Cheers, it's a Kegerator!

Gill pulls a perfect pint with this hack.

"My husband and I took an old commercial fridge, and refinished it, to become a kegerator. We hit the As-is section of Ikea for the counter top (paid $30), and the rails are actually Enhit curtain rods (not on website), marked down to $4.99. Works perfectly!"

Compact music studio

Matt downsizes his studio gear with a rolling drawer system.

He says, "For the longest time I was using 2 tables for my studio gear and it wasn't until I moved to an apartment that size became an issue. So I figured out a way to put all my gear together right in front of me. What we have here is 9 Vika Curry legs and 2 Vika Amon table tops and a home made keyboard pull out shelf with drawer rollers.




First I cut one of the table tops 15'' length ways. I took 4 vika curry legs and cut them down to 14''. These support the half table top above. I used a drawer roller system to mount my pull out keyboard under the table and I added a 5th leg in the middle to help support all the weight."

Related hack:
- James' minimalist music desk

Add light to this watering can

Carlo gets arty with the Vallo watering can.

He says, "From the very first time we saw the Vallo watering can, we love its design. Too nice to be only a watering can! So here is our ValloLight Lamp!

We use the white Vallo ($1.99) and Ikea Parlor Glass Decoration (transparent ones, $1.99).

To achieve good results, it is very important to pay attention to the little things such as wire, switch and so on.


Please note that the Vallo is not heat resistant, so to avoid fire hazard, it is better to use cool light sources. The Ikea Parlor stones give a nice effect to the lamp and more importantly, increase the stability. Without them, the Vallolight is too light!"

Cosy nook for the bed

Dear John and Sherry Petersik,
If you ever need a housesitter, call me. ~ Jules

Sherry says, "Back in January we used a pair of Pax wardrobes (along with the customizable Komplement interior fittings) to create to 'built-in' closest in our bedroom. When we first installed them they looked pretty ghetto... and a bit too Ikea. But with a little effort, we persevered and pimped them out to look like an expensive custom built-in.

before

Ikea moves in

All it took were some curtains (also from Ikea) instead of doors, some baseboard installed as crown molding to bridge the gap between the top of the wardrobes and the ceiling, and a wooden header to make 'em look a lot less like doorless Ikea wardrobes and a lot more like a soft and cozy sleeping nook that just happened to triple our closet space."

ta-dah!

Check out the full bedroom makeover here and whatever you do, don't miss their house tour. It's so so awesome.

Floating computer desk

It's bliss when you find something (cheap, especially) and it fits in perfectly. Christian gets just that with his bargain buy and ends up with a floating computer desk.

He says, "I got this Vika Blecket with Vika Curry legs second hand from this guy on craigslist. Now, I have this closet in my living room that I removed the sliding doors with the intent of putting a desk in there. When I got this Vika desk home, I found out it was the perfect size for the closet.

So this was great, but there seemed to be a little wobble with the desk, also I am a big fan of higher, standing desks so I thought I could do that with this. My first idea was to have a sort of 'platform' built that would just raise the table up, but one day I suddenly realized I could just create a little border around the closet walls (maybe an inch thick) and I could rest the table top on top of the pieces of wood or whatever.

So I went to Ikea to get a chair (you know, for sitting), and I got lucky by finding a few spare pieces of wood in the as-is area that were the perfect size for this project. I went home and after much experimenting I mounted the pieces to the closet walls, removed the Vika Curry legs and rested the Blecket right on there.


Under the table you will see a Trofast system that fits quite well underneath and works great as drawers for stuff.

The lights are Larga lights mounted to the closet shelf. The small table thing that my monitor is on is a Viktor shelf attached to ... legs... I can't remember the name of them!

Oh and I took the old Vika Curry legs and put them on a spare Lack side table that I had. Made this cute little table thing."

Bookcases to bay window seat

Cindy always wanted a window seat/bay window thing in her living room. Here's how she fulfilled her wish with a few Traby bookcases.

She says, "I adapted some Traby bookcases to form a window seat that doubles as a daybed for visiting guests!

The units are basically different size Traby shelf units doubled up so that it's wide enough to be a bed. I left out the back wall to the front set of shelves so that the hole goes all the way through. The holes can accommodate Bastant baskets.

Ikea strainer Wi-Fi antenna

Worth catches more than you think possible with an Ikea strainer.

He says, "It's certainly nothing new as it's been done before, but I'm still kinda proud of it. It involves the Idealisk strainer.

I bought one at the Ikea here in Moscow where I'm studying abroad for the summer. I made a Wi-Fi booster antenna with a USB Wi-Fi adapter.


See more of Worth's parabolic strainer Wi-Fi booster.

Hackea: A $2.99 laptop stand and more

A laptop stand for $2.99
A cheap Vink CD rack can be used to prop up your laptop too. The connecting portions are snipped off and filed down. Erik M says "the laptop doesn't touch the spikes of the cut metal in my case (I use a 14"). And it's for display only, to raise the screen to the height of your eyes and help with the passive cooling of the computer. I use an external keyboard and mouse."



See more of Erik's laptop stand (in Spanish).

Lova this!
Zoe lights up the Lova leaf canopy. She says, "I bought the Lova leaf canopy at Ikea and it was to dark on my bed after I installed it. I bought a cord and socket from Ikea and made it into a really big light. I ran the cord up the stem and along the main vein. I tied it to the leaf at the places that the other veins crossed and left holes. I could have easily taken the green bag from packaging and cut it and tied it up with those but I wanted some pink accents."

A bright pot of plant
Timo find another great use for bright breeze Ikea lampshades. He says, "I had the idea when I was walking through the section with all the lights and so on. Well, I saw these lampshades and wondered how they would look as flowerpots, because I needed some. I removed the metal inside the lampshades and cut out a circle of multiplex. The inner pots are surrounded by a bag so the water won't damage the lampshades or my floor."

A row of foosball fun
Erik V rounded a few foosball players in to hit up the fun.

He says, "I have a Grundtal rail in my kitchen and to make it more fun and practical (instead of those awful meat hooks that you can buy separately) I got a couple of wooden foosball players and just put them on the rail before putting it together and screwing it to the wall.

You need:
- 1 Grundtal kitchen rail from Ikea
- 5 or 6 wooden foosballplayers from the ... uhm ... foosball supply store

Varde block kitchen cart
S. Sanchez-Wade wanted a kitchen cart that didn't cost a fortune, but didn't want it to look cheap.

He says, "So I start searching and all the ones I loved were at least $500.00! I guess the John Boos carts were out of the question. Here is one I was attracted to and especially this one. Not a J. Boos, but I liked the look.

So I went to Ikea and found one that had the lines that I wanted (and the stainless steel to match my appliances: Varde Kitchen Cart and I hacked it to kinda look like the expensive ones. The top is well oiled with mineral oil!"

Ikea home for chicks

It constantly amazes me how Ikea hackers find new ways to use good old Ikea goodies. Aaron Bell and wife Corinne design a cozy Ikea home for a few cute chicks.

He says, "My wife and I recently got into urban chicken farming and built a coop for them almost completely out of materials from Ikea."

We used the following Ikea products:
- Mydal bunk bed
- Trofast storage unit with shallow drawers
- Vika Oleby legs
- Gorm bottle rack

The coop frame is made from the bunk bed. We hacked the supports to make mounting the roof easier, and used the leftover slats from the top bunk for the side paneling. The storage unit with drawers is being
used for the chicken's beds, and I used more leftover wood to construct the hinged door on the side to make egg collection easier.

The front door is also leftover wood from the bed. Once the frame was assembled, we weatherproofed the frame, as the bunk bed wood comes unfinished from Ikea. Also, we laid down plywood for the floor of the
coop, using slats for support.

The bottle rack made a very nice (and cheap) ramp up to the beds, and the legs provide extra support for the heavy storage unit.

The only non-Ikea pieces we used were the mesh, plywood/beams for the roof (which is 3x coated with reflective paint in an attempt to keep the heat out), and the hardware for the hinges and latches.

We hung the feeder and waterer from the roof with a very simple washer / bolt / s-hook hack job. All told, this project took a month's worth of weekends, and was a blast to complete.

Hand embroidered Svenning chair

Helga gets crafty with her Svenning chair. The fabric is simply gorgeous.

She says, "I embroidered some fabric I got from the offcuts bin in John Lewis (a big chain of department stores in the UK, who sell good stuff, including lovely fabrics). Then I used it to recover my Svenning Desk Chair, which was getting worn and very, very uncomfortable. I also added some new foam, because the old stuff was so thin."