Music Producing Desk

Materials: VIKA AMON, VIKA CURRY, VIKA ANNEFORS, EKBY JARPEN, BILLY

Description: I wanted to build a desk to produce music and still have enough space to work and do everyday stuff.

In the beginning I planned to build everything on my own, but soon I realized that it must be cheaper and easier to combine some IKEA furniture.

There were some requirements I had, that didn't make the selection that easy:
- It should look awesome (of course)
- It should match my existing furniture like a Malm bed. I also wanted a very simple and clean design.
- The speakers should be on the same height as my head.
- The working space should be big enough also having some space for two monitors and a two RU 19-inch rack.
- Did I already mention that it should look awesome?

This is what it turned out. I am quite happy with it, although the black of the table doesn't exactly match with the brown-black of the two Billys, but that's ok, you don't recognize, when you don't look too close.

The white switch, by the way, is to switch the power of all the music equipment (speakers, monitor mixer, audio interface, ...) at once and will of course be replaced by a black one as soon as I have one ;)

~ Michael

Pallet desk

Materials: 4 Vika Curry legs + 1 pallet + 5mm thick ply wood + floor boards

Description: My plan was to create the cheapest and the most functional desk I can. (finally I have spent about 30 euros)

But the great idea with the pallet is the desk surface is doubled thanks to a large storage space

See more photos of the Pallet desk.

~ pierre vedel, France

Standing desk for <$30

Materials: Vika Amon, Vika Curry, Ekby Stodis

Description: Two relevant facts:
- I wanted a standing desk, all the articles about how sitting for hours will kill you were starting to bother me.
- I am CHEAP. And lazy.

So, I got my standing desk this way:

2 Vika Amon table tops - 24"x40" ($5.99 each)
4 Vika Curry legs - ($3.50 each)
4 Ekby Stodis brackets ($0.50 each)

Total - $27.98 plus tax

The regular table I already had assembled, but wasn't using for anything. I purchased the second table top and brackets, screwed in the brackets, and set it on top of the table. Done.

If I were less cheap, I would have used the nice Capita legs (7") instead of the Ekby brackets, but that would have been $10 more. I was lucky that the brackets are 7" tall, which are perfect for me.

The brackets are surprisingly strong, but a warning -- the table top is only solid in the place where the predrilled holes are, everywhere else is filled with paper. So, the copper-colored screw in the pic is in solid wood, the silver-colored one is basically screwed into nothing. If I were less lazy, I would have used a thin sheet of plywood under the table top top to strengthen and stabilize the second screw. As it is, I think it's strong enough for my purposes. I've put a hidden stack of wood and an old IKEA drawer unit (which I didn't buy, btw, it was a gift) under it in case the thing collapses. The rest of the space will be used as storage.

This would actually look really nice with some cord management and some white Apple products. Then again, if I could spend $$$ on Apple products, I would probably get a real standing desk.

So far, despite my laziness, I'm liking standing (mostly on the wobble board you see there). No more legs falling asleep, and less feeling guilty about sitting all day. Some day I may invest in a bar stool -- somebody let me know when IKEA has one on sale for less than $10. :-)

~ Anna, Cincinnati, OH

Makeup vanity for small spaces

Materials: Ekby Gruvan shelf; Vika Curry legs; Godmorgon box; Kolja mirror; Gilbert stool

Description: My bedroom isn't very large so I needed a small makeup vanity. I'm the type that likes to see all my makeup because if I don't see it, I won't use it. The Ekby Gruvan works great for this reason.

Connect 4 Vika Curry legs to a Ekby Gruvan shelf (I used the 48 1/2 inch). If you need a larger surface area, the Ekby Gruvan table top would work too.

The Godmorgon box with compartments fits perfectly on top of the shelf for more storage.

To finish off the vanity, the Kolja mirror is hung on the wall and the Gilbert stool works great with the small area.

Acrylic trays from the local craft store fit perfectly between the shelf and glass to store all of my makeup.

This was such an easy project and took less than an hour. The part that took the longest was organizing the makeup!

~ Annie, Fairfield, CA

Make a DIY Drafting Table from an IKEA Desktop

Materials: IKEA VIKA desktop, VIKA CURRY legs, VIKA KAJ legs

Description: Adjustable drafting tables are awesome, but can have a pretty big footprint. Here's an easy way to build a DIY drafting table using the IKEA VIKA desk system and a little ingenuity.

See more of the DIY drafting table.

~ Chris

Quick table

Materials: L�MPLIG chopping board, Vika Curry

Description: I needed a small table to put my printer on.

I couldn't find any table suited at the Ikea store, so I hacked one together from the L�MPLIG chopping board and used 4 Vika Curry legs to support it.

It took me 15 minutes to piece it together and for �20 in materials it wasn't expensive.

~ Adri Mathlener

Cheapest home studio desk ever!

Materials: Vika Amon, Vika Curry, Capita, Lack

Description: I had no room for any of my equipment in my small home / project studio. As you can see from the before picture, everything was just piled up in 2 old desks and the wires were everywhere.

before

I decided I needed a new desk. I was going to buy one online for around �400, but after coming across this site, I decided it would be a whole lot cheaper to build it myself, and it was, almost 10x cheaper!

I used a VIKA AMON table top combined with 4 VIKA CURRY legs for the main desk base. However, the problem with this was that i didnt have enough room for my keyboard and my monitor. I decide to build another shelf using 1 LACK wall shalf and 1 pack of CAPITA legs. Now there is room for my keyboard, my monitor and my speakers, with room left over!

The great thing now it that I don't need to move everything around to use certain equipment. It's all there ready for me. Most of the wires are also hidden underneath the desk, with exception for my USB hub and wireless mouse base!

1 x VIKA AMON Table top - �20 ($31.69)
4 x VIKA Curry - �8 (�12.67)
1 x LACK Wallshalf - �9.99 ($15.83)
4 x CAPITA legs (1 pack) - �8 ($12.67)

Total: �45.99 ($72.86)

~ Simon McKeon, England

Vika Flying V Desk

Materials: 2 Vika Grevsta, 6 Vika Curry in Black, 3 thick steel lumber bracing plates, A drill and Lots of round headed screws! (Size 8 x 1")

Description: While searching high and low for a desk that will multitask (Hold my computer and arts & crafts) we ran across the Vika series in Ikea. The prices were just right however the size was a little smaller than I had in mind. So we decided to create an L-Shaped desk out of 2 Vika Grevstas. In order to accomplish this, we bought some thick steel lumber bracing plates at the local hardware store, some screws, 6 legs for the desk, and 2 desk tops. It is important that the desk tops be SOLID material, I note this because some of the Vika Series are simply honeycomb in the middle and would not hold the screws properly for the bracing.

Anyway, when we got everything home, we assembled the two desks separately with only 3 legs in each table. (So that you won't bang your knee when you swivel.) We then turned everything upright and marked the holes for the bracing plates. When that was finished we turned the desk over and drilled pilot holes with a 1/8" drill bit for the screws that would hold everything together.

Once the pilot holes were screwed into each desktop, we put everything back upright and drilled the screws into the bracing plates. TADA! One really big awesome desk for less than $160. (I wouldn't recommend putting anything terribly heavy over the place where the 2 pieces connect. It should be rather sturdy, but I wouldn't trust standing on it...

~ Christine, Orlando, FL

Vika Curry speaker stand

Materials: Vika Curry leg, Ekby Statlig shelf

Description: The goal was to make a pair of cheap and simple speaker stands. Vika legs are just suitable height to bring the speaker to the ear level when I'm sitting down, and in black they will match the legs of my desk. For the base plate I used an Ekby Statlig solid wood shelf in 19cm width. To put it all together I bought an 8mm threaded rod in the hardware store and a couple of nuts and washers.

1. Vika leg has a bolt welded inside the tube at the top, where the mounting plate is screwed on. It had to be removed to make room for the threaded rod. It's spot welded in 2 points behind the plate, and it comes off after some rocking back and forth with large pliers. I have also drilled a hole on the side for stealthy speaker cable routing.

2. Ekby shelf was already suitable width at 19cm, I only had to make one cut to make it appropriate length. The central hole is for the mounting rod, and the second hole is for the cable. I carved a rough round shape matching the leg for easier centering later. I've used some furniture oil on the wood to make it a little darker and more durable.

3. Feed the rod through, put on the washer and the nut. Do the same on the top side of the base and tighten.

4. Feed the cable through and assemble! The top plate tightens the whole construction to make perfectly vertical and solid. Because there's a nut and a cable under the base plate, stick 4 rubber floor protector pads of suitable height under the plate.

Or for some little extra hi-fi-ness, a set of speaker cones/spikes could be used. They might be more expensive than the rest of the stand, though ;)

~ Max, Finland