Cat climbing post and skyway

Materials: Stolmen, Ribba, Besta (?)

Description: We were inspired by Kelly's Stolmen cat tower here.

We have a fairly low ceiling (about 7') in this ground level room and there is a support beam about 2 1/2' away from the wall. We saw the Ribba shelves which are used to display photos and other artwork and thought we could use them to create a path up high between the wall and the beam.

So we assembled the Stolmen closet pole and mounted it to the floor and ceiling so the cats would climb to the upper level. We tried an experiment - instead of winding many coils of rope as Kelly did, we bought some thin padding material at the fabric store, wrapped it around the Stolmen pole, and then wrapped burlap around the padding, using needle and thread to sew it as tight as possible. Attractive to our two cats as a scratching and climbing post, the burlap is getting fairly shredded and we may try replacing it with the rope Kelly recommended.

For a rest area after the cats climb up the burlap-covered Stolmen pole, we mounted a Besta (I think it was that) shelf near the ceiling, about 10" (25 cm) wide. It provides enough room for the cats to land, perch and turn around. We put another 10" or so shelf at the other end of this small area, about 6' (180 cm) away, for a resting and turning spot. Connecting both of these, mounted on the walls and on the support beam, we mounted Ribba shelves, which are only about 2.5" (6 cm) wide. We put gaps in between the Ribbas so the cats would have to jump (when they were kittens) or take big steps (now that they're grown) across.

This skyway seems to encourage exercise. When the cats chase each other, sometimes they will climb up the pole and then walk around the path. They may hang out on the shelf at one end or walk around the path when we put treats or one cat's toy mouse on the shelves. Gingko will actually fetch these fabric mice, and we will put the mouse on one of the shelves so he will climb up to go get it, then walk around the skyway and then jump back down. Good exercise and he's tired after a few times doing this.

~ Grant, Oakland, CA

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Miniature Car Display

Materials: Ribba X 9

Description: Wanted a cool display for my collection of Miniature Coal Made Cars.

Connected 7 horizontal RIBBA's with 2 RIBBA's, one on each side.

You can play with the height/distance to fit your needs

~ Saar Machtinger, Israel

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High sleeper bookshelf (KURA+RIBBA)

Materials: KURA + RIBBA + 3 screws

Description: My son was sometimes keeping books on his KURA high sleeper, but as he is a big boy now, he also needs his space in the bed.

I also had this RIBBA laying around and decided to add them together.

RESULT:
The RIBBA (mounted sideways) provides an excellent bookshelf! Books/Comics slide in and out easily.

A very simple IKEA hack, required:
1) KURA bed
2) RIBBA
3) three decent screws

Just mount the RIBBA to the KURA as shown in pictures.
I used a longer (190cm) RIBBA than is current sold in the (Dutch) IKEA, but a 115cm also works.
I shortened the RIBBA to make it fit exactly and put three screws in the existing holes of the RIBBA and... DONE!

~ remco, Netherlands

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Shadow box thing

Materials: 50 cm Ribba frame, piece of 3mm MDF, 2 cans of flat white spray paint

Description: 1. I removed the glass from the frame (but you could keep it if you wanted). I cut a piece of MDF to fit the frame, for a back, and painted it white.

2. I measured my largest ornament (it was the yellow horse on the bottom row) to get the size of the squares. I ruled the squares onto the MDF.

3. I sawed 3 cm strips of MDF and painted them white, including their front edges.

4. I cut them to size and glued them in place to make little shelves.

5. I put the frame back together. It was fiddly, but easy enough, and I'm happy!

~ judith, australia

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The RIBBA-RAIL

Materials: RIBBA picture ledge, GRUNDTAL rail, 4 short screws

Description: Take the GRUNDTAL rail and measure it up on the base of the RIBBA ledge so it's central.

Drill 4 pilot holes and then screw the rail to the ledge using quite short screws as they may pierce through the shelf base. (If shelf is above eye level, this shouldn't matter as this will be out of sight)

Mount RIBBA ledge to the wall as you normally would and you have the added benefit of hanging utensils from the rail :)

~ Richard James, Farnborough, UK

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Monitor stand with Ribba photo frame legs

Materials: EKBY JA„RPEN shelf, RIBBA frames

Description: Dual monitor stand, or desk shelf.

1. Remove packaging from items
2. Remove the stand and matt paper from the photo frames
3. Choose four screws that are not so long they will push through the edge of the shelf.
4. Place shelf (top down) on workbench
5. Place a photo frame at the end of the shelf with glass side facing away from the shelf, and long side against the shelf. The frames are slightly shorter than the width of the frame. I consider this a design feature to accommodate cables, or you can use the space to brace it with some MDF if you need to put heavier items on the shelf.

6. Hold the frame firmly in place (a helping hand is useful) and drill on a slight angle down through the photo frame into the shelf at two places.
7. Insert the screws into the holes and tighten.
8. Repeat steps 5-7 with the other frame at the other end of the shelf.
9. Choose two photographs and insert them into the frames and replace the matt paper and stand.
10. Flip the shelf over to stand on the frames.
11. Admire your handiwork

See more of the monitor stand.

~ Peta Hopkins, Gold Coast, Australia

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Spicy Ribba

Materials: Ribba frame; pegboard, wire pegboard shelves

Description: Well my mother's birthday has rolled around again. 81 and she didn't have a proper spice rack (and really needs one) So her enterprising young son did some Ikea Hacking with an Ikea Ribba Frame, some peg board and some wire peg board shelves. First I cut the peg board to size, gave it a couple of applications of yellow spray paint and mounted it in the frame with glass removed. Then I hung the the wire shelves on it.

~ Rob, Seattle, WA USA

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Real computer in a picture frame

Materials: 1x Ribba frame (25x25x4,5cm), old laptop, sharp knife, black paint, some plywood (3mmx25cmx25cm)

Description: Image you bought a new laptop, what to do with the old one?

1. Disassemble the old laptop and make sure the motherboard fits in the 25x25cm frame.

2. If it fits continue and remove necessary accessories from your laptop (I reused the power, LAN and USB connectors and the power switch). Now use the knife and cut out some holes for those connectors in the frame. Don't care about the small frame the secures the glass, we'll come to it later.

3. Cut the plywood to 25x25cm and cut out the mounting points from the laptop case and glue them on to the plywood and install the motherboard.

4. Buy some cables to connect the hard drives to the motherboard (I build my own cables)

5. Find a good spot for a hard disk (or 2) in the frame and use some small metal hinges to install it. There should be some metal in the old laptop case, use that! Install the hard disks directly behind the glass so it will secure it.

6. Put everything together hang it on the wall plug in the power and network cable and switch it on.

~ Marcus Goth, Sweden

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Nail polish rack

Materials: RIBBA frame, wood edge protector, cardboard, adhesive paper

Description: Both the two nail polish racks are made with a white RIBBA frame (9¾ x 9¾ inches and 1¾ inches depth, i.e. 25x25 cm and 4.5 cm depth). Shelters and protections to secure the nail polish bottles are all made by cutting a wood edge protector. They are stitched on the internal box of the RIBBA frame by using a staple gun. The purple background is made covering a 9x9 inches (23x23 cm) cardboard with purple adhesive paper.

~ PDM

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Arduino based data logging thermometer in a frame

Materials: RIBBA frame and some circuitry

Description: I was looking for a nice enclosure to host my latest project (an Arduino based data logging thermometer with multiple sensors) and, once again, I came to an Ikea product, a RIBBA photo frame that seems to have enough space to host my project circuitry.

My idea was to put all the circuitry inside, masking the clear glass with tracing paper to have a blurry vision of the circuit boards.

The circuit boards are "sewn" with thin wires that pass on top of the boards and are ended on the back with simple knots.

RIBBA has ended being a very convenient "project box", giving the possibility to mask the inside in different ways, and resulting in a great way to show your projects!

More info and details can be found on the project page.

~ John_J

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RIBBA clock hack

Materials: RIBBA frame

Description: This hack is kinda easy, but it's also quite hard to describe as it is very specific to what you want to have in the end.

The main steps are:
- Get a RIBBA frame, one of those with the mat for three pictures
- Get yourself three clockworks and possibly some watch hands you would like to use (make sure the hands fit the clock, otherwise use some superglue, to fix this ;-D). I used very quiet clockworks where the hand for the seconds never stops, looks better in my opinion.
- Mark the final positions of your watch hands and drill holes at these positions (8 mm in my case) in the back of the frame
- Prepare your clockworks: As every clockwork only uses one hand you have to cut the shafts or remove them at all. I used an scalpel and a wire cutter to strip mine down.
- Put something under your clockworks before fixing them to the back of the frame. This helps to shorten the shafts even more, so you don't need to put very much under the mat in the end and you have no problem when using the glass where it is etc.

Detail shot of a trimmed shaft

- Design and print yourself a clock-face you like, glue it onto the back of the frame
- Attach the watch hands and make sure they can run freely (you should check this earlier... ;-D)
- Put something under the mat and place it in the right position (I cut a new mat from very high white, thick paper, as the original was too yellowish and had some bucklings right after buying)
- Put everything back into the frame and enjoy your very unique and stylish clock

Back of the frame with three mounted clockworks and one hand attached for testing purposes

Some hints:
- I wanted to use the same watch hand for all clockworks. This made it necessary to glue the hands onto the bases of other hands, so they could fit the shafts. Check this before you start and keep it in mind.
- I also had to shorten my hands. Could be done with a scalpel and some super glue. Cut them at the "base", so nobody sees you shortened them...
- When you put something under the clockworks it can happen, that they can become too deep and stick out of the frame. No problem for me, as I mounted the frame with the supplied hanger to my wall. Try to use clockworks with short shafts or trim the shafts as far down as possible. Be careful with trimming, sometimes the watch hands won't find in the end...

I hope this hack can inspire some people to build interesting clocks.

You can find some more information, and my clock face on the website I provided. The blog entry is in German. See more of the Ribba clock.

~ flomei, Germany

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Square Headboard with space to hide electricals

Materials: Brimnes bed, Lack wall shelf, Vika Amon, Ribba ledge, Fas spotlight, Ledberg ledlights, Hampen rug

Description: Inspired by an Ikea hack by Celine "A simple and tidy headboard"

I didn't have a lot of space around the Brimnes bed, so I used the Celine's hack to create a headboard, but I used wide Ribba ledge to get space between the ledge and the edge of the Vika Amon for electrics cables.

I used Ledberg ledlights for ambiance, and bent the arms of FAS spotlight to use it for reading books.

I also used half cut Hampen rug beside the bed, and Lack wall shelf for beside table.

Finally I saved a lot of space for the door opening area, and got little storage in the headboard, with elegant aerial bedside tables.

Thanks Ikea Hack for Ideas !

Hope it could inspire you.

~ Gastan, France

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Ribba tablet/phone stand

Materials: RIBBA, cable canal, saw, drill, sandpaper, paint

Description: I needed something to stand my tablet on while using it for controlling my music at home. We recently moved to a new apartment and had a bunch of spare RIBBA picture ledges lying around.

So I ended up sawing a piece of shelf to the width I wanted. Then I used the already present hole and drilled it with an 8 mm drill, just enough room for one of Apples lightning connectors to pass through. This is not really needed but it helps the charging cable not slip away when not in use.

I chose to glue on the top lid of a spare piece of cable canal as an inner step for standing the tablet in an almost upright position. But you could skip this part if you want. After a bit of sanding and painting the sides you're done. Dead simple!

This would work in smaller pieces for say an iPhone bed-side stand as well.

~ Peter, Sweden

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Turn broken Ribba frame to mail/key holder

Materials: 2 Ribba picture frames, glue gun, hooks, contact glue

Description: I've had a Ribba frame that had been knocked down and broken, I've glued it back together couple of times and the last time it happened I just put it in my closet and forgot about it.

I wanted a keychain/mail holder so I put a good RIBBA frame of the same size (believe it's 6x7) using hot glue gun together (with the broken frame in the back).

I didn't include all 4 sides, leaving the top frame piece off to make sure I can put in my mail.

I used that piece and glued with contact glue at the bottom of the frame to use that piece to hold the hooks.

I drilled 3 small pilot holes to add 3 small hooks, cup hooks were too small so I used size 12.

I used small L BRACKETS to secure it to the wall and I was done!

I did the work thru the weekend since I wanted to make sure the hot glue gun and contact glue had dried and bonded.

My first DIY & Ikea hack, never realized how many different adhesives there are until now. I could've stuck with the glue gun but I also had some contact glue so I used them both. My hooks are a bit crooked but I will leave it, and the back was set crooked but since you can't see it it doesn't bother me much.

~ Jazmin, Queens, NY

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Ribba + Oppdal

Photo: IKEA.com

Materials: Ribba LED picture light, Oppdal bedframe

Description: At first I cut off the lower back Part of the Ribba LED picture light (photo below, upper left picture). I also cut off the part between the drill holes of it, so that I can put the cables in between (photo below, upper right pic).

Next I removed the front part of the headstand of the bed and drilled the Ribbas in. When put together there is only a small gap between the large front and the upper part, so one could also cut a groove into it to make everything flush.

Other items on the picture:
Ribba, Oppdal, Fejka, Rutbo, Aläng
Gäspa, MYSA VETE 240x220,2x Gosa Pinje, 2x Gosa Raps

~ Ralf B, Cologne Germany

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