For your reading pleasure

I know quite a few people who enjoy a read in the restroom. But problem is, there's not always an easy way to store all those magazines. Terry hacks this magazine holder that not only holds a neat collection of mags but has a place for scented candles too.

He says, "I have made a magazine rack, mainly for the restroom. Since that's where we do most of our reading. From the As-Is department, I purchased a Vika Lerberg Trestle, some hanging trays/holders (I don't know the name of this product), and some rods. Also I bought a new Dokument pen cup and a Tindra candle.

I drilled holes in the side of the Vika Lerberg. Then I took a hacksaw to the rods for the correct length. After a new paint job and attaching the Dokument cups, here's our new magazine rack!

I used both Dokument cups as it can accommodate large candles as well as smaller tea lights. Of course, scented candles in the restroom is a plus.

Bedtime for Titina

Paola hacks a snooze corner for her very fat cat. It looks absolutely cushy in the Duktig doll bed.

She says, "My cat Titina is very fat, it is 9 kg and she used me like a bed. Now it is very hot so I was looking for a nice and comfortable place where it can sleep. Looking at the Italian Ikea store, I have found the Bastis Krona at �59 ($69.99) which I thought was very expensive. Looking for something else to adapt I found the Duktig doll bed at �14,99 ($19.99) and I made Titina happy!

Then I bought two Hedda Rak and sewed them smaller. So I have one cover to use when the other is dirt. I filled it with linen sold with the Duktig bed for upholstery.

An Effektiv island to cook, eat, work, play!

Louise came across Ikeahacker when she was looking for some tips on building a banquette. Then, wham! She realises that she has a hack of her own to share - a kitchen-island-room-divider-work-station. Phew! That was a mouthful.

She says, "I moved into a one bedroom apartment with an open concept kitchen-living room. I needed a place to eat and to work that wasn't going to be really ugly if I had people over. I also wanted it to move around. The standard kitchen islands didn't really seem to fit in in the living room. I found these pieces in the office section of Ikea. I started with the Effektiv base with castors and added two Effektiv low add on units. In the bottom one I put in the set of two drawers and fronts. I added an extra shelf to the top one. Then I used some 3M Command Strips to attach a Galant table top that is slightly larger to the unit (they stick well and eliminated the need for drilling). I drilled a 1/2" hole in the back to let my cords out. I have now added a little ring from Lee Valley that makes the hole look more finished.

I bought two stools so that I can sit and eat or work. My pens, pencils and stationery stuff is in the top drawer. I have placemats and other things for entertaining in the larger bottom drawer. I have my printer in the open section, and my laptop gets tucked away on the shelf when I am not using it. Most of the time it is a divider between my kitchen and living room but I can push it up against the wall (computer side facing the wall) for a 'bar' when I have a party. I can also pull it over closer to the counter to have an extra 'island' for prep if I am doing a lot of cooking.

From Kura to castle bed

Christy wanted to make a castle bedroom come true for her two princesses. Here's what she did.

She says, "When it came time for our two daughters to move into the same room, we bought an Ikea Kura bed for each of them. The oldest desperately wanted a 'sparkly pink castle bed' but (1) the space in their shared room wouldn't allow it, and (2) there was no way I'd spend $1000+ for a castle bed she would outgrow in a couple of years.

Enter the Kura bed. For our oldest, we turned it upside down (so the loft bed is up). Then we cut mdf to wrap the four sides, using a jigsaw to cut out the castle shape at the top and the 'window' in the one side. A few coats of pink paint, some faux bricks using a sponge and white paint, and a coat of sparkly paint later, and voila - a sparkly pink castle bed that is the envy of all of her friends. One bonus is that the castle sides are taller than the bed sides, so now there's really no way she can roll out!



For our younger daughter (too young to sleep in a bunk and too young to request a castle bed--yet), we made a 'princess bed'. This time, we left the Kura bed right side up, painted it white, and then I sewed curtains to hang on all four sides to make a lovely little princess bed. I think sewing the tabs for the curtains took longer than the rest of the beds combined!

Click to view more of Christy's castle and princess beds.

Don't be stranded without a changing table

CountryDan turns the Stranda into a changing table. It looks great and can be returned to its former self when baby grows up.

CountryDan says, "We added a change table to the top of the Stranda drawer unit to make a great functional baby change table that can be removed when it's no longer needed without marking the drawer unit. We also painted it white, and it looks much better. The Stranda is great because it has an oversize front, which conceals the sliders for the hack.


To make the baby change unit simply cut 100mm timber to the unit length, and 150mm timber to the unit width. Screw or nail the pieces together (sand ends first on the front side as it will be visible) with the tops flush, this leaves the cross pieces hanging down over the Stranda, and the frame supported by the long pieces on top. Add 10mm x 20mm timber to the 150mm sections at the bottom, leaving 20mm for the frame to slide on.

That is it, give it some paint and it's done - and we added a divider to keep nappies etc on top.

What to do with your kid's artwork

Kids can occupy a lot of space, especially their works of art. Here are two ideas how you can proudly display your child's handiwork.

Kid's creative corner
Terese says, "With my daughter having her art projects in every room of the house, I needed one central place for her to be creative and display her art.

Supplies:
Ikea:
1 Table Top: Vika Amon - White - 78 3/4x23 5/8
5 Table Legs: Vika Curry - Red
2 Chairs: Jules - Red/Silver
14 Containers: Beta Plant Pot - Silver - various sizes
4 Boards: Spontan - Black - 25 1/2x17 3/4

Home Depot:
2 Peg Boards 24x48 - painted black
30 J-shaped Peg Hooks
14 round spacers (adapters)
2 rolling container drawers

After putting the table legs on the table, I attached the pegboard to the wall. I used spacers behind the pegboard as to not have it flush against the wall, leaving room for the hooks. I drilled two holes in each of the
containers and put the hooks through them and then attached them to the pegboard. I hung the magnetic board on the adjacent wall next to the pegboards. I filled the containers with all sorts of supplies (crayons,
markers, glue, popsicle sticks, pom-poms, etc.). I put paper, coloring books and larger craft items in the drawers.



Kid's artwork hanger
Stephanie says, "We have a preschooler who arrives home each day with armloads of 'artwork' from school. There isn't a refrigerator door in the world that's large enough to accommodate all that paper, so we found ourselves increasingly desperate for a way to display her work. The Deka curtain 'rod' is basically a length of wire suspended between two small metal posts.

Curtains hang from the wire via tiny dangling clips. These little clips also happen to do a great job of displaying our daughter's art collection:



We used a stud finder to locate our walls studs so we could mount the curtain hardware directly to the wall without needing drywall anchors. Took five minutes, cost five bucks."

See more of Stephanie's kid's art display.

Hackeas: It's butts today

Wag the jacket
Nick made a coat rack out of a Fabian shelf and some Bastis hooks.

Nick explains, "I found my couch always covered in jackets since I had nowhere to really put them, and I found the hooks amusing, so now I hang my jackets up on my dog butt coat rack. I picked red, green and black to give it kind of an African/Jamaican theme, for no reason in particular. (They only had a few colors available.) The assembly is really simple, just a few screws and that's it.



Tail end
Gunter says, "I love Ikea, dogs and books (well, not exactly in that order) so I have grabbed a Bastis hook, glued in a small neodym magnet and pepped up a plain metal bookend with it.

Low TV table for a cozy nook

Andrew was wondering how on earth could he put his TV in his new living room when he stumbled across ikea hacking and couldn't resist creating his own TV furniture.

He says, "The following pic show the original design of the low table. A back 'wall' had to be added later on while shopping, as the back part of the Lack shelves are not as flat as I thought."



His idea is to use two small square Lack tables and a shelf. Table legs are positioned horizontally, resulting in 4 levels for visual depth. The short green backing wall also forms a divider of sorts to separate the two spaces within the living area.

The parts are glued together, not the strongest option and makes the table is a bit fragile.




And finally, this!



See more of Andrew's low TV table.

Expedit wine rack and bar

Mike turns the Expedit bookshelf into a standing bar unit.

He says, "I needed a bar unit to hold some stemware, liquor, and wine. While my new place has tons of vertical space (3 meter high ceilings), I didn't have a lot of floor space in my dining nook. Therefore, I decided a tall, vertical rack would be best. When I was unable to find one that suited me, I decided to make one out of a few parts from Ikea.

The base unit is an Expedit shelving unit, the single-wide, 5-cube 185 cm (73") model. The height, width, and depth were all perfect for this.

I assembled the unit normally, but left out the topmost inside shelf to allow for tall bottles of liquor to sit comfortably. I then added 2 stemware holders purchased online to make use of the remaining vertical space. My most frequently used wine glasses sit there, with plenty of room for long stemware such as champagne flutes. The remaining shelves hold other stemware such as martini glasses, and barware such as ice buckets, coasters, shot glasses, strainers, etc. I then added some touch-sensitive under-cabinet lighting that I had lying around (I purchased it for maybe $20 at a hardware store some years ago) to show off the contents of the unit a bit more.

Now I just needed a place for the wine. I picked up a 110 cm x 50 cm Stolmen shelf from my local store, cut it into 3 pieces to match the size of the leftover shelf that I removed for the upper portion of the unit, and then cut those pieces with a jigsaw to form a tic-tac-toe style interlocking grid for the bottom. Perfect fit! I now have a 9-bottle wine holder at the very bottom of the unit. (And for a very nominal cost, the shelf was only about $25 or so.)

Last step (not shown in attached pictures), I filled in the additional side holes where the missing shelf should be with spare finish from the Stolmen shelf. I then tucked away all of the wires, making small grooves in the wood to get them flush, and lastly covered the exposed rear of the unit with two Minde mirrors, which happen to be the perfect width!. Both were cut to 90 cm (35") each, with the seam being covered perfectly by the middle shelf. Now the contents of the unit really shine, especially with the overhead lights turned on.



Updated! February 25, 2009
Carl's version
He says, "I wanted something for the kitchen to display some glasses and tableware, but also utilising the brilliance that is the Expedit range, so after seeing a hack on your site using the range I thought I'd give it a go myself!

I used the fairly new 5 x 1 Expedit in white, drilled through 2 shelves for the 2 Rationell Variera wine glass racks, and also a pack of Lots mirrors to place on each shelf to give it (I think at least!) an even better look. Add in the campness of the mirror ball and I'm over the moon with the result that matches my white kitchen perfectly!"

Related hacks:
- Medicine cabinet turned booze hound

Ikea makes pizza delivery a breeze on your bike

Always wanted to cart home piping hot pizza on your bike? John who has a "Freeloader" hauling attachments on his bike (a recumbent) is hot to go up to Ikea and get the parts needed to make his a PizzaLoader, a brilliant idea from Xtracycle. A Gorm shelf and Lansa door handle make this pizza loader for bikes possible.

Visit Xtracycle for your PizzaLoader instructions.

Updated! February 23, 2009
John sent me pictures of his PizzaLoader.

He says, "Here's the completed PizzaLoader (with kind of a yucky-color stain, but it's what I had handy).

I had to go to the hardware store to get some longer bolts to fasten the Xtracycle snaphooks to the bottom of the Gorm shelf.  The Lansa handle worked perfectly to provide a "backrest" bar, which will also be a good connection for the little tiedown straps that Ikea has for packing your stuff on your cartop."