Steampunk-style Borrby display case

Materials: Borrby lantern, some wood and various odds and ends

Description: From another project I was left with an old and very beat-up mechanical clockwork. Because I like seeing a clockwork at work, I started looking for something that might function as a display case. The smaller Borrby lantern is inexpensive and seemed well-suited to my purpose.

Note: the galvanized version of the Borrby is constructed differently and I don't think it would work for this hack.

I bought two, because I couldn't find a single one without scratches on the glass (Hey Ikea, Borrbys are not adequately packed, they're just placed together in a box without any separation or protection between them). I ended up using 5 glass panels; one for the top as well.

First I removed all the glass panels. Then I pried off the top section of the lantern and sawed off the 4 supports flush with the bottom. I turned the lantern upside-down (so the top became the bottom). I fastened the top (now bottom) to a leftover piece of oak board - because the metal is thin and became a little deformed, I used brass L-brackets to clamp the metal down to the board (the brass echoes the clockwork metal). I was intending to put brass corners around the top too, but that didn't look like it would work out when I got to it (the screws would have ended up going through the glass).

The vent holes were covered up with leftover pieces of a LOBBO lampshade. Brass plate would have been nicer but I didn't find any.

The top cover is made of two overlapping L-shaped pieces sawn from what was originally the bottom of the lantern. These I glued together and re-painted black. The top is held in place by double-sided construction tape, In case I need to take it apart again.

I cut a glass panel to size for the top. I'm not very good at cutting glass, so starting from the panels of another Borrby limited the number of cuts I needed to make. Also, 3 chances to get it right...

My spare lantern is now missing its back glass panel, I intend to put a reflecting piece of metal in its place (perhaps cut from a cookies box) and turn it into a semi-directional lantern.

~ Eli, Belgium

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Sharpie + Ikea Rug = Saving Thousands of Dollars

Materials: Adum 4x6 Ikea Rug, Sharpie, Painters Tape

Description: To create a Beni Ouarain style rug, (1) measure (feel free to make the lines perfect or imperfect) and (2) lay out painter's tape in one direction. (3) Draw a line down one side of the tape using a sort of scrubbing motion with the sharpie. (4) Peel tape and reuse in the reverse direction. (5) Repeat step (3), peel off tape and you're done!

See more of the Beni Ouarain style rug.

~ Crystal Shumaker @ 29 Rue House, Connectict

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Circuit Clock

Materials: Circuitry from hard drive and old Ikea Clock

Description: For this hack I re-purposed circuitry boards from a broken hard drive as the body and used the internals from an old Ikea clock. This new clock now sits at my desk at work.

Note: make sure the arms of the clock can pass over the microchips and sodder.

~ Terence, Vancouver

Colored Ikea Borrby Lanterns

Materials: Borrby Lantern

Description: We thought it would be a great fall idea to color the glass in our Ikea Borrby lanterns. Using theatrical lighting gels, available at any theatrical supply shop for pennies, we cut to fit and adhered them with just Windex. Simply squeegee out the excess with a credit card. No need to cut a perfect size either, all the edges are inside the lamp.

So simple and what a difference it makes to the "plain Jane" lanterns.

When we are ready for a change of color, the gels simply peel off.

Maybe we will do red for Christmas.

See more of the customized lanterns.

~ James Angus, Dallas, Texas

Make a large mirror for dance

Materials: Stave Mirror (2), various metal brackets, glue, exacto-knife, hacksaw, sander, screws

Description: My daughter has recently taken up dance and for her birthday, we wanted to get her a mirror to practice in. However, mirror sold by dance companies are over the top expensive. In this hack, I attempted to reconfigure 2 Ikea Stave mirrors to become one big dance worth mirror.

Step 1 - remove backing. The mirrors come with a piece of balsa wood (2 each). Remove those by simply pulling them off.

Step 2 - remove one of the long sides of the mirror frame by carefully pulling out the "staple." Once removed, I used an exacto knife to open up the seam and eventually carefully was able to pull it apart. Once one side is off, simply pull back the wood and the other side will just come off easily. Do this again for the other mirror.

Step 3 - I used a hacksaw and sander to smooth out the edges and was careful to not damage the mirror. The key here is to get the wood and mirror flush so that when you assemble the final piece, the seam is as minimized as possible.

Step 4 - I used 4 metal brackets and glue to put the 2 mirrors together (see pictures). Also, glue the seams of the mirror to be safe. Let it dry for a few hours - I was anxious and didn't let it try and it messed up my hack a bit.

Step 5 - Once the 2 mirrors are attached, I used metal brackets to secure it to a wall in the basement.

Step 6 - Clean mirror

Notes:
- I knew the seam would be imperfect even possibly very bad. I think it turned out OK for initial dance needs.

- I considered not using the frame at all and just mounting the mirror directly to the wall, but think it looks a bit nicer this way

~ Marc Sirkin, CT

ERSLEV rug gets a sunny disposition

Materials: ERSLEV Rug

Description: 1. Lay out your drop cloth first and tape to floor-should be larger than 4'7" x 6'7" for paint overflow from stripes

2. Lay out the rug on top & measure out your stripes (can be a little or a lot! I did mine in 1, 2, 3 & 4 inch stripes with 1 inch in between for consistency. Then tape them off with frog tape or painters tape so the paint doesn't seep through.

3. I choose three different colours of paint - all latex - but you can use one or as many as you like. I did the yellow first then the dark grey and let it sit over night to completely dry. Then I did the lighter grey the following morning because there were less of those stripes. Total time was about 6 hours.

4. Let it sit for another few hours till it is completely dry and voila! Instant colour and designer touch added to any room!

Colours used:

Beauti-tone Natura: Best Dressed F038 (Bought)
General Paint: 8670W (Already Had)
C.I.L. Essentials: Obsidian Glass (Already Had)

~ Refresh Interiors, Squamish, BC.

Rope Serving Tray

Materials: KLACK tray, 2 or more shades of sisal rope (about 50 ft. total), gardening twine, hot glue

Description: A variation of the penny tray idea-- I really didn't like that original whiteboard feel!

Directions:

1. Starting with the outer edge, hot glue the sisal rope around the perimeter, working toward the center.

2. Once you've gotten about 6 rows in, at a corner, switch up the color of the rope if you want to. You could do all sorts of bold/thin stripes depending on the pattern you want. I liked a minimalist look.


3. Keep gluing down until you reach the center.

4. For the handles, loop and hot glue gardening twine. You could use more of the sisal rope, but the twine is usually softer.

5. Et Voila!

~ Alexandra, Philadelphia

Penny Serving Tray

Materials: KLACK tray, $4.77 in pennies, brown contact paper, sisal rope, Scotch Quick-Dry Adhesive, hot glue, Xacto knife

Description: When I bought this KLACK, I thought the dimensions were great, but that the white dry-erase board base of the tray wasn't my style. So I gave it a coppery facelift!


1. Use an Xacto knife to cut a piece of brown contact paper the same size as the tray surface, and stick it on. (This step can be skipped if you want the white to show through the penny gaps)

2. Start horizontally gluing down rows of pennies with quick dry adhesive, lining them up as tightly and closely as possible.


3. The pennies won't fit exactly to the edge on both sides- you'll have a gap between the last row and the wood on one horizontal edge. You can fill in the gap by hot gluing two rows of sisal rope around the whole perimeter of the tray. (The rope will fill in the gap on one horizontal side, and go over the pennies on the other three sides)

4. Et Voila!

~ Alexandra, Philadelphia

A second life for your IKEA catalogs

Materials: IKEA catalogs and rice glue (ecological)

Description: A small box and one empty pockets made from an IKEA catalog and to keep in mind recycling / ecology, I realized a glue based on rice starch.

For the glue :
In 1/3 liter of water, cook 200 g of rice or rice flour at low heat.
You can use a rice that has already been cooked, still a ...
When the rice is very (too) cooked, the starch content in rice is naturally going to be diluted in water. The liquid will thicken and whiten. Add a little water if too thick.
Filter, cool the rice glue.

It is of paper tape 3 cm, folded in four in the width and assembled one upon the other with 3 millimeters each time offset.

~ Cyril Cvprince, France Rouen

Greenhouse � la Elk

Materials: SAMLA boxes and lids, drill, hole saw

Description: Basis of this idea was the simple fact, that I needed a bigger mini-greenhouse (windowsill greenhouse) for my growing chili plants, as the former nursery station became too small. But I didn't find any to buy, so I hacked one (OK, I hacked two as you can see).

For one greenhouse I bought
- 1 SAMLA box, 11 liters, black
- 1 SAMLA box, 22 liters, white
- 2 matching lids (which are identical in size)

Afterwards, I took my drill, attached the hole saw and drilled 12 holes into each lid. The holes are supposed to hold 0,2 liter plastic cups, which the chili plants live in until approximately the middle of May.

Now drill a couple of holes into the big white box for ventilation and that's it.

Now take the small box, put the matching lid with the holes on top. Then take the second lid and put it on the first one upside down. Then hang the cups into the holes. The big white box now serves as the cover of the greenhouse (hence the ventilation holes).

While building this, I came across the fact that, while all that SAMLA stuff is made of pretty flexible plastics, it still may break if you are not careful enough. I recommend to predrill the centers of the holes with a drill for wood. I also recommend drilling the corner holes last. And don't even think about trying to drill two lids at once to save time. Even too much drilling speed ain't good. You know... friction... heat... plastic melts and all that. Take your time and be careful.

Before finishing the greenhouse, I planned to glue the two lids together, but realised, that the lids nearly don't slip from each other at all when the holes are occupied. Two filled cups put into the holes in opposing corners are already stable enough.

Have fun. My chili planties are doing fine in their new "elkish" home.

See more of the IKEA indoor greenhouse.

~ Christian, Braunschweig, Germany

Window Herb Garden

Materials: ORE Shower Curtain Rod, FINTORP Cutlery Caddy, BYGEL S-Hook

Description: 1. Purchased Supplies (including small pots of plants)
2. Spray painted hooks and caddy holder to match the color of the curtain rod
3. Assemble

See more of the window herb garden.

~ Jill Kurtz, Bethlehem, PA

Vinyl-Player-Front Jacket-hanger

Materials: Grundtal

Description: Unscrew the Front of an old Vinyl-Player (in this case a Dual HS37).
Unscrew the single knobs (for volume, panning, etc.)
Drill Holes in the middle of the knobs.
Screw Grundtal Hangers on the knobs (you will need flat washers for that).
Screw the front with the Grundtal Hangers on the wall.
Finished

Very simple, but looks cool.

~ JohnnyGerman, Germany

Custom laundry bag

Materials: Jall laundry bag, fabric, sewing machine

Description: I needed a hamper for our nursery, and wanted something custom that would match the other fabric I'd be using in the room. So, I made a slip cover for the Jall laundry bag!

See more of the laundry bag slipcover.

~ Lauren, AZ

KNUFF - Magazine Holder - Makeover

Materials: Knuff , Svep (handle), walnut stain, black paint

Description: A fast, small, and great makeover for Ikea's KNUFF magazine holder.

First I stained them with color walnut, then painted the end black with water based paint. Waited half an hour, and scraped off some paint. Sanded the whole black side light.

Then added the handles and some wall stickers (His & Hers).

I have more hacks and DIY, see my blog.

See more of the His and Hers Knuff.

~ En Vintage Dr�m, Gunn, Norway

F�RGRIK candle holder

Materials: F�RGRIK Mug, moss, candle, floral foam, styrofoam eggs

Description:
1. Cut a piece of floral foam and fit it inside the cup.
2. Heat the bottom of the candle and glue it with wax on to the foam
3. Add moss on top and eggs.

See more of the Easter decoration.

~ Sibylle

Coat Rack with a bit of Wall Protection

Materials: Molger Floor Decking and Attest Knobs

Description: Normal coat hooks near the door have always had the problem of buttons, zips, etc. scrapping the walls so we wanted a different solution.

Our answer was to use four Molger floor decking panels with 10 (5 packs of 2) Attest knobs as coat hooks - other knobs are available!

Simply decide on the layout for the knobs and drill a suitable size hole for each knob - we did them in two rows so there are grand-children height hooks as well. The bolts to attach the knobs will need shortening as they are designed for a thicker board - just use a hacksaw and cut to required length. I put a nut on the bolt before cutting so that it helps clean the thread after cutting.

The Molgers are simply mounted on the wall using two butterfly or cavity wall fixings per Molger in the centre.

~ Greg Toland, UK

Kvart lamp to single-digit clock

Materials: Kvart Lamp

Description: I converted the Kvart desk lamp into a single-digit clock using the Arduino microcontroller system and some electronics. This involved removing the AC wiring and light bulb socket, and replacing this with a 7-segment LED display module at the top of the lamp's neck, and replacing the base weight with the electronics.

See more of the digit clock.

~ John Boxall, Melbourne, Australia

Dolly Lampshade Cover

Materials: Skimra

Description: I crochet a lampshade cover for the SKIMRA I bought at Ikea many years ago. See how it brightens up a room after putting on a new dress?

1.Measure the Skimra lampshade's dimension.
2. Make a crochet swatch of 4" x 4" with the yarn or fabric strips of your choice. Count the numbers of stitches and rows of the swatch.

3. Do some maths to get the total numbers of stitches and rows based on the measurement you took on the lampshade.
4. Come with a crochet pattern including reducing stitches so that the crochet cover can follow the lampshade's shape.
5. Crochet the cover with loop-stitch and single-crochet stitch.
6. Put the cover on.

See the crochet lamp shade tutorial.

~ Joanne.L