Good looking banquette from the Akurum

Sorry for the spotty posting. Have been running around like a headless chicken - work, some personal projects, helping a friend set up his fish farm. It's all good, but leaves me a little tired and sleep deprived. Hope to get back on speed with hacks today onwards.

These 2 are from Peggy who lives in Switzerland. She says, "When I have some spare time, I try to think about good solutions to my everyday life problems around the house, and when I have even more time... then I realise the projects (and sometimes, it takes weeks to get it done even if it would be a matter of a few hours to do it with nothing and no one coming in between! (I have 3 kids!)

Here's one completed kitchen bench made with Faktum (called Akurum in the US) horizontal wall cabinets and Capita legs on which I fitted a MDF top (cut - paint - screw on).

We sat directly on the cabinets (not so good looking and a bit narrow) for about two weeks because it took me some time to get the MDF. It was fine for the kids... but it started creaking a bit under 'adult' weight! It was about time I finished! To make it more comfortable, the MDF is 50cm (cabinets are 40cm). I attached a long 3cm x 6cm piece of wood to the walls to support the MDF at the back. In the cabinets, I store stuff that I don't need on an everyday basis.

The other hack is an 'olde hack' or 'outdated hack' 'cause the piece is not available anymore (and that's too bad really! I think it was called Blista)... But I think it still illustrates an very important mathematical reality:

CD case = toilet paper roll! :o) It's good to keep that in mind for future hacks!"
 

Umanonion's hacks

Umanonion sends me 2 hacks. I really like the checkerboard look on the armchair (name forgotten).

Umanonion says, "The chair was covered in a plain silver/grey fabric which I removed and replaced with black nylon for the seat and then wove black and white 4" wide strips of elastic. The white strips are closed loops as they just slid over the frame. The black strips have velcro closings at the bottom.

The other is a set of the Miriam lights (link no longer available) that came with a basic plastic sheet with the image of a flower, leaf or similar motif (yawn). I had squares of 1/4" thick plexi cut, covered them with white rice paper, and then floated squares of tin centered on the plexi (I used glue sticks cut to about 1/3" long to float the tin. On top of that, again using a piece of glue stick I put test tubes, held by a piece of wire.

In the test tubes I would put either real roses or ones that I made from ribbon and floral wire and tape. I also wired the units so that they worked together in a checkerboard pattern and put them on 2 dimmer switches. (I had removed the individual power switches from the lights before hanging them as they got in the way.)"

Love is Blund

Cute overload ahead!

Mette felt in love with Blund at first sight. She says "He just looked at me ... I looked at him... and took him home.... and promised myself to make as many jumpers and trousers as possible for MY BLUND and all the 'Blund Brothers'!

Apparently Blund has quite a few fans and some pretty cool clothes. Go see Blund dressed to the nines on the Blund Group. 

Mette's basic knitting pattern is available here, which includes a T-shirt, a vest, a pair of trousers, and a little rucksack for Blund. Awwww....

Updated! February 25, 2009
Nicole's Blund Bear

She says, "I was so excited to see your post on the hacked Blund bears! I've attached a photo of two bears that I modified for my nephews Dean (D) and Quinn (Q). They loved them."

Narrow shoe cabinet for small landing strip

Idoia found the Sandnes shoe cabinet with 4 compartments (pix, right) too large for her space and decided to hack it into half.

She says, "It is the Sandnes shoe cabinet with 4 comparment (37 3/4 x 35 3/8") [link to a vertical version, which hey, could have saved Idoia the hacking!] but it was too big for my hall entry (if you can call this small space a hall. I cut it, painted it in black and made a little decoupage on the corners so it looked kind of old."

Magiker decoupaged coffee table

Monica got a Magiker coffee table (link no longer available) but was soon sick of people seeing all her junk under the glass. So she took old CD covers and pasted them on the top of the glass. Then mod podged over on top of that, and a polyurethane spray on top of that!

Hackeas: Simple hacks

More hackeas - quick hack jobs you can do easily.

Panel headboard
Markus says, "Once again the 'as-is' territory pulled through! I came across this $.99 natural Anno panel curtain. I love the material and knew I could find something useful to do with it. I cut it in half and made two panels with it. Instead of using them as curtains over a window I thought they would look nice just hanging up on the wall above the headboard. It really adds a nice touch to the room and makes the room feel a little taller.

Simple sideboard
Stephen says, "I bought some pieces of the Ikea Bonde system. When I 'reorganized' my living room, I happened to have a shelf unit with glass door leftover. I wanted a side board at the wall behind the table. So I thought, 'Why not make use of the shelf?' Two brackets, some screws and hanging the shelf sideways did the trick. The hinges keep the door shut.

See more of his bonde sideboard.

Simple nightstand
Stephen says, "I like this nightstand I made better than any stock Ikea ones. It's two simple elements: a Bravad approximately-cube-shaped wall shelf with Capita 6" legs. If you use the stock screws with the legs, you need washers or something similar to keep the screws from going all the way through the wood.

It's probably the easiest hack imaginable, but the resulting product is pretty great."

Simple knife stash away
With a circular saw, Tricia cuts a slot into her Bekvam trolley and voila! You have a knife slot.

Simple coffee table
Martin says, "I have a Lack TV unit which I now use as a coffee table. I did not attach the original legs but screwed on some casters (height about 1 inch). And that's it.

Magnetic photo gallery
Maria began looking for interesting, easy-to-make creative solutions when she started decorating her home. Here she shares two of them with us. She says, "I used Gruntal magnetic containers to create my photo gallery and customized fridge magnet. The background for the old photos is coloured paper."

Quick wall decor
Amy says, "I covered five Malma mirror frames with 1" square and 1" x 2" ceramic tiles. I attached the tiles with Elmer's glue after layout. "

Kid's art display
Chica and Jo uses the Jabba laundry holder (hey, this hanger is becoming popular!) as a piece to display art in a child's room!

Pink trash can
Jennifer, "So...I had this lamp shade from Ikea that did not fit any lamps in my house. I loved the color and shape so I just kept it in my 'I will do something with that later' pile. I also had this random piece of wood that I had been practicing a painting technique on. After recently rearranging my studio a little and the only room for my trash can was on the other side of the room... I knew I needed to fix that problem. I combined all three to make my 'pink trash' can.

I ripped out the guts of the lampshade, turned it over and glued it to the wood base. I wanted to cover the seam, so I added a cute pink ribbon around the base to hide the glue. I then was left with this ribbon seam because I had not planned it out properly. I grabbed a bright green pipe cleaner and made it into a little pipe cleaner rosette and glued it on. My partner thinks it looks like a Caterpillar that has crawled up to sleep. Go figure... I finally decided it needed something on it, so I came up with the cute play on words of 'pink trash'. I can now put trash in my desktop trashcan and dump it into the larger trashcan when it gets full."

See more of the pink trashcan.

Toy storage cabinet

Usually Pax wardrobes are matched with Komplement interior fittings. Andy discovered that the Trofast is pretty snug too. 

Andy writes, "I wanted to share how we have used some Ikea furniture as toy storage. It's not really a hack as we haven't changed anything but it's more of a way of using a piece of furniture differently.

We wanted some way of storing our kids toys so that they were neat, easily accessible and easy to sort out. I had always liked the look of the Trofast storage range but the size of the units is pretty small. So I decided to use a Pax wardrobe and line it with the plastic buckets instead. I wanted to put 10 buckets in it but due to the placement of door hinges I could only fit eight of them. I don't have lids on the buckets so that I can fit more in. I made some labels on my computer for the outside of the buckets."

More toy storage photos here.