Description: We in Dubai are blessed with couple of the largest Ikea stores on the planet and all of my years here since 2005, I have been a die-hard fan. The magic had just started to fade, when I came across this site. It was instant inspiration - renewed my vows!
Had been looking for a media / entertainment center to go in the girls' room for over a couple of months. The local stores had absolutely nothing to offer, nor did Ikea - so I made up my mind to customize something.
Why I say nothing, because I wanted the unit to:
a) Be safe physically, and consume least space to allow kids to play about freely
b) Provide a way to keep the electronics out of reach or at least out of sight
c) Be all girly & pretty
My old LEKSVIK TV cabinet, which offered a lot of space and lockable glass doors was superb - but was too bulky and not at all girly. It just had to go.
Then last week at the AS-IS section - where they sell damaged / last / display pieces for less - I saw BULLAREN. Good that it was in the As-Is section, otherwise I would have never looked at it. It is a bathroom sink cabinet afterall!
However, it really hit the bull's eye - with the newfound hackers' mindset, a bit of planning and few visits to ACE.
To cover the open top, I found a largish MELLTORP tabletop in a slightly different shade of white. I planned to paint it or stick some wallpaper after getting it cut to size. I walked through the store just browsing about, and found this acrylic coated fabric - Barbro in checkered pink, green & yellow. Bought two meter lengths - one each in pink & yellow.
Assembled the base unit, and then the other wall unit with the mirrors! Put it aside & moved ahead with the media unit.
With some good advice from the wife, used the pink fabric for the drawer fronts, and the Yellow one for the Table top. It worked out to be quite pretty. First we cut the pieces to size leaving about 7-10 cms for folding at the back & pasting with fabric glue. Wifey ironed those with some water to remove all the creases.
(Watch out while pasting - don'€™t use too much glue, just a thin even layer at the back and the edges. Always paste opposite edges first. Stretch the fabric fully. Remove excess glue)
After cutting the table-top to size, I was able to extract two 53x31 shelves, which I fixed just above the top drawers in the space that would have been used for sinks. Here, I placed the DVD players and stuff - leaving just a couple of cm for the disk tray to come out front and the IR signal to work when the drawer is open. Idea being that the girls won'€™t need to meddle with the remote while a movie or a show is on, and so the drawers wonâ€'t need to be left opened.
Fixing the table top was done using sticky back Velcro strips, as it may have to be opened later to add a media player or other electronics, or just to adjust the cables.
As for the wall unit, it is a doll house in the making. Will be back with that when it'€™s ready!
~ Kinsy, Dubai, UAE
