Zig-Zag Lack Shelf Bookcase

Materials: Black Lack shelves in 43" and 12"

Description: I found this beautiful bookcase online for over $1100 and decided to recreate it. We started with 5 of the black Lack shelves in the 43" and 4 of the 12" length (you won't need the metal piece that comes on the back). The chrome posts are actually square hollow towel bars from a big box store. We chose to add a bottom shelf that was not in the inspiration piece.

Steps to build:
1. Starting from the bottom, we drilled 3 holes and inserted wooden pegs and glue to attach the 12" shelf vertically to the left edge of the long shelf.
2. We drilled 2 holes 8" away from the right edge. We cut the towel bars to the exact height of the 12" Lack. We used a square wooden dowel a little longer than that and sanded the ends to be rounded. We stuck the rounded ends in the holes with glue and slid the towel bar over the dowel.

3. Repeat steps to the top.
4. Attach L brackets to the back to give extra support to the corners.
5. The most important part is to measure, measure, measure!

~ Laurie, Cedar Park, TX

Billy Golden Hack

Materials: Billy, curtain, gold paint

Description: Put a lace curtain on the back panel, spray with gold paint. You can also colour the frame of each shelf.

~ Cam

Bottom-up Billy

Materials: BILLY height extension unit, BILLY wall shelf, veneer strips, stain

Description: I needed horizontal wall cabinets that would run the length of the wall and give me all the space I wanted without compromising on style. So I took a few store-bought IKEA items and turned them into a one-of-a-kind fully customized shelf unit.

For the most part, the 2 BILLY wall shelf units worked very well with the space. However there's only one option available to buy and that's the 3-shelf option (6 shelves in total). I wanted at least one more shelf to really take advantage of the whole length of the wall.

What I like best about furniture stores like IKEA is that everything's out in the open - you can find inspiration everywhere. The BILLY height extension unit caught my eye because it was the exact same size as one of the wall shelves - only without a bottom.

The first step was taking out the shelf partition and turning the extension unit upside down. I drilled in four holes for the shelf support pins so that the shelf could rest on top of them at the same height as the wall units - effectively creating another box/shelf unit that I could attach to my BILLY wall shelves.

I ironed veneer strips over the unfinished bottom edges and stained them to match the colour of the shelves.

After that was done, I drilled holes into the newly constructed unit - similar to the ones that the BILLY wall shelf unit already had - and attached everything to the wall.

Finally, I mixed it up with both glass and wooden shelves and doors to tie it all together into a fabulous and functional wall unit. The "bottom-up Billy" is the one in the middle (the one with the Japanese doll).

See more of the bottom up Billy.

~ Dana M, Vancouver, Canada

LACK Shoe Unit

Materials: LACK TV Unit, brackets, screws, anchor bolts, buzz or jig saw

Description: I had two black LACK TV units in my living room for a couple of years, when I decided to go for a completely new media rack.

So I decided to re-use one of the LACK TV Units for a shoe shelf mounted to a wall in the hallway, as the shoes piled up in some corner quite often ;)

I removed the legs of the old LACK TV Unit in the first step. As my LACK was already assembled, I just used some brute force to remove the legs (rotate leg to the left until it breaks. It will break quite easy) and then cut off the leftover metal-screw. You could consider to cut or leave the screws before assembling, if you're not going to use an already assembled LACK TV Unit as I did.

Then I used a buzz saw to cut my LACK TV unit into halves. I didn't saw in the middle of the unit, as there were metal bolts! So I made one shelf a bit deeper (2-3cm) which makes an even more unique look... but it's hard to notice the difference of the two parts if you don't know that one is a bit deeper.

I then mounted some brackets to the sliced up inner side of the shelf and mounted them to my wall. I pre-drilled small holes into the wood, before putting the screws in place to prevent the wood from cracking up. I would also recommend to put some leftover wood plank into the empty parts of the LACK corpus, so the screws are mounted safely and not just into some paper that is inside the LACK TV Unit.

Have fun re-using your LACK TV Units as well! =)

See more of the Lack shoe rack.

~ Jens, Stuttgart, Germany

Everything but the kitchen sink desk

Materials: Vika Kaj adjustable legs, Ikea hollow core desktop

Description: I moved in to an old storefront and I needed a kitchen sink counter surround fast and cheap. I ran out to Ikea just before closing to buy a counter top and when I got there I was told ikea had no counter tops left. A fire had destroyed a warehouse and there were none available for love or money. So instead I bought some Vika Kaj adjustable legs and went home to poke around in the garage. There I found an old hollow core Ikea desktop. Since what I needed didn't have to last forever, I cut a hole in the desktop for the sink. Then I polyurathaned it, set the sink in, attached the legs, re-attached the plumbing and caulked.

As you can see from the photo, I needed adjustable legs because the sink is located above a narrow lip of concrete.

~ anne, Los Angeles

Huge Expedit Wall

Materials: Expedit 4x4. Expedit 4x2, Expedit 5x5 (chopped up), you need normal assembly tools, a drill, hammer, circular saw and some guts

Description: We decided on a big storage wall for our children's play-room (and guestroom). After putting two Expedits (4x4 and 4x2) on top of each other we still had a lot of "lost space" on top and on the sides of the case. After watching some hacks on this site we decided to go for it.

We purchased a (used) 5x5 Expedit (for 20 Euros!) just to get the material to complete the hack.


This hack did require some serious skills, especially because on the right side of the case the wall/roof is tilted, and we wanted to make a perfect fit.

I watched this hack and took some of the techniques there to get rid of the double big outside frames when stacked. Stacking two Expedits will give you a double frame on the stacked sides, and we didn't like that. Now we have only single frames, as you can see on the picture.

After that is was measuring sawing and drilling. Some useful tips you find on this one as well. Like making a mask to drill the holes exactly where they need to be. We raised the case 12 cm by putting a wooden framework under it, so the case seems to hover a bit, which is nice, and now we could extend it over the door as well. Sawing the big frames requires some determination and a good circular saw. But it actually is quite easy. The frames are hollow, so you have to glue some solid wood in the ends to make it strong and after that you can just attach it with wooden dowels/pins, like the ones delivered with the bookcase.

Remember to attach the case firmly on the wall, you don't want it to fall over, especially with your kids climbing in it! ;-) Anyway, because the ideas and inspiration to start the hack come from watching some of the stuff on this site, I decided to return some and put the result on IKEA hacks as well. Have fun and take care.

~ Jelle, The Netherlands

Ikea Skurar plant pots as lamp shades

Materials: 3 Skurar plant pots, old lamp, power drill

Description: One day coming home I spotted a lamp next to garbage containers. I saw potential in it so I brought it home to see if it actually functioned. It did, so I started thinking what to do with it.

The glass shades were broken and ugly so I needed to find something else to replace them.

I came across Skurar white metal flowerpots in Ikea and I realized that they'd make excellent shades for the lamp if turned upside down. They have a pretty lace pattern in them.

I drilled holes sized to match the lamp and attached them to the lamp.

This was very easy to do and looks great!

See more of the Skurar plant pot lamp shades.

~ Minni S., Finland