Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Ikea hack

Well, it took a lot longer than I planned, but I'm finally finished with my latest project. It's made out of reconfigured "Lack" components from Ikea.

I started by ripping two tops of side tables in half.

I also purchased five small coffee tables. I'll be using their tops and shelves.

I've got 14 legs left over. Wonder what I can use those for...?

Then I painted the undersides of the tabletops to match.

I assembled the ripped side tabletops and two of the coffee tabletops into a sort of bench using dowels. I love my new dowel jig! It's so simple and fun.

I almost left it just like this. But instead...

I added an upper section with the three remaining coffee tabletops. This area will hold a TV and a couple shelves. To quote my nephew Linc N sitting on his brother's brand new car seat: "Look, Mom! I fit!"

My last step was to install shelves and place the TV. The shelves were trickier than I planned. The shelves are shallower than the depth of the cabinet, and the middle of the cabinet is just cardboard honeycomb (see first photo). Consequently, I had to make rails that stretched from front to back so they could be screwed into solid wood. After that I could just lay the shelves across them.

ViolĂ !

My next project may be to get a bunch of picture frames or something to dress up the shelves.