Materials: Vinyl

Description:
Update: 31 Oct 2010. Gert of Mykea sent me an update to what was published (previously submitted by an enthusiastic student) to tell us a bit more about their vinyls especially designed for Ikea furniture. ~ Jules

Furniture by IKEA is good priced and well designed. But we don't like the fact that we see the same Ikea interior everywhere around us. We came up with the idea to make your Ikea more beautiful, unique and personal. MyKea makes it possible to ad a layer of unique en beautiful designed vinyl over your Expedit, Malm bed and billy bookcase.

How it works is easy: select your IKEA furniture, choose one of the many designs and personalize IKEA in your own style!

~ Gert van de Cappelle, Amsterdam.

See more here.


Not really a hack, but perhaps nice to show on this site anyway. We started a project a while ago to personalize Ikea products without physically altering them. We are now selling stickers designed by the community. The designers make money when we sell the sticker for them.

~ Niels, Amsterdam

Thanks to Suzanne, I had an afternoon with 4 guys and a lot of Fniss. Seriously, if Ikea could sing, it would probably sound like OK Go. But it's not just the tune, the music video is charming (you can't go wrong with cute dogs) and the song is White Knuckles. It's the first time I've seen the band and they totally floored me. The part where the guys twirled the Skruvsta chairs with mutts in tow ... just too funny. Proceeds from the video will go towards the ASPCA and doggie rescue. You can read more about OK Go's canine cause here. Go support them and have an great weekend.

If you know people with a dingy kitchen you may want to let loose the Ikea kitchen squad on them. Ikea Kitchen Squad is a TV show in the UK featuring an undercover group of designers, planners, service experts and installers who fly in to save the day for teary and weary homeowners.

Previously they have already helped three kitchens in crisis, by creating cool Ikea kitchens tailored to their needs and family requirements. Now they want to do the same for Colleen whose dingy kitchen with doors hanging off and an overheating oven is just too small for the family to sit around in together and enjoy an evening meal. 



I'm not sure when it'll air and I won't be able to catch it (it being on UK TV and all). But if you do, let me know how it when. Check out the trailer.



Click for more info on Ikea Kitchen Squad.

Well, if you're thinking of offloading your used Ikea furniture, you gotta get creative. Like how this guy did. He demonstrates the multi-uses of Ikea trestles with the finesse of gymnast. Thank you Ashli for sending me the ad. Too funny.


I'm not sure if the legs are still available but if you are in the market for a pair, you gotta get them from him. Hop over to craigslist now.

Talking about classifieds ads, have you seen Ikea Nation? It's kinda like craigslist but dedicated to all things Ikea. Wunderbar. It's free too. Woohoo! At a glance the navigation looks good with searches by categories or States (US only, unfortunately for me). The prices looks even better. Spotted a Mikael computer desk going for $60 (new, $109) and a Karlstad Loveseat going for $0. Zilch. Nada. Sounds like the place to score your next Ikea hacking items.


Anyone have any experience buying or selling on it? Do share with us.

Well, I've not jumped onto the iPhone bandwagon but iPhone apps have jumped into Ikea. Two app developers wrote me about their Ikea shopping apps which are great for replacing the Ikea pencil and shopping list. Personally I love scribbling with that stubby pencil. It's part of Ikea experience. Heh.

SwedeShop
The first is from Danilo who claims to be a big nerd who programs for the iPhone and loves Ikea. You can guess where this is going.

Danilo tells me, "The golf pencil and shopping list they hand out at Ikea don't cut it for me. I built an app called SwedeShop that keeps track of your Ikea shopping list for you. Here are some screenshots:



Tap out the item name, set a price and dial in the aisle and bin. And you're done. Optionally, you can set other attributes, like notes, priority or an item image. SwedeShop minds your budget for you and vibrates if you go over. It supports all international formatting and has been localized into English as well as Swedish for good measure.

And that's about it.

SwedeShop launches on Tuesday. It'll be free for one day and cost $0.99 thereafter."

See more of the SwedeShop.

iShopFlat
The other is from Jonathan, called the iShopFlat. Jonathan says, "Living in Sweden I see a lot of Ikea stuff. Now I did something I thought was funny and good for the environment. We did a small app to replace the shopping list at Ikea. It's called iShopFlat and is available on the iPhone AppStore.

Basically it mimics the list you find at the entrance of the Ikea store but also lets you check the price of your items as you go along."

It also goes for $0.99. See more the iShopFlat.

Sad news. Please do be careful if you own the Iris or Alvine roman blinds, especially if you have a child.

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission release, on April 4, 2008, a 1-year-old girl in Greenwich, Conn. became entangled in the inner cord of an IKEA Roman Blind and strangled. The child was in a portable playpen that was located underneath a fully lowered roman blind.




Ikea issued a voluntary recall of these 2 products (all sizes) with the product number 19799 or 21369. You may return them to any Ikea store to obtain a full refund.

To read more, please click here.

Hey, hey, how's your Monday? Thought I'll kick the week off with some news.

Ikeafans has a new look!
If you noticed the tabs at your top right hand corner, you would have found the IKEAhacker forum, which is hosted on IKEAFANS, the fantastic site run by Susan Martin and gang. They recently relaunched their website with a cool new look! It's more functional now and easier to find the info you need. The forums, the heartbeat of the site (and treasure trove of Ikea information) continue to grow, now with over 75,000 members and all the stuff you could possibly need to know about Ikea. Don't miss the galleries and its whopping 11,000 photos!


Bemz has slipcovers to be won!
We ran a contest with Bemz a year ago and if you did not manage to win then, here is your chance again. The Swedish company that breathes new life into IKEA sofas and chairs have launched the "My Home, My Way" contest at the Bemz blog, It's a Cover-Up.


The entries so far have been pretty good. But if you think your sofa is the one to beat them all, do hurry up and snap a fab photo and send it in. You could win a 5000 Swedish Crown* shopping spree at Bemz. (*5000 Swedish Crowns (or SEK) is approximately equivalent to €500 / £400 / US$700 / CND$800.)

I'm one of the judges too. :) Here's how to take part.

If there is one thing Ikea is fantastic at, besides making flat pack furniture, it's advertising. For their opening in Kobe, Japan, Ikea decked out trains with Ikea furniture. Rush hour has never looked better.

Is your Lack-Billy-Akurum Frankenstein a winner? There's only one way to find out. Platform21, BRIGHT and Superuse are running a contest and the winning design will be exhibited at the Bienniale Montreal 2009 and in the BRIGHT stand during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven. Submit before 15 September for your shot at fame.

Go here for details.


Next, please welcome Ikeahacker's latest sponsor eRoomService, an online store that offers modern designer furniture. I spent an hour or so drooling over its amazing collection of living, dining, bedroom and children furniture. Way, way gorgeous! Definitely not stuff you'll find at your local Ikea. Hop over and check them out.

Interested in advertising on Ikeahacker? Email me at ikeahacker [at] gmail [dot] com for rates.

alex tipped me on this craigslist find - a hacked ikea bar table with stools. okay, it is not the best looking bar table around, but it is a steal.

the table is hacked from a malm 3 drawer chest with an ikea table top. the bar is a bit wobbly and needs a cross brace (available at ikea for $7) but hey, for that price you'll expect some kinks.

click to see the original craigslist post.

andrew tips me that there is a large stack of perfekt liljestad panels, around 8' by 3' (SKU # 12879) going for $10 each, in the As-Is section at ikea east palo alto.

woo! go get 'em and make some hacks!
thanks, andrew.

jenny from CBC Television wants to do a segment on ikeahacking. so, if you're canadian, this is your chance for 15 minutes of fame. just drop her an email if you're interested.

"We're looking for CANADIAN people who have done something interesting to a room in their house or a really cool home decor project in their home, and want to show it off. This is for a Canadian-wide talk show about home design and decor on the CBC. The projects or rooms should be interesting, innovative and TV-worthy, and something that the person who created it really wants to boast about. If you've taken a piece of Ikea furniture (or an entire room full!) and really transformed it into something interesting and beautiful, if you've somehow created a room that looks high-end but really it's a clever use of all Ikea furniture, if you've crafted items and made them your own (etc, etc) then we want to hear from you! Interested people should send a quick blurb about their project/room/home along with photos, if possible. Please do not send an email if you're not Canadian, we can only feature people across Canada. Send your submissions to tryanskj [at] cbc [dot] ca." - jenny

anne dropped me a note about her ikean blog. it's a blog by "someone who works at ikea, who loves the company as well as their products, who is willing to share the wonderful experiences with others and make our everyday life better."

digging around, i found some useful tips such as the latest entry, 5 ways to use the malm occasional table and how to choose an ikea mattress. she seems keen to spill the beans on how ikea really works too.

drop by ikeanblog and while you're there, check out anne's pillow hack made from leftover curtains.

good luck, anne!

i'll be heading out of state tomorrow with some friends for a bit of a r&r. we're going to the mountains, well, sort of, more like the foothills but it'll still be cooler, and a respite from the tropical heat. i won't be posting on monday but will be back with more hacks on tuesday. i hope you have a great weekend too.

in the meantime, i digress but it does look like furniture hacking is catching on. i stumbled across these eames hacks on designsponge (via notcot and core77). the project by 6 students from the university of the arts, philadelphia, was in honour of eames 100th anniversary.

click to see eames hacks.

i'm late on posting this notice. if you've not already read it on ikea's website, for this week only from september 17-23, you can join millions of americans and 100 of the nation's leading photographers to capture the emotions of home for a collaborative photography project.

capture distinctive rituals, traditions and intimate moments that transform your house into your home and upload them to the site. the very best pictures will be published in a coffee table book, a website and an exhibition to be shared around the nation and for all time.

log on to http://www.MyAmericaAtHome.com for more information and daily photo assignments like today's, which is mid-day madness:

"Who's home? Come one, come all. Show us your dashing kids, lovely friends or even that one strange black-crowned night heron who just built a nest in the front yard maple tree."

see photos taken by other participants here.

AmericaAtHome is produced by the same team that created the acclaimed Day in the Life and America 24/7 photo books and in partnership with ikea.

every new ikea catalogue is a bit of an event for me. i can't wait to get my hands on it, leaf through it - first a quick overview, then a slow study of new items, new ideas and creative uses. also, very importantly, to see if they've dropped the prices of old items further, which is always a good thing.

well, it is the time of the year again and i've just spent the last 2 hours flipping through the online catalogue. i'm still not done with the 370 pages!

at first glance, some of the the stuff looks seriously good. i'm eyeing the besta tv units and i am in love with the red linnarp glass cabinets you see on the cover.

i hope they look as good in person. guess i'll be checking them out at ikea this weekend.

russel tipped me on this piece that ran on european tv channel, arte.

guy ben-ner, assuming the role of robinson crusoe, starts with a 'tree' made out of dismantled ikea furniture. he then proceeds to take it apart and reassemble it into the furniture pieces he started with - a round table, a rocking chair, a chair a parasol and a sleeping loft.

see more of guy ben-ner's treehouse kit.

logged onto ikea's us site today and hey, it's brand spanking new! at a glance it looks way better than before. the site seem easier to navigate - with product tabs at the top, replacing the old side bar.

a lot more vibrant with 8 small boxes of news below the main feature. also expanded online shopping pages.

but i've never had a problem with how the old site looked. i only hated its search function to death. so i was keen to find out if they fixed it. whaddaya know? the search function is totally removed from the site.

what is available now is a search for items by name. click on the alphabet and a long, long list of product names appear. scroll through it and click on the item you want. perhaps it does diminish the frustration of having an 'item not found' message but it takes way too much time scanning tiny type. especially since i have to look up product names and links frequently. so this is a downgrade for me. the old search function suddenly seems good. as bad as it was it still gave me results 7 out of 10 tries.

go to ikea's new website and give it a whirl and let me know what you think.

suddenly it's summer. especially on ikea's website. ikea's summer furniture and decor range is looking hot. and fun.

it's not an entirely new range but does have some interesting patio furniture like the deck chairs below. also, it won't be complete without ikea's staple of bright, bold beach and picnic accessories.


see more of ikea's summer furniture range.