winnie's upside down man lamp

a new hack from san francisco based winnie lam. you may remember her as the one who gave us the chocolate marshmallow solsta pallbo footstool covers and the rapunzel bookcase, an entry in the genius ikea hack contest. now, she's back again with the very adorable upside down man lamp.

"the lamp is ikea's fado table lamp, approximately 11" in diameter. the hat is just two pieces of wood. the bottom piece of the hat came from a round wooden box from the crafts store michael's. the top piece of the hat is just a circle piece of wood. the facial features, i.e. the eyes and the mouth, are cutouts from adhesive contact paper (also known as shelf liners). the legs are made of toilet paper rolls, and the shoes are boots for toddlers.

(note: the fado table lamp was available on the 2006 catalog, but doesn't appear to be available anymore. the fado ceiling lamp, however, is still available.)."

winnie also sent me some of her other works. she tells me that it's her passion and what she indulges in after work. though non-ikea, i can't help but share the joy! hope it makes you day, cause it sure did mine.

the cheese storage cabinet and cow table. (note the udders :-) )

the egg and sperm clock and toilet seat dining chairs

curtain room divider

another curtain room divider idea. this one is from marc who used lightweight muslin with the kvadrant curtain rail system. i can no longer find it on the ikea site, but i think the ikea kvartal may work the same.

adding to marc's idea, if you choose not to use fabric, you can also try ikea's curtain panels to divide a room. may not be as cheap, but they are pretty good looking.

other room divider ideas:

• pax wardrobe sliding door room divider
• curtain room dividers
• dunker light cum room divider

and the winners are ...

votes have been cast and the judges have chosen their favourites.

armand's picks:

1st - lack shelving in the style of charlotte perriands.
witty, stylish, cheap.

2nd - ikea meldal greenhouse.
anything green get my GO signal.

3rd - ikea skubb monster kite.
what would the world be without whimsy?

arash and kelly's picks:

1st - tini because the transformation comes 'alive' and a great game for kids and dogs. the most imaginative of all we thought

2nd - randall for the Charlotte shelving.
most stylish idea

3rd - giusy's greenhouse.
a great new line for ikea

my picks:

1st - tini's skubb kite.
most creative use of an ikea item. taking it totally out of its usual parameters.

2nd - randall's shelving.
a touch of class for the lack shelving unit

3rd - winnie's rapunzel bookcase.
i think it's such fun.

popular vote

1st - randall's shelving with 77% votes

2nd - winnie's rapunzel bookcase & tini's skubb kite (tied at 11% each)

after tabulating the scores ... i'm proud to announce that we have the winners of the genius ikea hack contest.

first prize goes to randall kramer for the lack shelving in the style of charlotte perriands.

tini's skubb monster kite takes second prize.

and coming in third is guisy's meldal greenhouse.

congrats winners! your geniuspad, compliments of arash and kelly, will be enroute to you soon.

thank you everyone who sent in an entry or voted in the polls. it's been fun! if you have ideas for a new contest, do let me know.

click to view all entries.

10 secs

was pleasantly surprised today when i saw a surge in traffic. further checking my stats, i found that i made blogger's blog of note! must say that i've always harboured secret desires to get listed. so i'm so thrilled i can pee in my pants. thanks, blogger.

also, kim of girlrobot, a geeky girl site, contacted me a few days ago for an email interview. it's my first! and it was fun thinking back and seeing how ikeahacker has taken shape in 9 months. almost 200 hacks and counting! thank you for sending your hacks in. you're what makes this site happen. read the interview on girlrobot.

- jules

things to do with a solsta pallbo footstool

the humble solsta pallbo footstool is more versatile that you think. a little imagination is all it needs.

1. give it a new look like what lynn did
"i have my own little baby ikea hack from a while ago. they had a bright lemon yellow floor sample solsta pallbo footstool on sale. i can't recall how much it was, but it was far less expensive than a new one. i had some fabric at home that i'd been holding for the right project and i new this was it! the fabric is a crushed black cotton velvet. i'm really happy with it!"

2. stow a media player like how rick johnson did it

"i have a computer that i was using for a media player and it looked really dumb beside the tv. i decided to stuff the computer into the footstool. now the computer doesn't look totally out of place in the room and a dvd drive in the side of the footstool is a good conversation starter.

storage scored from the bargain corner

becky kremer from scotland sent me her hack of miscellaneous wardrobe pieces scored from the as-is section. i'm envious. see what she got for 8 bucks.

"at our ikeas in scotland, they often sell a stack of wood from various pieces of furniture for about �4-5 ($8-10) in the bargain corner. on one stack we bought for �4 we got about 20 pax wardrobe shelves, some darker wood shelves/countertop pieces, various bits of other things and a full pax wardrobe shell that we put together for a friend. from the shelves, we kitted out a few wardrobes we use as storage and put shelves in an closet where we had ripped out a water storage tank. we also put some nice looking shelves in a funny alcove formed by our stairs.

the real hack though was building a custom shelving unit for under our stairs. ours is a hundred year old house that has a quirky and oddly shaped under stair cupboard. standard shelves just wouldn't fit so the hubby designed shelves to fit on the computer and then assembled them out of the various bits of wood. we wanted shelves to make room for our recycling bin and boxes for different household chores like painting or tiling. we used cardboard fruit boxes to organize that and they work like sliding drawers that we can take out and bring to the project. In the far back, we have a wide low shelf where we store little used items. it's amazing what �4 got us!

some tips from the projects - the nice thing about these bits and pieces is that there is usually a nice finished side to the pieces. as you can see from one of the pics, we got one of the shelves turned around but it was too late in the process and not that important aestetically. the other thing we've found from the pressed board stuff is that it makes a huge mess when you cut it so be prepared. when drilling, be sure to start from the 'right' side as it will tend to splinter if you come from the back and mess up your pretty side. but otherwise, it really works similarly to regular wood and can be used for lots of things!"

patterned fabric art

bruno of curbly tipped on this fabric wall decor by artiswork - an easy way to add a bit of colour. not a major hack but i do like how the panel of colours cheer up the place.

"recently we took down some shelving we had in between two ivar (ikea) units and replaced it with a band of patterned fabric (bettina) we liked. this ended up being a great way to accent the room. my wife subsequently used the same fabric to cover two pillows on our couch (adjacent these units) which helps tie the whole thing together. we hemmed the edges, and tacked the top and bottom to the horizontal rods (in our case 1x2 pine) with a staple gun. the fabric cost $10.00 for 2 yards from ikea, which was enough for the hanging and the pillows. none of this helps us clean up our living room when we're sleepless from a brand new second baby, but it does keep things lookin nice!" link.