Expedit random shelving hack

Materials: Expedit

Description: When my wife and I walked into a swanky expensive design shop here in Lund, Sweden there was a shelving unit that had random heights for each shelf. Very cool but way out of the reach of our budget. See pic on left.

(By the way, this was a year or so ago and only yesterday after the hack was done did a friend of mine take a look and tell me Ikea now do something similar! You can imagine my sigh but at least ours is 'bespoke'!).

Anyway, first off I always thought our original 5 unit Expedit just dominated the living room and so the seed of either replacing or chopping it up has been there for a long time.

In my opinion they look great if left in a room with lots of space not butted up against a wall in a small space.
So the main problem was all our picture albums were the wrong size for the original spaces and the various bits of cool items to display just invariably get stuff piled in with them.

Clutter, clutter,clutter! Unless you have some kind of design OCD. Essentially, not very practical.

So, I measured the size of the items I wanted to display, then disassembled the Expedit. I moved the whole lot outside and started cutting the horizontal sections- first with a circular saw then I switched to a jigsaw as the plastic on the shelves would chip and crack too much with the circular blade.

As with the inspiration picture I wanted something that felt random but still in some way structured.

These are the steps I did - sorry for the lack of pictures. It was a blinding hot day and I couldn't find the camera till late in the day...

1. The full final width was only 90cm to fit the chosen space in our living room, so this was the first cut on the top and bottom pieces.
2. I divided up the horizontal shelves into 5 piles and cut each pile in different widths. Some at 7cm, 9.5cm and others at 22.5cm and 25cm.
3. I laid the side section of the Expedit down flat on two stands attached the base section to form an L shape.
4. Then I started drilling holes for the dowling rods in the newly cut shelves and also in the side section.
5. Generous application of wood glue then set the vertical 9.5cm shelves in place. Though when finished will be horizontal.
6. Placed the long (once again will be vertical in the end) section on top of the shelves with wood glue and nailed each shelf in place.
7. Continued with the next level of shelves - this time the 25cm, followed by the 7cm and so on.
8. When the 5 levels were complete I put on the other large side piece and then the top section.
9. I screwed in some L brackets on the main inner corners to strengthen the whole frame.
10. Done and then with the help of my father-in-law, rotated the whole thing 90 degrees upright and voila! Job done and then lifted it into the front room.

My wife came home and was well happy!
WIN!!!

~ JC, Lund, Sweden

STIKZ Room Divider

Materials: 2x4 Expedit, SMYCKA (bundle of sticks)

Description: I needed a room divider for my studio apartment; the piece that I created served to set off my "living room" from my "boudoir".

I purchased a black/brown EXPEDIT and the SMYCKA decorative bundle of sticks from IKEA and four pieces of thin wood. I painted these black and set them on the floor roughly the width from the top to the shelf of the EXPEDIT. I then took apart the bundled SMYCKA and glued the individual SMYCKAs into a tightly packed SMYCKA fence or curtain. Then I glued two more painted pieces of wood to the SMYCKA curtain; this was then screwed into the EXPEDIT.

Huzzah! I had to donate this piece to the friend that helped me prior to my move to the East Coast, but I hope to make another one someday.

~ Erin K., Charlottesville, VA

Small DJ console

Materials: Ikea Corras Sidetable

Description: I converted an IKEA CORRAS bedside table to create a small DJ console for home parties.
The top of the table was partially cut out to build in the mixer and CD-controls. Other components were placed inside the table. The provided shelf was used to close the rear of the table and thus hide the wires.

~ Dimy Sandel�

Hidden music desk

Materials: Besta parts, drill, saw

Description: My wife and I live in a studio apartment in NYC and I was looking for a solution where I could have all of my music gear readily available, while not also having it on display.

Materials used

1 - Besta 50" height Shelf Unit
2 - Besta Tofta doors
6 - sliding drawers without fronts (used for rails only)
5 - additional sliding shelves
1 - Inreda Drawer
2 - Besta Legs
2 - hinges from Home Depot
2 - magnetic fasteners to hold doors closed (home depot)

1 - 2 1/2" drill hole bit (to run cables through)
1 - hand saw to cut shelves to size

This is basically all from the Ikea Besta Line, I drilled 2 1/2" holes into the back piece to run all of the cables through , the bottom left has a drawer in it to hold spare cables etc... I purchased drawers without fronts for the rails and sawed the shelves to fit (that was surprisingly easy). The hard part was the doors. I had to buy hinges from Home Depot to make this work and it was very difficult to hang them evenly. The hinges they sell at IKEA don't work because shelves can't slide out when the doors are open.

~ Torrey, New York City

Rock band guitar hangers

Materials: BAREN

Description: I was looking at an inexpensive way to store my rockband guitars with style and originality. I came across the hack (a hold up) that gave me the idea. I got my wish for a 10$ value ;-)

~ Denis, Laval, Quebec

Dress up station

Materials: Lack Shelf & Fabler Bard Curtain

Description: I googled and googled dress up stations for my 2 little girls but couldn't find anything that was even remotely affordable. So I came up with a plan to do an IKEA hack.

Super simple.

I bought one IKEA Lack shelf and we then turned it upside down. We mounted a simple curtain rod to the bottom of it. Then we mounted a 2 x 4 on the wall for extra support. We placed the lack shelf on top of the 2 x 4 and mounted it to the wall.

The next part was the way I did it but it can be done several ways. I added a 2nd small curtain rod from Home Depot, the kind that can easily be taken on and off. I then chopped up the fabler bard curtain from IKEA. I sewed up part of it to hang from the curtain rod and the other parts of it, I staple gunned to the outside to cover up the sides. I then used the tie backs to make it look more like a theatre/closet dress up station.

A little touch of some decorations, fabler mirror, minnen storage toy box, and some fabler wall hooks and voila...instant dress up area. I think the whole hack came in less than a $100. That includes some extra fabric for window treatments and a princess tent!

See more of Jodi's dress up station.

~ Jodi R.

Child's Loft Bed

Materials: Mattress, Plywood, Two Ikea TROFAST toy organizers

Description: Position Trofast organizers into "L" shape. Place large plywood sheet across top. Brace plywood sheet to wall by attaching 2x4 cleats underneath-- making sure to locate studs in the anchoring wall. Using three lengths of 1x6s, box in the mattress at top, bottom and side. I used L-brackets for extra stability in addition to lots of screws!

~ Jen Coles, Chico

Varde Shelf Duck/Bath Light Swan

Materials: Varde Shelf/6 light strip light/Plexiglass

Description: We remodeled our bath with Ikea GODMORGON series and couldn't find a light fixture we liked that fit the budget. As I debated the design dilemma our son, Michael offered to design/build one.

We couldn't find a birch wood that matched the GODMORGON birch so I purchased the Varde wall shelf and Micheal used the pieces from the shelf to build the light. Per Michael's design, we also purchased a cheap Hollywood 6 light strip as a base and a piece of Plexiglas to defuse the light. There is $130 worth of material to get a custom designed high end piece.

We didn't think to take more pictures during the building process as we didn't think about posting to Ikea hacker until after the fact. I have attached his design sketch and a photo without the Plexiglas so you can get an idea of how it was built. Even though we don't have step by step instructions and photos you can see by the pictures it turned out beautiful.

Michael works as a 3D illustrator by day and by night a painter, designer, and photographer. I have remodeled several homes and always have a tight budget so having a son with such talent is a huge help for me. I think he really has outdone himself on this one!

~ Annette Cagle-Rivera & Michael Cagle (Ikea hacker), Dallas, TX

UDDEN hacked as His and Hers shoe rack

Materials: 2 UDDEN Kichen Cabinets, drill, toggle bolts

Description: In my rental unit I had a nice entry but no coat closet to hide my shoes in. The standard skinny shoe racks never appealed to my eyes from the design perspective. They screamed "shoes". And I decided to create my own shoe something. From the onset, I knew that this would have to reflect our style through the rest of the apartment which is ethnic contemporary. It would not only hold our shoes but also daily mail, and some of the artifacts.

I used a UDDEN Kitchen Cabinet and mounted it on the wall with an offset now creating a nice table top to showcase the artifacts on one and got a beautiful box to hide the mail away on the second. And thats our His and Hers shoe rack. My total cost was $70, atleast $30 less than the not so good looking skinny shoes racks that hold the same number of shoes. If needed one could also get extra shelves from Ikea AsIs Department and add a second shelf to fir more shoes. I used shoes boxes so one pair was in the Shoe box and another on top of it and this fitted approximately 16 pairs of shoes in one cabinet.

~ Ekta Naik

Ornate custom dry erase board

Materials: Ung Drill Frame, Snow & Graham Paper

Description:
1. Spray paint frame with several (plus several more!) coats of white gloss paint
2. Cut paper and spray glue to cardboard backing
3. Draw Samoyed with white gel pen on vellum paper
4. Cut out
5. Glue to front of paper background
6. clean glass and put everything together
7. ready to write your message with dry erase pen

~ Sakura Moses, Graham, Washington

Rainbow bed

Materials: Eina, duct tape

Description: We wanted a bed for our 4-year-old son, and after purchasing a second-hand disaster that kept falling apart on us, we decided to go for something simple. IKEA! The only problem is that we didn't really like any of their twin beds, and the space in our son's room was tight. So we bought a simple Eina bed, but wanted to spruce it up. Our son had specifically requested a rainbow bed, so we set out to do a kind of swirly, mixed-up paint job.

Well, I'm not sure what it's made out of, but you CAN'T paint it. We tried, scraped it all off, sanded, tried again.....no dice. The paint just flakes right off. Frustrated and tired of the whole bed issue, we weren't sure what we were going to do.

Then I found the Tape Brothers site, and the answer was clear. Duct Tape! After ordering 7 rolls of 1-inch duct tape (in rainbow colors, of course), we set to work. We banded the edges with black Gorilla tape, set down the stripes along each board, put it together and voila! A beautiful rainbow bed. Our son is thrilled, and we're pretty happy with the way it turned out.

~ Christina Libertini

Ikea Regolit night light

Materials: Regolit

Description: On the smaller Regolit lamp shade, the 11-inch one, I wanted to make it into a night light but having it as a white shade filtered out too much light. I wanted a BOJA effect to it so I painted it with Acrylic Black paint. And then punched some holes on them in a pattern. I have a friend who is so mathematically precise with a pen. I then took a old night light base and placed it inside. The patterns look really nice against a white wall.

~ Glenn

Ikea bikini + summer clothing line!

Materials: Frakta shopping bag

Description: It's summer and I made a Frakta bikini!
And then developed a whole line of Ikea inspired swimwear.
It is also a hack of the H&M summer swim line.
So it's a double Swedish hack!
And those are ovenmitts as bikini tops!
Too hot to handle, we hope!

Enjoy + Lots of Sun!

See more at BetterThanLiving.com.

~ Adriana

Workstation from Pax wardrobe

Materials: Pax wardrobe, Valter brackets

Description: This is my closet office that is composed almost entirely from Ikea components (to include the JULES swivel chair not pictured).

Basically I took an old PAX wardrobe and cut it to fit the ends of my closet. Then I took an old tabletop (I can't remember the name but it was made of birch plywood laminate), stained it, cut it to fit as the desktop, and braced it in place. The shelves above the desk are made from the PAX doors. The shelving below the desk has VALTER brackets.

I spend a great deal of time working from here and it serves me very well!

See more of Aubrick57's Pax workstation.

~ Aubrick57

BEST� Bench Home Theater Hack

Materials: BEST� Bench, BEST� Tofta, Integral Hinge, Integral Damper, BEST� Legs

Description:
I recently won a new Panasonic 50" VT25 and Panasonic DMP-BD350 3D Blu-ray player through Panasonic. Well, with the newly added TV I decided to change my Ikea Benno Black/Brown stand and go with something cleaner and simpler to conceal my components.

I enjoyed the small form factor of the BEST� Bench (120 cm x 26 cm); however, it only came with a drawer option. This would clearly not work for a home theater scenario. Therefore, I decided to attempt my own Ikea Hack.

BEST� Bench - Black/Brown
Article #501.021.95
$75.00

BEST� TOFTA - Gloss Black (x2)
Drawer Front
Article #101.865.97
$35.00 / per = $70.00

Integral Hinge - 2 pack (x2)
$12.00 / per = $24.00
Article #701.323.75

Integral Door Damper - 2 pack (Optional)
$7.00
Article #801.262.13

BEST� Leg Adjustable - 2 pack
$14.00 / per = $28.00
Article #501.341.82

Total = $204.00 + Tax

I began building the BEST� Bench until I reached the point of having to assemble the bottom of the bench.

At this point, I drilled 1�" holes through each backing piece. Since the Bench's purpose is home theater, there will be cables going between each cavity. I also wasn't keen on drilling through the ~1" thick center piece, I figured it'd be easier to get 1/8" backing down the road if I ever changed the purpose of the Bench; so I stuck to my original route of drilling the backing.

After drilling the lower, central corner of each backing piece, I gave each hole a quick file. You could easily acquire the same results with sandpaper, as well.

I also debated the idea of getting a large rubber grommet to finish this off even more, but gave up as it wasn't something easily accessible at my local Home Depot and would probably require special ordering it online. Since it's at the back and not visible, I was content with filing it smooth.

Next we need to retrofit the hinges to the BEST� Bench. You'll notice the outer side pieces of the BESTÅ bench have 5 pre-drilled holes for the drawer rail unit. Coincidentally, the distance between the 5 holes are the same distance as the hinge piece. The only difference is that we will drill 27 mm in the from front edge of each side. There will only be 4 new holes, two top and two bottom, for each hinge.

Use a square to make sure the new holes are in-line with the pre-drilled holes. We will use a 3/16" bit for the hinges; also, drill at a 12 mm depth. Feel free to mark your drill bit with some tape so you know when you've drilled deep enough.

In the image below, you can see how the hinge will position along the side. Make sure you install the Philips head locking nut thinger. (IKEA Part #114927/115264) Once the hinge is secured to the side, you will not be able to fit that piece in anymore.

Next we'll work on retrofitting the other half of the hinge to the drawer front... Soon to be our door front. Once again, Ikea saved us some work. On the edges of the door fronts Ikea pre-drilled the doors again. You'll need a square to draw two perpendicular lines on the outer edges of these pre-drilled holes.

Next draw diagonally from corner to corner, where this X intersects is where you will drill out of the European style hinge. With a sharp object, mark just on the other side of this X, closer to the pre-drilled holes.

Use a small bit a drill a quick pilot hole, once again 12 mm is our major number for depth.

Use a 35 mm Forstner bit and drill to the 12 mm depth. You will now begin to see how the European style hinge will fit. You will also have to widen the two pre-drilled holes that flank where you just bored out with the Fornstner bit. For this I used the 3/16" bit, once again. This will also the two tabs that prevent the hinge from slipping to fit into their respective holes.

Completely install the hinges and attach the new doors!

Finish assembling the BEST� bench bottom and install the feet. At this point you can tweak the doors so they are level and symmetrical. Snap on the Integral dampers and enjoy your beautiful work!

The only adjustments I think I'll be making in the near future, is possibly spraying the legs gloss black. In addition to this, my Harman Kardon AV Receiver is getting quite warm within the enclosed space. I am currently sourcing some cooling solutions as well as adding ventilation grills to the rear of the Bench.

I hope you enjoyed my Ikea Hack! Thank you,

- M!TCH

See more of Mitch's BEST� media unit

~ Mitch Cave, Calgary, AB

Sculptures (Composition 1,2,3)

We want to point your attention to our Ikea-related project:

The idea was to build "artworks" which are replicable at a moderate cost by everyone by following the instructions we provide.

The sculptures were exhibited at the "Museo Cantonalde d'Arte" in Lugano, Switzerland.

See more here.

~ Andreas Gysin, Sidi Vanetti