Handsome makeover for ugly AC unit

If you remember Alex's gorgeous loft, you'll know that he won't settle for ugly. Here's the latest hack in his ongoing loft project.

He says, "I have this really ugly 'motel' style ac unit that did not fit with the rest of my loft and created an unusable and unsightly area. The problem was that I rent so I had to leave the ac unit untouched, and of course, usable.



The solution I came up with was this. I found a pallet full of laminate flooring (Tundra) in the as-is section of Ikea for $14.00 a box. I bought two boxes in case I messed up some cuts and glued them to two plywood panels (Lack) cut to the size of the unit. I made an 'L' shape and attached the panels to the wall with brackets thus leaving the ac unit untouched. I then trimmed all the edges with aluminum strips from home depot.

Next problem was how to finish off the top where there would still be air flow into the room. I finally arrived at what you see here. I found some Cabinet legs in the Ikea as-is section for $8 and bought a white table top from there as well at full price (around $30). I cut the table top down width ways and attached the legs. That piece rests on top of the panels allowing air flow and access to the controls. The grass on top is fake from Michael's crafts and cost around 5 bucks a square.




Anyway, I still have a few more things to do like lighting and painting a graphic of one of my photos but so far I am happy not to have to look at that ugly ac unit again. The space is finally usable and I think, attractive. I am sure that I am not the only one with this type of problem."

Billy bookcases as room dividers

This is Lily's very first Ikea hack and it's a nice one. Clever use of Billy bookcases to section out a 'sleeping area' and create storage. Definitely a snuggle-worthy corner.

She says, "I'm renting this large one space studio but didn't like the idea of having my bed in the living room as well as in the kitchen so I came up with the idea of a room divider. Since I also had a lack of storage for books etc I decided to purchase five Billy's (4 large and one small) to create a 'sleeping corner'. The position of the bookcases also makes kind of a hallway. The first Billy closest to the entrance door is a small one that I use as a place for key/mail/umbrella. A few months later I found two green glass kitchen doors (Rubrik) at the as-is corner which were then fixed to the bottom shelves to serve as a shoe cabinet.

The next Billy is placed reversed so that I can use it as a night table at the head of my bed. At the back I screwed in a simple rack to hang coats when entering the studio. I made sure the screws pierced one of the shelves so that it would be strong enough to carry some weight.

The 3 bookcases facing the living room serve as all kinds of storage. I glued on some gift wrapping paper (at hema) to make it more playful and less white. Some of the shelves are left out so that I have, like, these small decoration cubes in which I sometimes place school works (sculptures, maquettes, etc)

For the sleeping corner on the other side, the backs of the Billy's are simply covered with some leftover paint, with colors matching my favorite bed linen. I hung a Hoppy lamp (by Dark) at the top to create some special light effects.



You may also be interested in:
- Another Billy pantry
- Billy finds new purpose as a pantry
- Stark hall unit as a room divider
- Room dividers for your bedroom
- And this is how you divide a loft
- Buffalo Bill wardrobe and room divider

Head cushions for the sofa

An old cushion headrest and makes two under the hands of Gianluca and Rossella.

They share, "We were trying to fix an old bamboo sofa, so, after new covers for the sofa cushions, we were thinking about adding little cushions. We had this cylindrical foam rubber cushion from Ikea.

I think it's an old model, because I can't find it in catalog now. My first idea was to cut it like a salami to have a lot of little round cushions, but my wife idea was better. We cut in half the cushion by its length with a knife, added a cover made with the same fabric of the sofa, fixed them to the head of the bamboo structure and we obtained two comfortable head cushions.

Nothing really difficult to do, but at least we are able to use the cylindrical cushion that we couldn't really use before because it was too big.

Broder-Lack Freestanding Shelving

Here's another one from Florence, who also gave us the multi-tiered charging station.

She says, "We needed a shelving solution and love the look of the Lack shelves but we couldn't attach the shelves to the wall. We combined the Broder L-foot brace, Posts and Brackets and Lack wall shelves to create a freestanding shelving system.

The width of the Broder system was adjusted to accommodate the 43 1/4" Lack shelves which were then attached to the 10 3/4" Broder brackets with screws. Four of the longer 74 3/4" Lack shelves extend beyond the Broder frame to add visual interest. The longer shelves are evenly distributed and no heavy objects will be placed on the extensions. The Broder posts, brackets and Lack shelves are all well connected and create a stable unit.



You may also be interested in:
- Susannah's Atlas inspired shelves
- Stuff you can do with Lack shelves
- Stolmen and Jarpen bookshelves
- Vestby bedframe converted to bookshelves

Multi-tiered charging station

Florence does have a mother load of gadgets. And this has to be the charging station to rule over them all.

She says, "This may seem like overkill but once we took an inventory of all our phones, cameras and gadgets we decided to create a super charging station. Those desktop versions with two or three outlets just don't cut it for a couple of techies.

We finally settled on the Malm 6-drawer chest to accommodate our storage needs. All of our small, rechargeable electronics are now neatly corralled in one location along with their cables, accessories and documentation.

The top shelf with the flip up lid contains the actual charging station. A series of holes cut into the Malm backboard provide access for the charging cables. The cables are labeled and plugged into a nine-outlet power strip. (In its temporary location the power strip is attached with velcro to the side of the Malm chest. It will be relocated to the back of the unit.) With the toggle switch mounted at the top it's a simple flip of the switch to manage the charging station.

Each drawer now holds its own collection of related gadgets and documentation. Phones, cameras, music players and gaming systems are no longer spread throughout the house. Narrow drawers at the top are
perfect for storing loose rechargeable batteries and even a 15" laptop.

Dual personalities: LEGO table on one side, work surface on the other

Eric was inspired to do a Lego hack of his own after being inspired by the Ikea Hacker Lego table.

He says, "I did not want a large table to take up space in my son's bedroom so I opted to build something that used absolutely no floor space. This Lego shelf serves a dual purpose. It is a Lego table on one side and a smooth work surface (to be used as a shelf, art table, etc.) when the table top is flipped over. It's capable of storing Lego's and takes up no floor space. The shelf/table top is held in place by two dowel pins. The dowel pins keep the shelf/table top from moving and sliding off of the Trofast wall unit yet allow the shelf/table top to be flipped over to either the Lego side or the smooth shelf side. This concept could also be scaled up using a larger freestanding Trofast unit and larger table top.

Lego surface

Smooth worktop surface

Materials:

(x1) Trofast wall storage unit
(x6) Trofast storage boxes
(x1) Leksvik shelf (46 7/8" x 11") or any shelf with similar dimensions that suites your personal taste
(x2) Lego X-large gray baseplate
(x1) Lego large green baseplate
(x2) Wooden dowel pins - available for free in the spare parts bins at Ikea's merchandise return area or as leftovers from other Ikea furniture
Contact adhesive - available at craft stores or your local hardware store

Build Instructions:

1. Assemble Trofast wall storage unit per Ikea instructions
2. Drill holes for dowel pins approx. 2.5" from rear of wall unit (where the wall units meets the wall when mounted)
    - Dowel pin holes should be sized so that the dowel pins fit snugly
    - Holes depth should be deep enough so that 1/2 of the dowel pin protrudes out of the top of the wall unit
3. Glue dowel pins into holes
4. Mount Trofast wall storage unit to the wall per Ikea instructions
5. Cut Leksvik shelf to desired length - I cut my shelf to 41" in length
    - Round the cut edge using either a sander or router
    - Re-stain the cut edge to match the original finish
6. Measure and drill two holes in the Leksvik shelf to accommodate the dowel pins
    - Drill the dowel pin holes slightly larger than the dowel pins so that there is some slack to allow the shelf to be easily placed onto the down pins
7. Measure and cut the Lego baseplates to desired size
8. Glue the Lego baseplates to one side of the Leksvik shelf
9. Place the Leksvik shelf onto the Trofast wall unit
10. Fill the bins with Lego's and put the bins into the wall unit
11. Let our kid(s) have fun!!!

See more of Eric's interchangeable Lego table.

Creating a DVD wall with lighting

I love what Eric did with the Anno Stra panel curtains. Indeed a bright spark! Lights between the DVD towers, who would have thought of that?

Eric shares:

A CD or DVD wall with lights made of:
6 Benno DVD towers

3 Anno Stra Panel curtains
5 Grundtal Spotlights (2 sets needed)
2 panels 250cm x 25cm (98" x 9.8") for top and bottom
2.5m (8.2') round wood (from a broomstick)

I cut the panel curtains on the long side to get 2 curtains out of 1.

Each curtain is now 23cm (9") large. I fixed the Benno DVD tower on the 2 long panels with 24cm (9.4") space in between for the curtains.

The spots are installed on the bottom panel between the DVD towers. I glued a piece of round wood at both ends of the curtains and fixed one end at the top panel. The wood at the lower end acts as a counterweight to keep the curtains tight.