Materials: Sandnes Shoe Rack, Svala Chairs

Description: I worked out that the Sandnes show rack was a complete waste of time for storing shoes. With a couple of changes the unit makes an awesome computer cabinet for two small children 4-8 years old.

I am writing this almost 4 years after building it and about 6 months after I sold it. I can't find any pictures of the build stage, so I just have the ones I took when I sold it on Ebay.

I bought the Sandnes new, and put the frame of it together. Instead of using the plastic hinge parts, I connected normal door hinges on the center edge of the lower doors, and between the bottom and top doors on each side. This allows the top to lower as a keyboard shelf and the bottom opens to allow access to the main PC box for putting in CD's and turning it on.


I made a new back board which holds the monitors up. This was done by using the Ikea panel bolts and retainers on both sides of a sheet of 19mm Melamine chip board. The back only goes down about half way so the PC's still get plenty of air. I pulled the monitor stand apart and managed to fix them directly to the back board without buying a proper VESA mount, but you could do that if you wish.

As I was in a rental property, I did not want to attach the unit to the wall, So I rebuilt the legs to give some stability, but this would not be needed if you are happy to screw it to the wall as originally intended.

I attached the PC's by removing the top lid and putting screw directly through the base into the back of the lower door. The choice of PC is critical, as it needs to fit! Don't forget to allow for the plugs at the rear!


A piece of chain holds the top door in place just below horizontal. I did have the keyboard screwed to the door so the kids could not move them and they wouldn't scratch the monitor.

I installed magnetic child locks to stop the unit being opened without help as well as hold the top door shut. A barrel bolt was used to keep the bottom door shut.

A set of Svala chairs were just the right size to finish the unit off.

The kids loved this setup and it is a shame they grew out of it.

~ David Haddon, Brisbane, Australia

Materials: GORM

Description: Hello, I am Daniele Rossini (nickname MacGyver). I have a house of 50 square meters and two children. The need now is to buy a bigger house, but right now I'm happy to organize them to take advantage of all 50 square meters. To start with I'll tell you how did the idea of building a bunk bed structure with GORM:

I have a bedroom about 16 square meters and with two young children need two beds with a space that you desire, then I thought about a bunk bed, but not a normal one that measures 60 x 120 cm. I begin to think, imagine and measure the space without finding solutions ....... then I do not know why the port facilities Gorm with me, I take a pencil and paper and in the blink of an eye I'm holding the project I ran into the store and at a cost of about €60 I manage to buy Gorm shelves and uprights.

The frenzy runs through my blood and in three days, weather permitting after work, I transform the structures assembled together ...... and ualà!...... just what I imagined and so I wanted a bunk bed GORM sturdy and secure!


My children are happy with their new bed and I felt very happy but .... suggest the production of shelves 62cm, perhaps with factory waste and an instruction manual, ad hoc, bunk beds 60 x 120 cm can not be found!

As a child I played with Meccano 31 years now I'm not ashamed to play with GORM. Hello everyone and good life!


P.S. For those who want to achieve:

What you need:
-8 Pairs of uprights 174cm
-2 Pairs of uprights 110cm
-4 Shelves 77x51
-2 Shelves 77x31
-4 Pairs of caps.

Getting Started:
be sized from 77cm to 62cm shelves then the rest with a few tweaks and a jigsaw if it comes from ......... complete with adjustable sides!

Finished size:
Internal bed 62 x 133cm
external dimensions 66 x 135cm
Height 174 cm

~ Daniele, Italy, Rome

Materials: Lack coffee table, Mala roll art paper, painter's tape, sandpaper, spray on primer, gray or black chalkboard spray paint, length of scrap wood for paper tearing edge, 6 washers, 2 wood screws, 7/8 in dowel rod, roll of art paper (picked up a few at Ikea), Levolor universal drapery mount (cheapest I found was at Amazon)

Description: I was inspired by this project on Martha Stewart's website to make a kids art table. On my recent trip to Ikea to get materials for the Lego table I made, I began eyeing the Lack coffee table. Using that as my base table, I wanted to refinish the top with chalkboard paint to make the art table even more useful.


Click to read more>>

Materials: IKEA Catalogue, scissors, glue, cardboard

Description: We used last year's catalogue to cut and glue and make a dollhouse. Super easy, super fun!


See more of the IKEA Catalogue dollhouse.

~ Lilla a

Materials: Trofast wall storage, MDF board,

Description: Since I have kids, age 3 and 6. I have developed a special walking technique when it's dark at home. (All people whit smaller kids in the house will know what I'm talking about)

It is simple but effective; you drag your feet along the floor. The aim is to avoid something sharp getting in-between your feet and the floor! Like a toy.
If this happens you will end up with a sharp pain in your foot or you break you kids favorite toy or both.

To avoid having to re-finish the floor every month I had an idea about a play-table. OK the idea is obviously not mine. You can buy these things but they are rather expensive and not so practical.

So what to do? Well you build it yourself!

I started of by measuring the room to decide how large the table top could be after this I looked at the Trofast series. I wanted something that wasn't too high so I decided to go for the wall mounted one, or rather two of them. I cut a MDF board (12 mm) into table top and some edges and also a base for the Trofast frames to stand on.

It took some time to fix the edges (glue and screws) and to sand them down so they where a bit rounded.

After this I mounted the Trofast frames and removed the plastic edges so that the frames could be fixed tightly to the base and table top. Then I mounted the legs.


To dampen the sound I glued a fabric on the table top and then I just painted the edges.

The remarkable thing is that most of the toys stay on the table or in the storage boxes! Our vacuum cleaner bag will last double the time since it's not full of dust and lego and small wooden train parts.

~ BR Richan, The land of IKEA, SWE

Nothing hacked but it's a nice idea which I thought deserved to be shared. ~ Jules

Materials: BEKVAM Spice Racks

Description: We wanted bookshelves for our children's room that had books facing out, but all of the existing shelves we found were entirely too expensive. These fit the bill and fit perfectly into the small space available to add them.


Not much needed in the way of instructions. Hang as you would the spice racks - you put screws in the walls and hook the shelves on the screw using the space that comes pre-installed on the shelves.

See more of the Bekvam kid's book shelf.

~ Lillian

Materials: Söt Barnslig

Description: I put the four small stuffed animals on an elastic chord and attached them to my babys stroller. Use a needle and some nylon thread to make a hoop in the little fellas.

~ Louise, Copenhagen

Materials: Micke desk, designer wallpaper

Description: My husband bought this desk for our sons room (he is 2.5 years old) and in his room there are a firecar-bed which is red, closets are white and some textiles are blue.... and this horrific desk was orange!!!! So... I just beautified it.

I have used wallpaper from PIP STUDIO (the birds, butterflies and bugs) and a leather-look wallpaper I don't know the brand of and the door is a wallpaper-test i got from a local painter-shop.

All together, I would guess it cost 50 kroner, less than 10 euro or 10 dollars.

And best of all: Our son can now learn to draw, paint and write at a desk that is made for him.

See more of the Micke desk.

~ Trollmora, Norway

Materials: Billy shelves

Description: I searched high and low for affordable benches, cabinets, baskets, etc to make a mudroom for our 3 little boys and their stuff. Most regular storage benches were too high for their short little legs. And Pottery Barn and similar things were 3 times the price.

I knew I could find something to make a square mudroom with hooks in the middle from something at Ikea. But it did take a bit of time to figure it out.

I used the skinny white Billy bookcases for the shelves and put the Billy cabinet doors on the bottom. I connected them on top with the Billy wall shelf and also used the wall shelf on the bottom as a bench. The wall shelf is the perfect height for kids as a bench and the exact width I needed to make a perfect square. I used Leksvik hooks in the middle for coats.

Ikea doesn't advertise a mudroom, but they should. This combination worked perfectly for us.

~ Kristin, Malvern, PA USA

Materials: Fabler bed canopy  

Description: I sewed vertical sides leaving a hole on the top to fill with balloons. Then I tied the bottom with a rope for the balloons not to drop. Then I filled with balloons for my son's Red birthday party.

It was lots of fun when we untied the rope and it was like a fantastic rain of red balloons.


See more of the party balloon keeper.

~ Maria Corcuera, Barcelona

Materials: Kura bunk bed, felt

Description:
I recently finished a felt playhouse for my daughter as the bottom of her bed is being used for toy storage.

Read more about the Kura felt playhouse.

~ Anna

Materials: Billy, Gulliver, Perfect Adel oven panels

Description: I took Ikea crib Gulliver, two oven panels from Ikea kitchen line, and old favourite Billy book shelf. One oven panel became a headboard and another became backing for Billy, and Billy became a foot-board.

The actual, foot-board and headboard from Gulliver I used as a template to drill the holes on the oven panels. Use the existing heardware. And oven panel attached to Billy with corner mounting pieces (all four corners).

See more of the crib with open shelving.

~ Alissa C.

Materials: gorm shelves

Description: I decided to make a dolly bunkbed for my daughter's dollies by using two sets of Ikea gorm height extension posts and two short three plank gorm shelves. Simply made two mattresses out of fabric scraps bound with the Ikea iron-on hemming tape and filled with polyfill. The blankies were cut from an old Ikea fleece blanket. My daughter's pretty chuffed with them, alright!

~ Izreen Ismail, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Materials: 2x8 and 4x4 Expedit shelves, white

Description: We have very limited space and really small closets in our home, so I came up with an idea to utilize vertical space for baby clothes.

We already had the 2x8 Expedit, so this hack only cost around $40 for the new 4x4 unit, closet rod and rod holders.


We simply put the 4x4 Expedit together leaving out the inner shelving, and installed a closet rod. The 2 units aren't attached to each other, but I did use those gummy sticky dots for stability in addition to the wall mounting hardware included with the Expedit.

~ Valerie Foster, Phoenix, AZ

Materials: Kura Bed, wooden letters, wood cutouts, bunk bed curtain, paint, canopy, SMILA BLOMMA wall lamp

Description: We wanted our 4 year old daughter to have a bed with stairs leading to a loft to sleep and space underneath to use as a playhouse.

We bought a Kura bed, painted it 3 different colors. The trim is painted light pink, the smaller panel in front is fuchsia and the longer end panel is purple with pink slates. We added a princess canopy on top. We attached cutouts on the front panel and added wooden letters to the front panel with the words princess and her name. We made the bottom a playhouse by attaching a bunk bed curtain with working windows, curtains, and doors on the bottom of the bed using double-faced adhesive velcro and placing a pink SMILA BLOMMA wall lamp for her to use when she reads her books is hanging out in her "house" as she calls it.


See more at of the Kura bed with Playhouse.

~ Adrian and Leslie-Ann, Northern Virginia

Materials: Lack Side Table, Idealisk Measuring Cup

Description: What happens when you're fed up with the cheap quality, high priced, children furniture sold in stores???

You say screw it and make your own cheap quality furniture for less.

This hack came about when I tried to purchase a chalk table for my preschool art classes. As I later discovered that these chalkboard tables can go for an obscene amount of money, I figured, "I can build it for less than $50." I was DEAD WRONG because it only cost me less than $25 in materials.

See more of the Lack chalk table.

~ Yencey, New York City

Materials: RAM Frame

Description: At a Kids carnival the tiny kids creativity booth had IKEA plain wooden RAM Frames with some glitter,stars, flowers and glue they customized the frames to whatever style they wanted and most of the kids remembered their moms. Ah adorable!


~ BBS Alumni Environmental Committee, Kuwait