kid's chalk board table with storage

this is sara's idea for a chalk board table and storage area for her daughter.

"we have 3 of those ikea bins holding toys and blankets in our daughter's room. that was also the only spot we had for a kid's table in our small house.

so we got a couple benjamin stools (the bins fit underneath really well), and had a piece of birch plywood cut at our local lumberyard. we drilled 4 holes, and fastened the top to the stools with nuts and bolts. we painted one side with chalk board paint, and finished the other side (and the edges). when our daughter is bored with one side, we can flip it over. and it fits perfectly in her room."

light table

jason diy-ed a compact lightbox with an ikea shelving unit.

"i bought a nian (can't find link on ikea website) lighted shelving from ikea. hacked it up and made a light table out of it. first thing i did was insert some foil inside the shelving unit under the light source. it increased the EV of the light (with dome) from 10 to 11.5. the pedestal base's from an old halogen floor lamp.

the pen holders are made from the remaining pipe from the halogen lamp, cut up with a pipe cutter. then attached with leftover holes from the wooden assembly, and taped up with foil tape. the tubes stay up with a strip of lexan bolted to the shelving brackets included with the shelf. i added some extra support for the pipe under the storage unit, and added the CD spindle case to cover the screws sticking up. it also doubles as a spacer for the storage compartment."

click to view jason's lightbox photos on flickr.

related hack:
> home photography backdrop

more fira mini chest hacks

the ikea fira mini chest should get a page of its own as it is fast becoming the most hacked item on ikeahacker. here are 3 more.

wall of fira storage
melissa has this handsome storage cabinet made out of fira drawers: "i painted the fira mini chests red, white, and black with glossy craft paint. the black and white patterned drawers are covered with wrapping paper that i bought at ikea and then sprayed with glossy clear spray paint. the label holders were from an online bead supply company, and the random bits of decor were picked up here and there."

fira wall display
an unusual use of a fira drawer. kyle turned it into a wall mounted display shelf. each box is connected with 2" metal spacers from home depot.

fira in oils
one more from zan (who previously gave us the monogrammed version): "firstly it was lightly stained in a mixture of water and acrylic paints, then the front was painted in oils, i may give it a spray with some sealer at some point."

***

updated on 27/2/2008
paige's version
"i spruced up the the fira mini storage chests with some beautiful chiyogami paper that i had picked up while traveling. i used it as the basis for my color combination - covering most of the drawers and a skimra lampshade. i got two sheets of coordinating paper to cover the remainder of the drawers, and trimmed everything to size.

i am a metalsmith and these little drawers are just perfect to organize all the little tools and findings for jewelry making. i print small labels and affix them to the top edge of each drawer front. when fully-loaded the drawers get quite heavy, so i opted to move mine to my heavy maple desk for support instead of the particleboard bookcases that had been their home."

glass pulls for the fira
fleurette makes glass beads and accessories for a living and needed something to bring them to shows. she says, "i took the fira mini chest, drilled holes in the center of the drawers and added drawer pulls that i made. a great way for customers to access the beads and to show off the pulls."

see more of fleurette's glass pulls.

rhonda's version
"i bought two of these� one with 9 small drawers and one with 3 small and 2 large drawers. i made these two boxes using various patterns of scrapbook paper, color coordinated paint, varnish, knobs, feet, felt on the inside of the drawers, and finished them off with a cute little tassel. it took me one full day each to complete them from start to finish plus lots of drying time.


lindsay's version
"basically i painted the outside cabinet and then used my xyron to turn the wrapping paper into a big sticker. before applying it to the drawers i cut it to fit the whole front of the drawers, marked where the 'gaps' between the drawers were and cut the pieces for each drawer and the shelves out. then i applied each sticker and sealed it with clear acrylic medium. i love the way it turned out."

see more of lindsay's fira mini chest.

[added 27 May 2008]

meredith's chrome finished fira
she turned her $13 pine fira mini-chest into her "very own sparkley-disco-drawers".

see instructions and more pictures on her blog.

Updated! February 25, 2009
Decoupaged Fira
Sirah85 from Spain shares her Fira, made with decoupage. She uses it to store her make-up.

Alicia's Fira craft cabinet
She says, "We took six Fira small storage boxes and attached them to each other to make a faux-apothecary type chest. We use it to store our craft supplies (paper, markers, tape, etc.)

See more of Alicia's faux-apothecary craft cabinet. More pictures here.

new look for the lampan lamp

i have the exact same lamp - the cheap lampan - an impulse purchase which i don't really know what to do with until now.

anneke simply glued a piece of cloth to the lamp's plastic shade with textile glue and the plain jane lamp gets a new look.

thanks thijs!

a flat tv wall combo unit

alex gets stylish with his flat tv furniture using the besta range and some neat ideas.

"i always see these stylish tv panel/bench combinations in designer shops and they were all at least 1000 EUR. the combination in the pictures shown is all together about 400 EUR and consists of the following parts:

2 besta benches
4 besta holmbo drawer fronts
2 besta holmbo doors as wall panels
1 lack wall shelf
3 grundtal spotlights

the benches and the lack shelf were installed as per instructions. the doors for the wall panel are fixed with one 14mm bolt each to the wall.

finally the grundtal spotlights were fixed with tesa powerstrips below the lack shelf. remember to hide the cables.

then, you need to pin the flat tv holder through the panel on the wall as instructed in the original manual and then you are finished."

this is making me love the besta range even more!

[thank you, readymade blog for the very nice shoutout! also, ikeahacker made the news in germany on spiegel online. thanks, konrad!]

ikea wall lighting stand mod

what to do if your wall mounted light fixture has an ugly plastic stand? simon shares how he modified the light stand so all you see is the lamp peeking out of the wall.

now you see ugly stand

now you don't!

view ikea light fixture mod instructions and more photos on simon's blog.

jail cell to modern baby crib

i love this modern baby crib from mary and hubby. goes to show a little creativity goes a long way.

"my husband and i were in desperate need of a crib, we wanted something modern, but within our budget. but modern cribs meant we'd have to shell out a load of cash. so we looked into ikea and found the almost perfect gulliver crib, except for the fact that it looked like a mini jail cell. of course, ikea had none in stock. we luckily found a used one on craigslist.

we bought some nice laminated wood and cut new end panels, using the old end piece as a
template for all the screw holes. we milled out a little design detail and we had a unique modern crib."

one lucky baby!