Materials: Liatorp Coffee Table
Description: The hack includes the Liatorp coffee table with glass top and pull out drawer that was modified to include an N scale model train set.
I didn't like the white so I painted about 95% of it black. Four coats of satin black furniture paint to be exact. I left the shelf that the drawer slides on unpainted for two reasons. One, the paint would just rub off as the drawer glides back and forth over the shelf. Two, simply to provide a highlight color to offset all the black. The last thing cosmetically, was I purchased two new pull knobs for the drawer as the stock ones did not match the black.
The drawer from the factory includes a cross in the middle of the drawer making four available compartments, and two particle board pieces that make up the drawer bottom. Now obviously this won't work if you plan to utilize the entire space in the drawer. Leaving out the cross was easy but by doing so, the bottom particle board pieces are rendered useless. So I need a floor for the drawer. I took the necessary measurements and made my way over to TAP plastics, had a custom floor made, and I was good to go.
After assembly, the only thing left to do is design the train layout. I used a program called AnyRail available at anyrail.com. Once the layout is set, it's just a matter of purchasing the engines, cars and scenery that you like to complete the look. Since this was my first attempt, I spent a little more than I probably would have liked but I think it was worth it. It's definitely a conversation piece and fun to look at.
To see a video of the trains in action, check out this youtube video.
Materials: BRATTBY Kitchen Cart, Primer and Paint in One, Drawer Knob
Description: We removed all the shelves except the bottom one (for support) from the BRATTBY kitchen cart, then removed the back wheels and cut the front legs of the cart to make all four legs even. I lightly sanded the cart, filled in any holes and imperfection with spackling paste and painted it with primer and paint in one. I drilled a hole in the drawer and added a decorative knob. Now our 5 year old kitchen cart is a brand new living room side table!
See more of the repurposed kitchen cart.
~ Adriana, Southern California
Materials: Lack coffee table, Mod Podge
, gift wrap, 1-2" foam brush, high density foam roller, polyurethaneDescription: The finish on this coffee table had a way of collecting and showing off dust, fingerprints, and crumbs like you wouldn't believe. It was driving me nuts so I decided to decoupage the top to add color, texture, and dimension to an otherwise boring table.
1. Use heavy-weight gift wrap,the non-shiny kind you buy by the sheet works really best for this project. Measure and cut to cover the surface of the table.
2. Gather your mod podge supplies. You will need a foam brush, a high-density, ultra smooth roller, a container to pour your mod podge into, and a damp cloth for wiping away extra glue.
3. Carefully roll on a thick coat of mod podge with the roller. Working quickly, start at one corner and line up your paper with the edge of the coffee table and carefully unroll it on to the layer of glue. Using your hands, smooth away any wrinkles or bubbles that appear on the surface. If you notice your glue is drying before your paper goes down, try working in smaller sections using the foam brush to get between the paper and the table as you unroll it and press it down.
4. Wipe away any excess glue and let dry for 30 min. Add 2 more coats of mod podge letting it dry completely between coats.
5. Finish off the table with a coat or two of polyurethane using another high density foam roller and you're done!
See more of the decoupaged coffee table.
~ Jennifer, Seattle, WA
Materials:
-LACK table: 1 white and 1 black
-adhesive paper, black and white
design and model-cutter
-hook
Description:
Cut the different parts of the design and position on the floor, mount one leg of a different color to the table at the drawing.
If you remove the legs and fix a hook, you get two decorative panels to be put on the wall.
~ Irene Vergnano, Roma Italy
Materials: Lack Side Table, Tile, Adhesive, Grout, Trowel, Float
Description: I found a simple, and inexpensive, way to spice up the $7.99 Lack Side Table. Once you gather all the necessary tools, follow these easy steps!
Step 1: Clean off the surface, and make sure it is completely dry.
Step 2: Measure out your tile. Since my table surface was a little smaller than the 4 (12x12) sheets of tile, I had to trim off some of the edges. But these glass tiles were incredible easy to work with and I just had to cut through the netting that attached them.
Step 3: Once you have the correct amount of tiles, it's time to lay the adhesive. Since I was working with a relatively small surface area I didn't have to worry about my adhesive drying, so I spread on enough to cover one sheet of tiles. I used a paint stir stick to grab some adhesive, and then used the trowel (metal thing with notches) to spread it out evenly. I went over my patch of adhesive with the notched side to make the lines in the adhesive.
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Materials: Lack side table
Description: My Lack table was too green for my room,so I decided to add it a little color- painted the top and the sides white in two layers, put a Klimt
picture from an old calendar,and secured it with a 4 mm glass. The best thing is that the picture is not glued,so i can change it any time I want.~ Pera Peric, Kragujevac,Serbia
Materials: Ramvik
Description: When I moved in I bought an IKEA Ramvik table and while travelling this summer I had an idea (don't ask why): decorate its top with Lego bricks used as pixels. Here are the steps I went through. If you don't care about those steps and want to see a nice time-lapse video, scroll to the end of the article!
Lego bricks
First things first. What are the Lego brick sizes and colors available? Oddly enough this question is not that easily answered. Probably because Lego's site is crappy, or because nobody really cares... I eventually found Brickipedia which happens to be a much richer resource than the official ones. Everything I was looking for was there: the Lego "unit" is 8 millimeters and the color palette is pretty simple.
Table specs
Knowing my table size I had various options, depending on the "pixel size" I'd choose. Of course the number of bricks (and the price) would also vary. So I created a dynamic spreadsheet on Google Docs that'd do the calculations for me...
I chose the 4x4 option, quite cheap and still offering a cool number of pixels.
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Materials: Sultan Lien Slats
Description: I replaced my Ikea bed and noticed that these slats were pretty solid when laid on top of one another. Wanting to give my turntable a more suitable home, I thought the slats could be arranged to leave a hole in the middle where the player could sit.
1. Measure and cut the slats. (leave room for audio jacks and on/off switch)
2. Glue and clamp each piece together. (Wood glue
typically takes 20-30 minutes to dry and there were around 70 pieces.) 
3. 4 interesting steel table legs from a second-hand store, and there's a solid and low profile table.
~ Scott, Pasadena, CA
Materials: Gorm Posts, Gorm Shelves, Gorm Corner Shelf
Description: This is I and my husband's first hack. After weeks of trawling through this site, I managed to convince DH that building our own bar would be cheaper than buying a new one.
We wanted an L shaped bar and thought about using expensive IKEA pieces for this, but settled for good ole, cheapo Gorm.
Supplies:
2 51cm GORM corner shelves - $26
8 51 x 77cm GORM shelves - $56
8 31 x 77cm GORM shelves - $40
24 packs of 110cm GORM posts - $96
Packet of screws - $9
Fabric - $16
13mm MDF sheets for the top of the bar - $13
Staple gun and staples
Hand drill
Total: $256
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Materials: LÄMPLIG chopping board, Vika Curry
Description: I needed a small table to put my printer on.
I couldn't find any table suited at the Ikea store, so I hacked one together from the LÄMPLIG chopping board and used 4 Vika Curry legs to support it.
It took me 15 minutes to piece it together and for €20 in materials it wasn't expensive.
~ Adri Mathlener
Materials: Faktum cabinet, Perfekt bottle shelf, some boards, small angle braces
Description: My partner needed a cabinet for his whisky collection. We couldn't find a suitable one with correct dimensions and features, so he made an Ikea hack.
First he built a sturdy table-like frame to support the combination of the bottle shelf and the cabinet. He removed the bottom board of the cabinet and attached it a little lower in the frame to make more room for the bigger bottles. In the end, all parts were attached together.
The little table surface on the front side is handy, you can have the glass standing on it while you pour the drink.
~ Milla Bäcklund
Materials: Ikea table, small hooks, long skinny hooks, basketball net, magnet of your favorite team, super glue, black spray paint, a saw to cut off the flowery part, rubber feet to make it into a trivet
(optional)
Description: My boyfriend loves basketball and I saw this other table at the NBA Store in NYC and decided I could make it myself. I bought this table at the Ikea Store (product not shown online) and sawed off the inside flower insert that looks like this:
I then added rubber feet to the bottom of this and made this flower piece into a trivet for the dining table.
After that, I spray painted an embroidery hoop to make the top of the net black. Then I bought a net at a sports store/walmart for a basketball hoop and purchased long skinny hooks as well. These long hooks were then attached to the 4 table legs and held the hoop in place in the middle.
The net was attached to the embroidery hoop using small hooks that were inserted into the empty space between the 2 embroidery rings (once I inserted them, I tightened the rings closer together to hold and inserted a small amount of super glue).
I then attached a magnet of my boyfriend's favorite basketball team to the top - the Phoenix Suns. Now he had a custom basketball table and I had a new trivet for the kitchen!
~ Christin Franco from Chandler, AZ
Materials: VIKA AMON/VIKA CURRY, hinges, brackets, chipboard, rubber bushes, rope, buckles
Description: At LAN-parties, tables and space are limited. My husband and his gamer friends went table hunting at IKEA and my guy came home with two neat and price worthy tabletops "VIKA AMON" (100x60 cm) and eight "VIKA CURRY" legs.
He takes them with him every time they throw a party, but since the tables were still a bit bulky to carry, he started modifying them. The goal was to fold the table into a "portfolio", with room for the legs inside!
First he cut the tabletops in halves. The tables are hollow with cardboard inside so they needed to be reinforced, and the cut surfaces smoothed. He used chipboard for this purpose.
He then mounted hinges on the backs of the tabletop pieces. Since he wanted to store the legs inside the fold, he used brackets to extend the hinges and make more room, and he attached rubber bushes to keep the legs in place. Handles were made out of rope, and the folded table is kept folded with buckles.
The tables turned out GREAT, and they are very useful - for all types of indoor parties.
Check out the entire description at here. (in Swedish, but if you paste the link in Google translate you'll understand most of it).
See more the Foldable LAN party table
~ Sofia, Sweden
Materials: GALANT meeting room table
Description: There was GALANT meeting room table in the bin. Table surface was in terrible condition but table legs were OK. I glued 8 mm plywood on the surface and beech baseboard list to the table edge.
White paint is excess from sailboat project ( Hemplel Brilliant Enamer ). You do not need to be an finnish software engineer and stingy in these projects - but it helps.
~ Heikki Tanner, Tampere Finland
Materials: VIKA AMON
Description: I made a coffee table lift (# 1) using a VIKA AMON plate and a trestle (in any hardware store) which I adapted some curtain rods to make it slide (# 3 and #4). So I can transform it into a table to eat (# 2)
~ Noëlle, BOURG EN BRESSE - FRANCE
Materials: 1 x Kritter table, oilcloth (or fabric + pvc table liner) and staple gun
Description: For my niece's 2nd birthday, I customised a Kritter table by stapling fabric and pvc table liner to the top. This could also be done with oilcloth. It's now easier to keep in good condition than the standard painted veneer top and looks a bit more interesting.
~ Catherine, Melbourne, Australia