Ivar cabinets mounted on wooden supports

Materials: Ivar

Description: I had a lot of Ivar cabinets assembled in the standard fashion, until one day one of the metal tabs that supports the cabinets gave way.

That's when I decided to mount the cabinets on simple wooden supports. I think it looks much neater. This also turned out to have the added advantage that the cabinets take up less horizontal space.

The stacked cabinets are held in place by dowels fitted in the holes that are already present in the top and bottom of the Ivar cabinets. Metal connector plates were also screwed on the back.

~ Eli, Belgium

Kitchen cabinet for the bathroom

Materials: Lillangen sink, Faktum wall cabinet

Description: I liked the small Lillangen sink for my small bathroom, but disliked the Lillangen cabinets; I feel they are of mediocre quality, ugly and too high for comfort.

So instead I got a 57 cm high, 60 cm wide Faktum wall cabinet with Abstrakt door and side panels and Capita feet. I put a leftover oak panel (treated with marine varnish) on top of the cabinet, cut a hole with my jigsaw, put the Lillangen sink on top, and caulked it with silicone.

Because the cabinet is wider than the sink I have room for stuff next to the sink, and the tablet's overhang keeps splashing water off the cabinet.

~ Eli, Belgium

Golden Gate Coffee Table

Materials: Lack coffee table

Description: Decided to hack my Lack coffee table after seeing a cool jukebox table in an art gallery that was _way_ out of my price range.

I used: Lack coffee table, contact paper from a local shop, and a wall decal of the Golden Gate bridge.

1. Distress the coffee table. This was a happy accident-- I first tried modding my table by covering it with contact paper for a couple weeks. When I decided I didn't like the contact paper and peeled it off, bits were left behind on the table leaving a cool distressed-wood effect.

2. Add the decal. In this case, I used a Golden Gate bridge art decal from Target-- you could also use a Blik sticker or any other sticker designed to go on walls.

3. Show off to your friends.

Simple hack, discovered half-by-accident, that converted my rather bland Lack table into a one-of-a-kind art object.

~ Nabil A, San Francisco

Effektiv Hallway Bench

Materials: Effektiv low add-on unit and shelf; Effektiv plinth; electric drill; Ritva cushions

Description: This was an unplanned, rather simple hack, so I didn't think to take pictures until after I put it together. I made a hallway bench from Effektiv parts, to coordinate with some other pieces I already own.

Instead of assembling the plinth on the base of the Effektiv cabinet, which would've made the bench too high to sit on comfortably, I drilled pilot holes in the top of the cabinet and mounted the plinth as shown. Two Ritva cushions finish the bench. It provides the perfect height and support for both me and my 6 foot, 280-pound husband, and holds up to 8 pairs of shoes.

~ Nanners

Multivar

Materials: Ivar chair, stretched to 48" with laminated pine board

Description: The idea behind the "multivar" was to create a multi purpose piece using the simple and inexpensive Ivar dining chair side frames. I have seen the Ivar converted into bench already on this site but this is a variation on that. The final dimensions were 48" wide x 18" deep x 28" tall.

My end use was as a tv/media stand but this would also work as entry way bench or low console table with display area or book storage.

The cost was approx. $50 ($20 for the Ivar and $30 in Pine boards). It was fairly simple to to make and took about 2 hours to build. The pine boards were 48" long from the hardware store which dictated the width. They were 24" wide and had to be ripped down to 15.5" (for seat) and 13.5" (for bottom shelf). The remaining pieces were cut int 2.5" (approx.) for the 3 horizontal cross members. The ends of the cross members had tenons cut onto them to fit into the side supports. This was done by tracing the factory ones against the new boards and trimmed with a table saw. This could be done with coping saw too.

Note: the new tenons do not have to be perfect as long as they fit into slot. Carpenter glue was used in the joints along with the stock hardware although the glue was not required. The addition of the lower shelf added a lot of extra bracing and makes the piece very rigid. I left the finish natural with no stain or clear varnish as I prefer the natural look and find it hard to do a good finish on pine. Painting it would probably be best.

Notice that the back rest was cut down in height. I did this for several reasons although it could be left the orig. height too. Firstly I wanted it to be below my window but also found that the height looked awkward and really was not comfortable with the thin flat slats across the back. Here it retains the look of a bench but the back rest really serves no purpose. If you were to use this as a dedicated bench I would increase the width of the 2 back slats to 4" or 4.5" wide and add a cushion or upholstery to them.

See more of the Multivar chair tv bench.

~ Ron Weaver, Sacramento, CA

Jumbo Jerker upgrade

Materials: Jerker desk

Description: My intense hate of exposed cords and wires drove me to find a tidier workspace solution.

I started with the basic "Jerker" workstation and took the desk surface panel and cut it to fit under the desk to hide cords and power strips and provide a place to mount my center surround speaker.

I used the accessory shelf extension arms to mount my surround speakers instead.

The top shallow shelf of my system provides resting space to my 42" TV/PC monitor. The independent monitor stand solution is great for stability as my constant accidental bumps of the desk don't shake the TV.

My large 6'x3' desk surface is an Ikea counter top with legs mounted to it.

And the crowning feature of this workstation is the rear mounted LED strip lights mounted on the backside of the vertical and horizontal rails of the Jerker system. They add lots of mode to the room and ease eye strain when in the otherwise dark room.

~ Zane, Ohio

Word Clock

Materials: Ribba-Frame, ATmega328-MCU

Description: This hack modifies a Ribba-Frame into a word-clock that displays the time in words.

1. Drill holes in the back-plate of the Ribba-Frame for the LEDs.

2. Solder the LEDs to a grid where anodes and cathodes get shared in each row and column.

3. Make a proof-of-concept on a breadboard. The rows and columns get multiplexed with shift-registers (instructions can easily be found with Google). The 'heart' of the clock is a ATmega328-MCU. Time is kept by a real-time-clock and updated by the german DCF77-radio-signal.

4. Solder your working clock on circuit boards, place them in the frame, connect the LEDs.

5. Hang it on the wall!

See more of the Ribba word clock.

~ Christian, Germany