Fairy princess treehouse: KURA Bunk Beds with STUVA storage

Materials: 2 Kura beds, 3 Stuva drawers 60x35.

Description: Needed bunk beds for my twin daughters but already had a Kura bed that my son had been using. Decided to buy another Kura bed second hand and essentially used one complete and the base of another. In order to add storage, raised the height of base bed to accommodate 3 Stuva drawers that provide good deep storage. Both sections are fixed together with 6 coach bolts.

Both my daughters struggled with the built in stair so made a new ladder from wood taken from the 'help yourself bin' outside IKEA.

My wife added some wall stickers we bought from next.

We are calling it their fairy princess tree house.

~ Chris Kennedy, Innerleithen Scotland

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Kid's Built-In Wardrobe Closet

Materials: STUVA storage combination, mdf, pine trim

Description: A neighbor showed me this site when I was looking to build a custom built in wardrobe for my daughter. I am glad he did. What a time saver using the IKEA STUVA storage system was!

I started by building a base out of 2x4 lumber, placed the STUVA systems on the 2x4's and added a custom storage area on top of the storage units that was made out of MDF.

After that, I put trim around all of it to match the existing trim in the house. Holes were drilled into the sides of the STUVA units for the adjustable shelving. An oak desk top between them finished off the project.

~ Marty, Saint Paul, MN

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Stuva goes retro! Then meets Dr Seuss

Materials: Stuva Wardrobe, Lialotta plastic coated fabric, Rationell Variera bag holders (x2), furniture tack's, PVC pipe, hammer, screws, double sided tape

Description: I wanted wardrobe for my kids playroom to store all of their dress up's & costumes, but I didn't want to spend a lot - I found a secondhand Stuva wardrobe for $40 (bargain!! retails for over $200), but.. it had Birch colour doors & the room is mainly white with the colourful trofast boxes & a bit of a retro spin to it. So, I could have bought two new doors for $80 from Ikea, or I could set out to change them myself for next to nothing!


Step 1: I bought 1 metre of the yellow check plastic coated fabric from ikea (Lialotta?) & took the doors off the wardrobe & laid them out onto the fabric & cut around them leaving about 3cm's around the edges.

Step 2: I then got double sided tape & folded the fabric over the inside of the doors & then tacked it into place using the small furniture tacks, I then attached the doors back onto the Stuva wardrobe.

Step 3: I also wanted some storage for my boys swords & light sabers (they have A LOT!) so I thought of using the Ikea plastic bag holders (Rationell Variera), I simply screwed them to one side of the unit - you can use the doubled sided tape to attach them if you don't want to drill holes into the unit. I also attached some hooks on the side for their masks etc.

Step 4: I needed a hanging rail in the wardrobe because it only came with two shelves & a wire basket - they retail for $15 at Ikea, so I decided to make my own to save money. I got a piece of PVC pipe from our shed & cut it to size & got two screws & put them into the pre-drilled hole's in the wardrobe & with a bit of effort the PVC pipe clicked into place!

I added an Ikea pingla box on top of the unit for more costume storage!! Works a treat!

But later ... I got sick of the Stuva Wardbrobe covered in oil cloth too. So I decided to make the stuva doors really fun & cover over them in my boys two favourite Dr Seuss books.

Step 1: lightly sanded the birch doors & ripped the pages from 2 books cut them to the same size. I then glued the pages to the doors with PVA glue & once dried coated it in a clear sealer.

Step 2: I added Rationell Variera bag holders to the side of the Stuva with screws, but you could just used double sided tape - they store all of my boys swords & light sabers!! Perfect size & shape.

Step 3: I used PVC pipe to make a hang rail for the wardrobe by cutting it to size & putting two screws into the pre drilled hole & popping the pipe in there.

The boys love the 'new' doors & it doubles as reading practice too :)

~ Peita

Stuva Malad monitor stand

Materials: Stuva Malad, 2x Ekby Stodis

Description: Being a student I really needed a desk but on the cheap. So I got a cheap Micke desk and realized there wasn't enough room for my laptop, my monitor, keyboard, etc ...


Here's where the hack happens. I went to the "As is" section and found a Stuva Malad drawer panel for 5�. I then got a couple of Ekby Stodis (0,50� each). I fixed the Ekby Stodis to the Stuva Malad and fixed it all onto the wall, with the part for pulling the drawer out towards the back.

I find it works great because I use the hole for pulling the drawer out (when used as a drawer panel) to run the cables from my monitor through and then down to the Micke cable organizer part.

It looks tidy and my cats aren't tempted to eat the cables (which they love doing).

Well I mean, it usually looks tidy ! :)

Voila!

~ Rebecca, France

Inreda drawers in Stuva

Materials: Stuva corpi with Inreda drawers (meant for Besta)

Description: IKEA does not advertise it and upon being asked they only state that they do give any information on combining these two series, but the Inreda drawers (50cm depth) are perfectly fit to be built into a Stuva corpus. My photos show a 192cm Stuva corpus with two 26cm Inreda drawers and Besta Tofta drawer fronts. The fronts still have the blueish colored protective foils on them.

~ Alfe, Berlin

Stuva Pantry

Materials: Stuva Combination

Description: I used Ikea's children's furniture for my kitchen pantry. Perhaps not a "hack" but it's a combination that I haven't seen anywhere else and it is working very well for me.

Three 60cm cabinets fit very well on top of two Stuva benches with drawers.

~ Angela Braunstein, Whidbey Island, WA

STUVA standing on flowers

Materials: STUVA wardrobe, standard furniture feet, floral adhesive foil, scissors, cordless screwdriver

Description: You need a STUVA wardrobe and 4 standard furniture feet (e.g. DIY market).

Cut an appropriate piece of adhesive foil for each foot.

Affix it onto the metallic surface, avoid bubbles.

Screw the feet under your STUVA.

~ StMue, Germany

Space-Saving STUVA Storage Closet and Shelf Inset Into Wall

Materials: 1 � STUVA Storage combination with shelf [098.778.02], 1 � STUVA Storage combination with drawers [498.887.09], hammer, hand saw, plasterboard saw, 3" nails, 2"x2" angle brackets, 4" straight straps, 2"x3" framing studs

Description: This project builds upon approach used in this IKEA hack posted earlier using HEMNES units. The objective was to utilize space behind the knee walls which abound in our Cape Cod�style house. Destination of STUVA units was knee wall beside each of our daughters� beds. Units we chose were two STUVA units of same height which we planned to stack on top of each other. We configured bottom unit to have 2 small top drawers and larger bottom drawer. Top unit was skinnier and only had shelves with no doors.

Wall Preparation
Stacked STUVA unit was 50.5" high. The knee wall can only accommodate a 46" high unit. Opening of appropriate size was cut out of the wall using plasterboard saw and hand saw. Simple inverted-C platform using 2"x3" studs was provided to support the bottom of unit. Nailers were attached to wall studs to provide mounting points for STUVA system.

STUVA Unit Preparation
Bottom of skinnier unit only had shelves so we decided to cut off the bottom by 4". The total height of stacked unit now became 45.5" which fitted in 46" high wall opening. STUVA units had flimsy cardboard backs so �" MDF boards were nailed to backs. Some old newspaper was stuffed into the cavity between these 2 boards. Two 2"x2" steel straps were screwed into backs of STUVA top and bottom units. Additional 4" steel straps were screwed on each side where units met.

Unit Installation
System was eased into wall opening and leveled. Holes were pre-drilled at the back bottom of lower unit. Bottom was anchored to inverted-C platform under it using 3-3" nails. Additional holes were pre-drilled on each side and anchored to wood blocks installed earlier using 3" nails. Molding was installed around each unit to cover gaps between wall and closet system. All moldings were caulked, spackled and sanded before applying two coats of paint same color as walls. Drawers and shelves were assembled and installed.

~ Mac Flores, Oak Lawn, IL