Simple Lack Ottoman

Materials: Lack coffee table, Capita legs

Description: I love the new SODERHAMN ottoman, but right now is out of my budget (250 dollars for an ottoman? what?!) so I came up with this, which is basically another approach to a LACK/OTTOMAN hack you would find here, the only difference is that I used the 35" x 21" coffee table instead of the little one.

The instructions are the same as other ottoman hacks, the only difference is that I didn't use spray glue because the foam will stay in place when you staple the batting.

Costs:
Lack table $10 used from Craigslist
Capita legs $10 I was lucky enough to found them at "as is" section.
Fabric $15 (I got 1 1/2 yards, you can use the rest for cushions covers)
Foam $ 15
Batting/Dacron $ 8

Total $58

Now, if you live in US consider yourself lucky because I'm sure the material costs are cheaper than here in Canada.

~ Aurea M, Vancouver, BC, Canada

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Low Cost Home Theater Speaker Stand

Materials: Adils Leg, Lack Side Table, Laiva Shelf, Stolmen end fitting

Description: Being an audiophile and living in rented spaces can be quite a challenge. Drilling walls to hold your heavy speakers can be quite a challenge. After trying out a few low end stands that did not fit the bill and multiple return trips I was almost ready to plunge on the Stolmen, until I ran into Ikeahackers!

Inspired by the posts in the AV section, I set out to make my own stand and it came out well within Budget.
Laiva Shelf - AUD 5.00 (Holds the speaker)
Adils - AUD 5.00
Stolmen - AUD 5.00 (Comes as $10 for 4, need 2 per stand)
Lack Side Table - AUD 10.00

Instructions are simple - Screw the Adils on the Lack Side Table. This makes the base (wide enough so that the speaker does not topple over.

The Stolmen end fitting is mounted on the Adils and screw in the Laiva Shelf.

Make sure you have a good measuring tape and hand held power drill/screw driver.

Sequence:
Mark the end points on the Laiva Shelf
Fix the speaker mount at your desired point on the shelf.
Bolt on the Stolmen end fitting
Screw the Laiva Shelf on the Stolmen end fitting
Fix the Adils base on the Lack Table
Screw the assembled leg to the Adils base.

~ pkumar, Australia

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Lack Table Corner Shelf Hack

Materials: Lack side table, Ekby Stodis, screws, drill, screw driver, raw plugs

Description: Start by cutting a Lack side table top into quarters.

Next screw on the brackets as seen in the photo.

Mark up the bracket placement on the wall, drill the holes and put in the raw plugs in.

Finally screw the shelf in.

~ Lewis, essex

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Sofa Surround Lack Hack

Materials: Lack shelves & end tables

Description: Wanted the Lack look, but needed shelves to hold mostly books - too heavy for the flimsy Lack wall connector.

First picture below shows 4 feet Lack shelves cut in half. For some reason IKEA doesn't make a 2 feet long Lack... Note the paper reinforcement is pushed in on one to make room for the ledger at one end. It pushes in easily with just finger pressure.

Second picture shows 1x2 ledgers screwed to the wall to hold the outboard end of the shelves. I would have liked to hit a stud, but had to use plastic wall anchors instead.

Picture three shows the shelves starting to go up. Inboard end is supported by black-painted 5/8" x 7 1/4" MDF (courtesy Home Despot). Two 1 5/8" drywall screws into each shelf end - be careful not to overtighten - you're only screwing into about 3/8" MDF at the end of each shelf. The bottom "shelf" is a Lack end table sans legs.

Picture 4 shows one side of the unit complete. I did use the IKEA supports on the long top shelves - shelves still had to be cut to length, and mounting the hardware to line everything up took VERY careful measuring.

I think it still has the Lack look, and so far hasn't collapsed under the load. :) I do have to warn visitors not to sit on the end tables! One interesting tidbit - the space between the two long top shelves was tight at installation, but has since opened up about 1/8". Obviously Lack shrinks! For a perfect fit you'd probably need to let the shelves acclimate for a week or so.

~ Jim Potter, Ottawa, Canada

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Two and a half Lack bedside tables

Materials: 5 white Lack-shelves 30*26cm

Description: The walls in my bedroom are so bad, single shelves wouldn't stick to them. So I put two and a half together to shelves with two levels. Now each is put to the wall on four points and the upper and lower ones are reinforcing each other. And I even have more space on the shelves.

Its done really easy: buy five Lack-shelves (three if you only want one table). Have one cut in half and glue together two complete and one half shelf in a u-shape. Drill wholes in the right positions into your wall and attach the shelves. Ready.

~ Alex

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Faux Gator Coffee Table

Materials: LACK table, faux gator upholstery fabric, staple gun, sewing machine

Description: My poor IKEA LACK coffee table has been through a lot. Originally black, I attempted to paint it silver (big mistake), then painted it white, then covered it with a white and gold patterned contact paper. For year??s I'??ve wanted to cover it with some sort of reptile skin. I never imagined it would turn out THIS fantastic.

Here'??s what I did:

I ordered about 3 1/2 yards of this awesome Faux Leather Gator fabric in Pearl White from FABRIC.com. It'??s upholstery fabric with felt backing, but it'??s not too heavy.

After I disassembled the table, I laid the large pieces on top of the fabric and cut around, leaving about 2 inches around each side.

One of the problems I face was figuring out how to make the finished product look as smooth and seamless as possible. I ended up cutting a diagonal line at each corner and then hand-sewed together from the inside.

Enter the staple gun. I pulled the fabric as tight as I could so that it would lie flat on its top and stapled along all sides on the bottom of the table. For the bottom shelf of the table, I didn'??t sew the edges. It'??s much thinner than the table top, so it was far easier to simply fold and staple underneath to get the effect I needed.

The legs were the most difficult part! I wanted to make sure the legs looked clean, so I decided to sew the fabric here as well. The leg is 8 inches all around, so I measured and cut the fabric accordingly, then sewed together with a sewing machine. There'??s a screw on the inside of each leg that the bottom shelf sits on. I had one hell of a time getting the fabric tight enough not to sag once on the leg, but not too tight that it wouldn'??t slip over that screw. Only a few cuts on the hands and several broken nails!

To make the legs look more finished, I stapled the fabric to the top and bottom of each leg.

VOILA!

See more of the faux gator Lack coffee table.

~ Catharine, New York, NY

How to: Create a personalised picture with Lack and decal

Materials: Lack

Description: I have an old LACK side table from IKEA that I no longer use.
My sister-in-law wanted me to make her something personal and from the heart. That is when I realized that I could do something fun with the old table.

1. I made a personal picture using Illustrator. I then send it to Parts of Sweden and let them print a furniture decal for me. They already have lovely decals so you don't have to know how to use Illustrator. You can choose between all the Disney motifs and many more.

2. Wait for the furniture decal to be delivered to your home.
3. Unscrew the legs.
4. Clean the table with a rag.

5. Remove the safety paper on the back of the sticker and place decal on the table.
6. To see how to place the decal you can see a videoclip on Youtube here. The video has some Swedish text but hey, you�ll learn some Swedish at the same time.

7. Attach whatever you can find at home that will make it easier for you to hang the picture on the wall. I bought this little metal thing and I am sorry to say that I do not know what it is called. However you attach it on the back of the picture.

8. Now hang it on the wall. Tadaaaa!!!!!

View more decals at Parts of Sweden.

Simple But Effective Occasional Table

Materials: Lack Shelf, Vika Adils Legs

Description: A very simple hack. I didn't like the Malm occasional table (or the $130 price tag) so I built one for $34. I combined the 74" Lack Shelf with 4 Vika Adils legs. I have the low headboard Malm, for the high headboard the Vika Kaj legs would be better.

Freestanding it's not the most stable but behind the headboard its solid as a rock, it is about 1/2" lower than the headboard which provides a nice lip to keep items from falling on your head.

~ Matt Hannan, Wheat Ridge, CO

LACK/MONGSTAD/BEST� bar

Materials:
IKEA BEST� shelf unit (201.021.54)
IKEA BEST� shelf unit (501.021.57)
IKEA BEST� black glass top panel (901.965.35)
IKEA BEST� VARA glass door (701.785.80) x2
IKEA INREDA drawer without front (901.812.23)
IKEA BEST�? VARA drawer front (501.473.73)
IKEA INREDA bottle rack (901.965.21) x2
IKEA INREDA mirrored glass shelf insert (501.965.42)
IKEA DIODER LED light strip set (501.923.65)
IKEA MONGSTAD mirror (000.815.91)
IKEA LACK wall shelf (401.037.51)
The Container Store oak undercabinet stemware rack (390040) x3

Description:
After spending over a month shopping around for bar furniture and not finding any one piece that was "just right," we resolved to hack together our own. We had started off thinking about doing another EXPEDIT bar, but after walking around the IKEA showroom, inspiration struck and we put together this LACK/MONGSTAD/BEST� bar.

We assembled the BEST� shelf units and put them together to form a three-wide unit. Before doing anything else, we realized we had to put in the DIODER lights because we wouldn't have any other way to do so once it was wall-mounted. We put a hole in the middle unit where the drawer would later be so that we could string through and hide the lighting control in the drawer. The shelf units with lights were mounted on the wall with the top about waist high.

We then installed the mirrors in the middle unit, followed by the bottle racks, and then the drawer. Next, we put the glass shelves into the side units and then installed the doors. We ended up not using any of the wooden shelves that came with the BEST�.

The LACK shelf was the next thing to be mounted. The oak stemware racks from The Container Store were the nicest racks we could find, and the color provided a nice contrast against the black-brown of the rest of the bar. One of the racks had to be trimmed to length so that the three could fit within the span of the shelf. We pre-drilled the holes to mount the racks into the bottom of the shelf before putting it up, since the holes to mount the LACK to its bracket would be blocked by the racks. Once the shelf secured to the wall, we finally mounted the racks to the underside of the shelf.

Finally, the MONGSTAD mirror was hung in place between the LACK shelf and the BEST�? shelves. With everything hung and mounted, we finished off the bar with the black glass panel, which provided a nice surface for our bar.

We're thinking about applying a decal to the mirror (perhaps Guinness or Johnnie Walker) to really give it that pub feel. Now to stock it!

~ R Truong

Ikea Lack Side Tables Turned Ottomans

Materials: 2 Ikea Lack Side Tables, 2 Yards Ikea Sofia Fabric, Batting, Foam Camping Carpet Pad from Home Depot, Spray Adhesive, Staple Gun, Hacksaw, Scotch Guard, and scissors of course!

Description: I made these inexpensive custom ottomans for my mom for Christmas to make her Ektorp sofa more comfortable for multiple people because although its great for one person, but add another and it's not quite as comfortable. It's difficult to really stretch out and relax. So ottomans were the perfect solution. Its not the most original Ikea hack, but effective and simple none the less, and I think they came out quite lovely! Not only do ottomans provide a place to put up your feet, but they also function together as a coffee.

First, line your table top up with your foam (I skipped expensive upholstery foam and bought a camping foam carpet pad at Home Depot) and cut along the edges with a sharp kitchen knife so that the foam is the same size as the table top.

Spray both the table top and the foam with adhesive and stick them together. Make sure the foam is on the top of the table. You'll need the holes on the bottom free to screw in the legs.

Next, lay the top onto the batting (foam side down), pull the batting over the sides and staple the batting on starting at the center and stapling one side and then the opposite side to making sure it is evenly taut. When you get to the corners, make sure you don't cover up the hole where the legs will screw in.

Use a hammer to make sure all staples are not sticking out and trim away the excess batting.

Cut your fabric to size and line it up so that it is centered over your foam. Staple using the same method used for the batting. To make clean clean corners, first staple down the side fabric, pull the fabric over the corner to the front, staple again, and then fold down the front and staple again. Hammer in any staples that are protruding and trim off excess fabric. I also coated them with a few coats of Scotch Guard to give them a little added protection.

If desired, cut table legs with a hack saw so that the ottomans will be even height with your sofa. You want to cut the finished end off so that you still have the hole to screw the legs on. I discovered that Home Depot wont do this for you because they are hallow and their machine might split them. But a hacksaw works great and with a little sanding, you can get them looking pretty nice and finished.

Finally, follow Ikea's instructions to screw the legs on and you're done! Now relax and put your feet up on your beautiful new custom ottomans.

See more of the Lack ottomans.

~ Genevieve, Newport Beach, CA

Zen kitchen island

Materials: Lack Table, Fintorp bar+hook+door knobs

Description: Take 8 tables Lack (5.9 �) and pile them two by two to form a cube.

Take two patches of 110 cm * 90 cms* 1 cms medium(30 �) and screw them on two quoted of the cube.

I put a bar Fintorp (6.99 �) with 5 hooks (2.99�) on one quoted.

For the rest, cut 8 doors of medium 44 cms * 40 cms (30�).

Put doorknobs Fintorp (3.5� 2). A door is fixed by means of two hinges.

Follow your inspiration and paint the kitchen island.

It is possible to add wooden brackets and to make additional shelves inside.

All in all, this kitchen island cost me 131 � and about fifty screws.

~ Zyl, Bretagne (France)

Lack Arcade Coffee Table

Materials: Lack coffee table, Raspberry Pi, Happ arcade joystick and buttons, Dell LCD monitor, speakers, Logitech MK260 keyboard and mouse, i-Pac keyboard encode by Ultimarc

Description: I had purchased a Raspberry Pi (RPi) credit card sized computer and wanted to do something fun with it. I saw another article on how to make an arcade coffee table and thought I could do it easier by hacking an Ikea Lack table.

The Lack is easily hacked by cutting it's hollow core material using a utility knife. I outlined the shape of the LCD monitor and carefully cut out the hole.

Next I cut out the holes for the joystick, buttons, and control board area. Initially I tried using a 1 1/8" hole cutter to cut through, but it was tricky. I ended up using that hole cutter to score the shape of the holes and then finishing the cut with a utility knife.

The RPi runs a version of Linux. I hacked together a simple front-end for selecting the games in Python using some sample code I found on pygame.org. For the games, I used a version of advmame compiled for the RPi.

Sound is provided by a pair of cheap speakers I got from Walmart. These items are hidden by a small enclosure I made that is glued to the bottom of the table. It also has a wireless keyboard and mouse for programming and configuration. In it's final form, the table is completely controlled by the joystick and buttons so the keyboard is only used occasionally for fine tuning.

The kids love playing the the old arcade games like Donkey Kong and Galaga.

~ Manny Flores, Chicago

LACK Footrest/Ottoman

Materials: Lack Table (Black), Curtains (2x2,5m), Foam, Nuts&Bolts

Description: There have been many hacks for Ikea Lack posted, but not many had the form of the ottoman that I was trying to achieve: slightly round on top, to look puffy.

You'll need two people for this hack, as one will have to pull the material over the edges, while the other one nails it on the back.

Get foam cut 3cm over the edges of the table, so you can form the rounding at the edges. I got the foam from Hornbach in 5cm thickness, but had to put 2 layers of it.

Challenging was to fold it in the corners, so the pattern doesn't get messy and we used here what youtube showed on how to fold canvas.

Then I made the holes in the material for the feet and got the feet cut to size (electric saw is of great help and cut all 4 at the same time, to be sure they will get same size).

The last row of decoration nails was put at 1am, which sort of excuses the lack of idea of drawing a line first, then nailing on this line to get them straight. Oh well, next time...

~ Josephine, Deutschland