When we finally moved into a flat that would be our home for at least 5 years, we wanted to have some unique, quality furniture. It was the old story – IKEA had done the trick when we were young, skint, and in temporary dwellings but we wanted to move on a bit. However, finding affordable solid wood shelving that would meet our book and media storage needs, be flexible, and be transported and installed with relative ease was perhaps unsurprisingly difficult. My dad hit on the Ivar units at IKEA, since they are solid pine and all ready to be stained/painted. You buy the frames and shelves individually, so it’s easy to buy exactly what you want.
IKEA offers Ivar in three heights, two depths, and two shelf lengths. We bought two of the mid-height (70”) shallow units (12″ deep) with 6 shelves for each, and two of the lowest height (49”), deep units (20″ deep) with three shelves for each. We got the longer of the two choices of shelves. We had decided to put the two short, deep units beside each other, so we only needed three of that size leg/frame. The Ivar legs have two rows of holes for pegs, meaning one leg frame can support shelves on each side.
We cut the deep short units down by about 20″, so that the TV sitting on the top shelf would be an appropriate height (28”), and we cut the back legs off about 12″ from the ground so that they would sit nicely over our heating baseboards.
We painted the legs/frames white, and stained the shelves an oak-ish colour – I was inspired by a lot of pieces on Ikea Hackers that had mixed wood tones with white frames for a mid-century vibe. They only required one coat, which was a bonus, and it went on very easily. We used a tin and a half of ‘Early American’ stain from Home Depot to do all the shelves and the remnants of a can of white paint for the legs.
We screwed the leg units into the wall which gives them a nice, stable anchoring, while having the front feet on the floor means they aren’t putting all the weight on the wall. We also put a similarly modified short deep unit in our bedroom desk area. Once we have sorted out our media as we want it, we’ll probably put half-moon cuts in the shelves to thread cords through. We already had the 4 Ikea storage boxes, and they fit under perfectly.
We are incredibly pleased with the results, and it ended up cheaper (and easier) than even just buying lumber to fully DIY it.
Have you ever imagined how it would look when the award winning speaker – Harmon Kardon Soundstick III meets the most affordable NOT floor uplighter which cost 30 bucks? Here you go…
If you’re like me I was always looking to find the best solution for a charging station for all the gadgets and tools around the house.
I would like to share with you & the world my version of a simple charging station that is low cost and simple to make. No drilling required, easy to put on any surface & most important “instant” to make.
I present to you SAMLA Instant charging station.
Hope you’ll like it
Step 1: Requirements
Things you’ll need to make your instant charging station:- SAMLA BOX
- SAMLA INSERT
- Power strip
- Velcro squares
After inserting the power strip cable through the handle stick 2 Velcro squares on the back of your Power strip.(Hint: use both the male & female velcro so you’ll have double sticky back that will be helpful for the next step)
I had been looking, browsing, trying to find a media console was reasonably priced. Everything was too expensive for what we can afford right now, but I seemed to be gravitating to things like this:
I finally found some inspiration on Centsational Girl’s blog, when she posted about IKEA’s Vittsjo’s line that can be spray painted and morphed in so many ways. She found pictures from West Elm, Ballard Designs, etc. and showed that the Vittsjo’s pieces could be used to make most all of them.
Her images sat in my Pinterest board for a while, until I had time to scope out the Vittsjo’s line and figured out what I would need. Then, it was time for a trip to IKEA and Home Depot! Luckily, my husband was willing to make the trip to Home Depot with me, to pick out the type of wood and size of boards that we would need to be most cost effective and we wouldn’t have too many wasted scraps. We ended up buying the wood that comes on the shelf like this:
All the DIY projects at our house, end up becoming my husband’s project for at least some or most of the project life. I really try to do it myself, but I seem to always be the idea girl. This time, I assembled all three Vittsjo pieces myself and played around with stacking them in different ways, to see which layout I liked the best. I only needed the metal frames for this project, so I stacked the glass, that comes with each unit, together under our bed.
We decided to make one complete table first to see how would look. This way we could get the stain the exact color we wanted and figure out exactly what would be needed to complete the project, before we got to assembling the entire thing. He cut the board for the new table top, stained, and assembled the board to the metal. He was able to use the pre-drilled holes in the metal frame to attach the board to the frame, but needed a bit longer screws.
Using the pre-drilled holes to attach the metal frame to the wood.
When we liked the “finished” product, so we got to work on the rest of the wood and pieces. I conditioned (using the method that Young House Love recommended), stained, and sealed all the wood tops.
The husband figured out which metal pieces would stay and which would need to be cut out. The tricky part was make sure it was still stable, as when some of the pieces were removed, it seemed it would be wobbly.
What helped to make everything more secure was using L brackets to attach each piece together. So one L bracket would be drilled into the wood itself and also into the metal frame. Most were placed in the back of the media console, so when the baskets would be in, they wouldn’t be visible.
When it was all said and done, here is the new media console, in place in our family room. It holds our XBOX, the sound bar, our awesome TV antenna, record player, my son’s DVDs, some of our favorite or need to watch soon DVDs, and our Nintendo (yes, the original one) and its games.
In the end, between the wood, the stain and conditioner, and the shelves, I would say we spent about $250 on this media console. Not bad considering the price of the others I was looking at!
The only thing that would need to be fixed is the feet of the console. They are rough unfinished edges from the cutting off of the metal, so that is something you could make sure to complete or we just have little bits of rag under there now protecting the carpet. Hope you like our IKEA hack using the Vittsjo line.
I bought 5 x MALM and cut the side panels of the MALM from 3-drawer height to 2-drawer height. I then assembled it as usual, as a 2-drawer dresser. And lined them all in a row.
I also added a strip of LED lighting under the top panel.
I used AutoCad to design a set of adjustable shelves, drawers, and a slide out spinning lazy susan storage unit to better utilize the storage space in my Kallax Shelf unit. I then laser cut the parts out of 1/4″ or 1/8″ thick Baltic Birch. The adjustable shelves and drawers don’t have any hardware and require no tools for assembly.
For hardware on the lazy susan I used a pair of 14″ full extension bottom mount drawer glides. I also combined a 6″ long by 3/8″ diameter carriage bolt with a 6″ long by 3/8″ diameter hex head bolt by using a coupler to act as the center spindle. A few washers and bolts were used to secure the unit to the spindle. A few screws and some double stick mounting tape let me attach the drawer glides to the Kallax shelf unit.
- Expedit (or Kallax);
- 2 Expedit insert with 2 drawers (or Kallax);
- 2 Expedit insert with door (or Kallax);
- 4 Gladsax;
- 4 shelf insert Variera;
- Hinges, screws and lock nuts to fix the Gladsax;
- Wooden stick to make the door knobs;
- Double-sided tape (strong) to attach the door knobs to the Gladsax;
- White acrylic;
- The Expedit drawers and doors’ cardboard packaging;
- Cutter, pencil, ruler and a lot of patience!
Step 1 – Assemble the EXPEDIT
I started with the easy part: put together the drawers and doors in the Expedit.
Step 2 – Turn GLADSAX frames into glass doors
The challenge was to transform the Gladsax into a glass door, to get a sort of display cabinet. (Originally, the Gladsax is born to be a frame for an LP cover)
First of all, I cut the hinge of the right size, in order to fit it to the height of the Gladsax.
Then I fixed one side of the hinge to the Gladsax with two screws and two lock nuts. And I fixed the other side of the hinge to the Expedit, with some wood screws.
For the door knobs, I bought a cylindrical stick of wood, with a diameter of about 1 cm. and I cut four pieces.
I painted the door knobs in white and I fixed them on the Gladsax with strong double-sided tape.
Fix the hinges onto the Expedit and then the plates onto the hinges
Take your vinyls out of the cover. Put the cover on the front side of the plate
Pull an outer sleeve over plate and cover
I made this Media/HiFi Storage Furniture using an IKEA Bestå and some furniture board.
I wanted this furniture to have a natural and basic yet modern look. The furniture board was therefore kept untreated (no oil, wax or paint, raw edges and some irregularities). The fact that the board pieces were put together with slight sloppiness (a millimeter mismatch or so) adds to the simplicity of the furniture. The Bestå from IKEA make up for the modern part of the creation.
If a tighter and smoother look is preferred, this would probably not cause a lot more work since furniture board (which in my case was made from spruce), is very easy to work with.
A close up showing the finish of the furniture with the untreated furniture board. Notice that the doors sit a bit “deeper” than the wood material surrounding them. This accentuates the wood in a nice way and creates a very distinct frame around the doors.
The width of the board I used was 50 cm (the Bestå is 40 cm deep). The choice of a wider board makes the furniture deeper, which in my case was needed in order to make room for a large amplifier.
I let the top board overlaps the sides (making them as long as the Bestå plus two times the thickness of the furniture board). The same goes for the bottom part of the furniture. Some smaller pieces of wood, like the small one on top of the furniture (in the picture above) were cut out from the original board (2.5 x 0.5 m, 2 pcs). These were used in order to make brackets for the furniture (seen in pictures above).
Thats it folks! Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
I’m not sure if this has been done before, I came up with this idea myself out of necessity and it is so simple I am surprised IKEA have not made this themselves!
The Lack TV bench is totally useless for people with a full sized home theatre receiver, the shelf is too low to fit much of anything and the TV is then also in a low viewing position. I was using the Lack coffee table and Side table placed side-by-side, but it didn’t look very nice. It occurred to me that the dimensions of the Lack series were somehow related, so I did a little research and created this hack.
I used the wheels and side pieces from the Lack Side Table and the top and bottom of the Lack TV Bench. To assemble I just drilled new holes for the dowels and the Ikea type fixings.
Starting with a base of different sizes of kitchen wall cabinets METOD with high gloss white doors.
Doors are open and close with UTRUSTA push openers.
On top we have a KARLBY oak worktop with a KALLAX in gloss white where I removed the bottom to attach the KALLAX to the worktop. I saw the KARLBY worktop to the length and width of the cabinets. On the left (higher cabinet) it’s not 100% ready, there will be also a piece of the oak worktop.
I also attached some legs under the wall cabinets and put some DIODER LED flexible –multicolour lighting strip at the bottom of the METHOD cabinets (between the legs)
I just moved to a new condo and wanted a standout piece in my living room with a dramatic walnut face. But everything I liked was in the $4,000+ range! Inspired by other Kallax hacks I decided to make my own.
The next step was to located the walnut plywood. I’ve researched my area and every supplier only sold 8′x4′ sheets so I had to buy a whole sheet for $109. While at the lumber shop I had them cut out two doors from a continuos piece where I liked the wood grain:
I then installed the hinges and made sure that the doors worked. I had the doors cut a bit larger so it took some shaving off of the edges and sanding so that the doors can function. It is important to shave off any extra area from the OUTSIDE edges. This will prevent from ruining the continuation of the wood grain between the two doors.
Now it’s time to stain. I took off the two doors and the four legs and stained them with Pure Rubio Monocoat Oil Plus which leaves a nice finish without that fake shine. You should stain the backside first just to make sure you like the finish.
The process was quite straightforward, cutting the wood to length correctly to make 250cm long TV unit with 2x 120cm BESTÅ Frames together, and a single unit that could be easily repositioned around the room.
The wood was laid flat, and the BESTÅ Unit tops glued and screwed to the wood. The side pieces needed securing well because they would take the weight of the unit. Adjustable legs were added at the centre-rear to take some extra weight in the middle of the longer uint.
The only tricky part was making it upside down and making sure all pieces could be taken apart. It would otherwise be too heavy to manoeuvre into the house.
How often have you had this dilemma – the desire to add more gadgets to your home but not wanting to compromise on aesthetics? The lady-boss would almost always agree to having wireless mirroring of her instagram gems on the big screen and fuller sounds when watching her favourite movies. But she would cringe at the thought of having extra geeky-looking boxes and wires dangling all over.
Here’s how we did away with all those cables with the UPPLEVA TV mount.
In our new house, we wanted a TV unit that could be used to store books/ children’s games and also hide media devices. Instead of buying a huge and expensive thing, we thought of IKEA hacking…
Materials:
BESTÅ 60x40x192 cm : 1x
BESTÅ 60x40x38 cm : 1x
BESTÅ 120x40x38 cm : 4x
Some doors
We started to build a metal frame to support all units but also integrate all of them ‘into’ the finished wall.
Still need to put some doors (when the child will need less place Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. ), and some lighting either around the units or under the upper ones.
Ikea items used:
2 x Lack Side Table (€25,- each)
1 x Lack TV Bench (€50, -)
1 x Old Ikea Bookcase (75cm wide, 180 high, 30 deep)
2 x Virserum (€10,- each)
12 x Ekby Stodis (€0,40 each)
Other items:
1 x Particle Board – Black (€18,-)
Overall estimated cost: €200,-
Measurements: 148cm wide, 190 cm high, 55 (bottom) and 26 cm (top) deep.
Hello! After discovering this site when figuring someone must have come up with the idea to modify IKEA furniture a while back when planning this project, I figure it is time to upload the results.
I was thinking of a way to maximize the use of floor space in my girlfriend’s room. Now, she has a keyboard/piano, a love for books and also loves to play games. However, this was all taking up a lot of space. So after seeing this hack, I thought of a way to make it work. A slide out piano, a TV, plus books and consoles plus extra storage in cabinets all in one. Plus, it also functions as a desk!I assembled the LACK Side Tables (on wheels) as normal, only flipped one side, so the outside has the veneer. I put them on their side. For doors I used the photo frames, hanging on piano hinges. This gives the added benefit that you can change and have whatever you want behind the glass in the door. I painted the passepartout black, so it would fit in more.
I then assembled the top and side parts of the Lack TV Bench. I left out the legs (these will be used to support the middle of the TV bench further), and screwed the bottom on to the Side Tables with the included screws. Currently, the top and bottom part of the TV Bench are held together using only dowels. This will be improved in the future, when we have the rails in.
On top of that, I used the bookcase she already had (which is long discontinued, comparable to BILLY with more deco). I had the pieces sawn at my local do-it-yourself store.
I used the LACK floating shelves (110cm) at either end to keep the fat wood look. To close it off on top I used some particle board I also bought at the same DIY store.
I then used the EKBY STODIS console to attach the floating shelves to the particle board of the bookcase. I reattached the old backing on the bookcase (the bookcase was still the same width), and screwed on a board over the entire width of the cabinet to attach the desk part to the bookcase part. One more board was screwed behind the backing to attach the tv to (we had it mounted to the wall before).
We are both very happy with the result and are currently working on a second project (desk). Maybe more in the works Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. . Thanks for the inspiration!
As I got a new surround system for Christmas, including a very big AV-Receiver (more than 15 centimeters high), I was searching for new TV furniture to fit all of our stuff in. Before I had to change the setting of my media devices I just had two white MALM chests with three drawers and a RAMSÄTRA media shelf for a Blu-ray player, a Playstation 4 and the Apple TV.
While I was searching for a new furniture I always just found lowboards, which I don’t really like, because the TV is situated too low. Highboards that I found had no open place for the media devices. So I decided to hack the already existing MALM chests as follows:
1. I removed the top drawer. This is really easy, just pull out the drawer as long as you can then raise it while you pull it furthermore. At the end you have to lower it to get it out of the frame. After I pulled out the drawer I drilled out the drawer runners inside the MALM.
Measurements I took are 76,7x45cm. There is no fitting shelf you can buy at IKEA, so I decided to go to a nearby hardware store (For the Germans: Bauhaus). There I could buy a 80x50x1,6cm shelf in the same white color for about 4,50€. Nice thing is that the hardware store adjusted the shelf to the right measurements without any extra costs. I also bought shelf pins for the new shelf. You need them, because the MALM only has a small piece of wood in the front where you can place the new shelf on. So you will need to drill the holes inside of the sides of the MALM for the pins. The costs of the shelf pins were about 2,50€.
3. To attach the shelf evenly, I drew a line in the height of the piece of wood, which is dividing the particular drawers. Then I drilled the holes for the holders (HACK inside the HACK: Place some tape at the point of the drill, where you will reach the length of the holder). After I put the holder inside the holes, the shelf fitted perfectly in the place the drawer left. Another nice thing about the MALM is that it already has some holes inside the higher edges. They were originally to attach the chest to the wall, but I now use it, to fit the cables threw the backside of the MALM.
If you already are using the MALM as TV furniture, you just have to invest about 7€ for a new shelf inside the chest. You can also make it more beautiful, if you color the inner backside of the MALM with white color or if you laminate the shelf together with the MALM.
List of items I used:
- 2x IKEA MALM chest of three drawers, white
- 2x shelf in white (bought at the hardware store) 76,7x45cm
- 8x holders for the shelf (4 per each commode)
Da ich zu Weihnachten ein neues Surroundsystem bekommen habe, welches einen ziemlich großen Verstärker hat, musste ich mir ein neues Möbelstück für meinen Fernseher und die angeschlossenen Geräte suchen. Vorher stand mein Fernseher auf zwei MALM Kommoden mit dem RAMSÄTRA Aufsatz, in welchem ein Blurayplayer, eine Playstation 4 und ein Apple TV Platz fanden. Ein Lowboard kam für mich nicht infrage, da mir die Höhe des Fernsehers dann nicht gefällt. Angebotene Highboards hingegen haben meist nur Schubladen und keine Fächer für Mediageräte.
Daher habe ich mich entschieden meine MALM Kommoden wie folgt umzubauen:
1. Ich habe die oberste Schublade abmontiert. Das geht relative einfach: Zuerst zieht man sie so weit wie möglich raus. Am Ende muss man zuerst die Schublade etwas anheben und danach etwas senken, um sie weiter rausziehen zu können. Als die Schublade draußen war, habe ich die Halterung der Schublade im Malm selbst entfernt.
2. Dort wo die Schublade war, habe ich die Maße für einen neuen Regalboden genommen. Die Maße sind 76,7x45cm. Da es keinen passenden Regalboden bei IKEA gibt, bin ich zum Baumarkt (Bauhaus) gefahren und habe mir einen 80x50x1,6 cm Regalboden gekauft, welchen ich kostenlos vor Ort auf die gewünschten Maße zusägen lassen konnte. Zudem habe ich im Baumarkt 8 Regalbodenhalter gekauft. Beides zusammen hat pro Kommode ungefähr 7€ gekostet.
3. Um den Regalboden anzubringen, musste ich eine Linie auf Höhe der Holzleiste ziehen, welche die einzelnen Schubladen im MALM trennt. Auf der Linie habe ich pro Seite zwei Löcher für die Regalbodenhalter gebohrt (Tipp: Ein Stück Tape an der Stelle am Bohrer anbringen, wo man die Tiefe des gewünschten Loches erreicht hat, um nicht zu weit zu bohren). Wenn man dann die Halter drin hat, passt der Regalboden perfekt in die Lücke im MALM.
Wenn man bereits eine MALM Kommode hat, muss man nur 7€ für einen neuen Regalboden investieren. Man kann das ganze auch noch aufhübschen, indem man die Innenseite der Rückwand weiß streicht oder die Kanten des Regalbodens mit der Kommode zusammen laminiert.
Einkaufsliste:
- 2x IKEA MALM Kommode mit drei Schubladen, weiß
- 2x Regalboden in weiß (Baumarkt) 76,7x45cm
- 8x Regalbodenhalter (4 für jede Kommode).
1 x Besta fully extending drawer without front (which I don’t think Ikea does any longer, very sadly)
Other items used:
3.5cm x 0.5cm wood battens
screws
limewash
In an earlier hack, unworthy of posting, I used to keep a printer this way in a Besta unit under a desk, but when the printer needed to be accessed, pulling on the bottom of the drawer meant the drawer bottom slid partly out of its slots: it needs a drawer front to keep it in place.
I’ve reorganised my space and now stack some short Besta units into a tall column and the printer is at chest height. Adding three strips of batten to the edges of the drawer keeps the drawer bottom in place and gives a place to grip for pulling the printer out to access the scan and copy plate. It’s all recessed in the cabinet so that I can also put a door on it (which I’ve not done yet).
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
I cut a hole in the back panel of the Besta unit to feed the power cable through. There’s also a half shelf up there that holds an extension lead and a battery charger.
The more I hack and look at lots of other lovely, clever hacks, the better I get at it!
Apologies for the quality of the photos: there isn’t much light in this corner of the room.
I had this Leksvik cabinet for years and had painted it cream at one point. But the shallow upper cabinet wasn’t very useful for us, so it just basically sat around sad and lonely in our family room for a long time. But when we decided to put a TV in that room, I finally found a purpose for it!
The transformation was super-simple:
1) I removed the upper cabinet doors and the shelf inside.
2) I painted the whole thing black.
3) I spray painted the hardware gold.
