flip a hemnes loft bed into a princess bed

update! a reader, maike, kindly retouched the earlier photos which were too dark. am reposting with new, brighter photos.

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marybeth, who has never ever held a saw prior to this, hacked an ikea hemnes loft bed down to size.

she says, "about 4 months ago, i hacked my ikea twin loft bed. i became tired of sleeping high in the stuffy air, became sick of the wobbly bolts creaking with every move i made, etc. it was poorly designed and i wasn't happy that i had paid a few hundred dollars for it.

so, with the help of my roommate, i flipped the bed upside down, removed the post stabilizers and chucked the safety sideboard to allow storage beneath my brand new, awesome princess bed. i have never been happier and look forward to long, peaceful nights in my creation.

i had to disguise the ugliness of the posts with the mesh curtains you see hanging from them. (which, by the way, were also purchased from ikea.) the funny thing is, whenever people see my bed, they are besides themselves, they think it's so cute and always ask where i purchased it ... and i get to tell them this story."

marybeth, my suggestion - if you still have the stabilizers, you could add them to the top of the posts and turn yours into a four-poster bed like this. i think that will look great too.

a rocking sink seat

i had to laugh out loud when i saw wouter's hack. a sink seat! i have no idea which model it is though. if you don't care for the sink, have fun figuring out the bottom picture instead.

wouter tells me, "as an industrial design student i'm short on cash. i was looking for a comfy rocking chair. me and ikea worked out a solution together. it's an ikea sink seat, and it rocks!

credits: funny design by wouter w / cool pictures by niels m.

limited space? just double up the storage

greg did a double on a cd cabinet to max out his storage space. (if i'm not mistaken, it is an old robin cd shelving unit. i can't find the link on ikea's website though)

greg writes, "here is a quick hack i worked up to maximize cd storage space. i took 2 ikea cd storage units (they are a number of years old so i don't have the names) and put them back-to-back.

my friend allan kindly cut a 3/4" piece of pine to size, screwed the pine into the base of both units, screwed on two mending plates to the top to join them together at the other end, attached 4 castor wheels, and voila! rolling storage that fits snugly into the available space!"

say hi to ikeanblog

anne dropped me a note about her ikean blog. it's a blog by "someone who works at ikea, who loves the company as well as their products, who is willing to share the wonderful experiences with others and make our everyday life better."

digging around, i found some useful tips such as the latest entry, 5 ways to use the malm occasional table and how to choose an ikea mattress. she seems keen to spill the beans on how ikea really works too.

drop by ikeanblog and while you're there, check out anne's pillow hack made from leftover curtains.

good luck, anne!

all in one mobile workstation

harald, a graphic designer and photographer based in regensburg, germany pimps the mikael desk into an all-in-one movable workstation.

he writes, "fully equipped with dual-core, dual-monitor, sound system, triple internal lighting and a lot of cables it is an all-in-one workstation. the front is covered with transparent plastic plates, designed in half MacOS 10.5-style and enterprise console-style.


there is a stand for the subwoofer on the inside, quickly made, because nobody can usually see it. i tried not to destroy the substance of the table, but had to drill a hole in the middle, to make a cable channel. the hole is covered by the displays and the front cover.

two small wheels are attached to the front bottom, so that it can be moved around easily despite the heavy computer and monitors. only one main cable is connected and can be seen from the front of the work station."

ikeasylvania

there are some who believe that evil lurks in ikea, pounces on you and sucks you dry. it could be the count himself.

jeremiah of central west park studios sent me a video he shot at ikea, elizabeth, new jersey - the cry of dracula.

click to view the cry of dracula.

inspiration: mark marcinik's ikea hacks

mark marcinik of greenmeadow architects, who did the fabulous update on the 1950's eichler home sent me more photos of his work. i'm in love!

he writes, "ikea is the 21st century answer to the 1950's hardware store... an inexpensive supplier of 'raw' materials. here are my own photos of the seybold house ikea hacks (sunset magazine, april 2007).

the stainless steel sliding doors aren't custom, they are ikea cover panels hung on sliding door tracks.

the bar is made of doors parts and three cabinet boxes and more cover panels. the translucent window in the red wall is an ikea door.

this bathroom counter was made out of bits and pieces of ikea boxes, doors and hardware. the top is industrial plastic from another great material source... mcmaster-carr. the sink was originally a stainless steel salad bowl but after the house won a 'home of the year' award we thought we needed to upgrade it. the lighting fixture was salvaged from a 1950's eichler house and refurbished. the magazine metropolitan home never used this picture because they thought it looked too scary. the scary painting is by artist judy gittelsohn. the coffee cups and bowl are from vintage 1970's thrift store, heller .

in this other ikea hack, we used ikea kitchen cover panels to panel the kitchen and dining room walls and construct a matching door and create a bar type area and an art display niche."

photos and design by mark marcinik, greenmeadow architects.