges allow the front to drop down (I was going to add sliding supports to the side, but the door drops flat to the floor so it didn't seem necessary).



- Magnetic closures at the top keep the door closed.

- The top sits in place without additional fixing (I wanted to allow as much access as possible), but you could always fix it with extra L brackets.

- Electrical ties hold in place:
1. A surge protected gang for the computer equipment
2. An individually switched gang for chargers so that I can leave them plugged in without wasting electricity
3. USB hub
4. WiFi modem

There's room for the printer and my two external hard drives. The square Hol would be a smaller alternative for smaller printers.