Materials: BENNO DVD tower

Description: We cut down an Ikea DVD tower and used it as a filler for wine display in our kitchen! The kitchen is also Ikea but when we had an odd space left at the end the DVD tower fit perfectly!


My husband cut down the sides and back to the required size then assembled the pieces as per the instructions. Too easy!

~ Stephanie, Canada

Materials: 3 x 15" Billy Bookcases, 2x Billy height extenders, 2 x Billy doors, 2 x Benno DVD Rack, 1 x Hemnes Storage Bench, 1"x2" moulding, crown moulding and baseboard to fit your perimeter, Brad Nailer and nails, Liquid Nails adhesive, level, saw, 1' particleboard screws, caulk and paint

Description: We have an extremely small, 100-year old downtown house that has a teeny tiny living/great room -10' x 10'. Every inch of space counts! We decided that the look of built in bookshelves would be a suitable way to give ourselves extra storage and multi-task while still looking great.

1. Assemble 2 Billy bookcases, including adding the height extenders and put them on opposite ends of your project

2. Assemble the Benno DVD racks and place them against wall beside the Billys (both on the side facing the middle)

3. Trim your 1x2 moulding so that you can build a support ledge starting from the side of the left Billy across the front and side of the left Benno, across the back wall, and up the side and front of the right Benno ending at the side of the right Billy

4. This is the part where you can decide how wide you want your unit to be (we used the whole Billy). If you want it shorter, then you'll have to saw off some length). Assemble the third Billy, nailing the shelves in place on the sides, as this unit will be mounted horizontally

5. Secure the Billys against the wall - make sure they are levelled - and Liquid Nails the Bennos to them. The Bennos go flush against the wall

6. Attach the moulding ledge as described in Step 3, with the mouldings immediately below the height point where the Billy extenders meet the parent Billys

7. With another person, hoist the third Billy horizontally between the height extenders, resting on the Benno tops and ledge that you just installed. Have that other person keep holding it against the wall while you take a few particleboard screws and, using the shelf-mount holes in the Billy extenders, fasten the extenders to each end of the third Billy

8. Install the crown moulding and baseboard to the unit

9. Caulk every single gap on the unit, caulk it to the wall, and remember to caulk the crown moulding to the ceiling

10. When the caulking is dry, paint unit and the back of the wall where the TV will go so that everything looks built-in

11. Assemble the Hemnes bench, leaving out the front panel on top of the drawers. (You will be able to hide all of your home theater/cables/satellite boxes there). Place the Hemnes bench between the two Bennos

~ LittleMy17, Ottawa

Materials: Two Benno DVD, mother-in-law tongue plants

Description: Just wanted to submit a hack I did recently. I've been looking for a good headboard that divides my room a bit (bed is not against wall) and I needed something sturdy to hold a pillow so I could read sitting up and that would look good from both front and back (most normal headboards don't).

I was walking by a big office building in downtown LA when I saw a long, narrow planter filled with mother-in-law tongue plants. I've also been trying to get those plants into my bedroom because they produce oxygen at night (http://greenspaces.in/blog/ted09/ - good TED video about three helpful plants for growing your own oxygen). Then it dawned on me that I just needed a very narrow 80" long planter as a headboard. I looked all over until I found something perfect: two Benno DVD towers that I built, leaving the backing out of one of them, laying them horizontally on a cabinet that's flush with the top of my bed and attaching them together with a few screw plates.


Then I bought about 10-6" round terra cotta pots with saucers and replanted the plants in those from what I bought at home depot and the local nursery.


Voila! I'm totally psyched and it was MUCH cheaper than some of the big outdoor planters I was looking at to do the same thing. There is a slight notch on the right/bottom of each unit, but that can be masked any number ways: black tape, cutting the excess off or just leaving it alone – as in my case, it's not very noticable.

Thanks for reading and keeping up the awesome site!

~ Jake Levine