Ikea Messenger Bag

Materials: Ikea shopping bag

Description: Using 2 Ikea bags, yellow fabric, thread, bias tape, a zipper, the SY ikea sewing machine and the pattern found at this link you can create this upcycled Ikea messenger bag.

Using the Ikea bags as the pattern's body and flap and the reclaimed straps added to the messenger bags straps and decorative front give the messenger bag a decorative homage to the blue and yellow Swedish furniture mecca.

~ Brian Liszewski

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Kid's raincoat from Ikea bag

Materials: Ikea bag, sewing thread, scrap material, 1 pack press studs

Description: 1. With a quick-unpick (known as a seam ripper in US) rip apart the seams on your Ikea bag
2. Using an existing jacket as a template, trace around leaving 0.5cm for hems. You'll need to play the placement to maximize use of the bag as its basically long skinny pieces of bag.
3. Make sure you remove the handles, these are very good for making a belt or neck tie for the jacket.
4. Trace around & cut out.
5. I lined my jacket as I thought it will be too cold. Used some scrap material I had. Basically do the same but make more like a vest and leave shorter at bottom hem.

6. Sew together. Sew outer first, then sew lining, then sew together.
7. Insert press studs. Mine cost $5 at Spotlight. You just bang em in with a hammer.
8. I added a hood (not in my pattern) but its very very dodgy. There wasn't quite enough material left, so hood was deeper on one side than the other. Plus the stiffness of the material means it sticks up above my babies head.
9. Attempt to get toddler into new rain jacket = huge amount of tears. She does not think its as cool as Mummy thinks.

Things to consider. Don't do a v-neck. I did this & it's stupid. Means when it rains the rain will get onto that part of neck & trickle down inside.

Be prepared to blunt your sewing machine needle.

~ Sarina, Sydney, Australia

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Sharpie + Ikea Rug = Saving Thousands of Dollars

Materials: Adum 4x6 Ikea Rug, Sharpie, Painters Tape

Description: To create a Beni Ouarain style rug, (1) measure (feel free to make the lines perfect or imperfect) and (2) lay out painter's tape in one direction. (3) Draw a line down one side of the tape using a sort of scrubbing motion with the sharpie. (4) Peel tape and reuse in the reverse direction. (5) Repeat step (3), peel off tape and you're done!

See more of the Beni Ouarain style rug.

~ Crystal Shumaker @ 29 Rue House, Connectict

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Turn a throw blanket into a shower curtain

Materials: Ursula Ikea Throw Blanket

Description: A blanket can be a gorgeous shower curtain too.

See step by step instructions on Lynne's blog.

~ Lynne Knowlton, Design The Life You Want to Live

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Wall lights and closet en pendant!

Materials: Gyllen lamp and Ikea Stockholm Blad fabric

Description: My entrance was insignificant and dark, and I didn't like the lights and the old closet, so I decided to buy Gyllen lamps, but I didn' like the default panels...

First idea: buy normal glass panels and cover them with Blad fabric.
How to do that:
1. Buy glass sheets (56 cm) from your local glazier;
2. Cut the fabric with an extra edge and fix it with silicone;
3. Mount the lamp on the wall!

Second idea: make panels for the closet en pendant. How to do that:
1. Buy wooden slats to measure and, of course, the fabric, use: glue (vinavil), nails and tapestry stapler, silicone to fix;
2. Nail down the slats to make frames for the panels (fix them with glue);
3. Fix the fabric on the frames with glue and with staples all around, and cut off the borders;
4. Fix the panels with silicone on the closet's doors and let them fasten putting them on the floor, one on each other;
5. Remount the doors....done!

Now you have lamps and closet en pendant!

~ CyberLory, Pisa - Italy

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Spruce It Up

Materials: MARGARETA + KVARTAL

Description: I created a curtain Christmas Tree using the MARGARETA fabric and KVARTAL top and bottom rail from Ikea in just 5 easy steps.

1. I measured to the center of the fabric using a tape measure and ironed on a 4 inch strip of Pellon 808 craft fuse Iron-on backing down the center. This enabled me to cut the fabric in half without the fabric fraying once it was cut.

2. Once the fabric was in two pieces I measured the length of the KVARTAL rail and cut each piece of fabric on the outside edge to be one inch longer than the rail.

3. Using my iron on the hottest setting I ironed the outside edge under by the extra inch. I secured the top and bottom KVARTAL rail to each half of the fabric

4. I took down the two center panels of my KVARTAL curtains and hung the two tree panels in its place.

5. I added the ornaments by affixing green craft wire to the ornaments and poking the wire through the fabric. Once the wire was through the fabric I just bent it down flat against the back of the curtain.

Now I have a no-mess, no-space-required, Christmas tree!

~ Camron

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ENJE goes to the city

Materials: Plastic dropcloth, tape, 2 IKEA ENJEs, 4 yards of fabric, Sobo or another fabric glue, large paintbrush, rubber cement pickup, long metal ruler, two weighted objects (jars work!), sharp scissors, needle & thread (or a sewing machine), power drill, screws

Description: My partner and I moved to our current apartment in May, and before then neither of us had ever lived in a building with radiators. After reading some safety guides, I realized that our curtains would pose a fire hazard. I was looking online for a while for printed roller shades that could block the light from our east-facing windows in the morning, but I couldn't find any that weren't expensive and that would coordinate with the patterns in our room.

I happened upon this tutorial the other day, and decided to try it out. I actually found Lazy Cozy's tutorial to be lacking in some aspects: she does not mention that you absolutely need a dropcloth, otherwise glue will get all over your floor! The fabric will also fray if you don't hem the sides. There was no instruction on what to do with the fabric that meets the end of the shade. My tutorial will expand on hers.


I could not locate her adhesive since she is located in the UK, so I used Sobo, the glue I use for all my modeling projects. It did not leak through my fantastic fabric from Jessica Hogarth, but it did leave blotches on the ENJE fabric. I took pictures of my rollers' current state, but I'm going to buy a dark canvas to cover the backs, because we want total room-darkening.

I found that doing the second shade went a LOT quicker after I figured out what I was doing. The first one probably took me 5 hours. I hand-sewed since I don't own a sewing machine, and I have no idea how to operate one. If you use one, I bet you could finish one shade in under an hour.

1) Iron your fabric. Cut it so that it's a little longer and wider than your shade.

2) Tape down a dropcloth!! Seriously. The ENJE material is sheer, and glue will go right through it.

3) Unroll one shade facing up and tape it to the dropcloth. Make sure the shade is taut, so there are no wrinkles.

4) Lay the fabric on top of the shade, and then weigh down the top and bottom on one side using jars or other heavy objects. Flip the fabric over them.

5) Spread glue with your paintbrush on the shade. Start on the side with the weighted objects. I found that doing it one column at a time and then tacking it down with my metal ruler was very effective at removing wrinkles. This method also ensures that your glue won't dry before you lay the fabric down. After you've completed the one side, remove the weights and glue the rest of the fabric onto the shade.

6) Your fabric should be a little longer than where the ENJE fabric meets the bottom of the shade. Put glue at the base, and then tuck your fabric in with the metal ruler.

7) Use the rubber cement pickup to remove stray glue marks.

8) Wait for the glue to be mostly dry. Flip the shade over, but make sure there is no wet glue on the dropcloth first!

9) Paint glue on the edges of the shade.

10) Wait for the glue to dry, and then cut a straight edge.

11) Hand-sew the edge or use a sewing machine to make sure the fabric doesn't fray.

12) Install the shade following IKEA's instructions with a power drill and screws.

13) Admire your work!

Cost: $80 for both shades, more or less depending on the size you need and the fabric you choose.
Production and installation: 3-8 hours, depending on if you use a sewing machine.

See more of the ENJE roller shades.

~ Luna, Philadelphia, PA

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The TYGLÖSA frame hack

Materials: TYGLÖSA frame, fabric of your own taste, pieces of wood, single colour fabric

Description: This hack was made to cover our front speakers of the surround system in our living room. In order not to interfere with the quality of the sound, we decided to cover them with pictures made out of fabric.

So the fabric that you want to see is nailed to the TYGLÖSA frame as described by IKEA.

The TYGLÖSA frame is though way to shallow to cover a speaker by itself.

So we made a much deeper frame of the same size, covered it with a black fabric to blend in better.

The deep frame is hung on the wall around the speaker, the TYGLÖSA frame is hung on the deep frame flat brackets from the hardware store.

See more of the TYGLÖSA speaker hide.

~ Ann-Marie, Malmoe, Sweden

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Custom Crazy Clock

Materials: TAJMA wall clock ($9.99), Scissors, fabric glue, fabric, an inexpensive paintbrush, paper adhesive (such as double-sided tape), computer drawing program (such as Photoshop, Paint, GIMP, etc.), a box cutter, and small hand saw.

Description: Hi! I wanted a bright, fun clock for the pop-art inspired home office we decorated (a previous Ikea Hacker post), but didn't find anything I really liked. After making curtains and pillows from Ikea fabric, I had some left over and though it would be the perfect pattern on the clock.

Using Ikea's TAJMA wall clock for only $10, I created a fun and coordinated clock for this home office. I almost opted for using cut up strips of an Ikea catalogue as I was inspired by another Ikea Hacker post I read this morning (Ikea catalogue curtains - genius!), so any fabric or paper will do just fine.

See the step by step guide for the personalised clock.

~ Form & Function

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ANITA custom looking 108" curtain, can ya LENDA me some length?

Materials: Anita Panels Dark Grey, Lenda Panels, sewing machine, chocolate brown 5/8" grograin, HeatnBond Lite

Description: I sewed the bottom I cut off of a pair of LENDA panels to the bottom of a pair of ANITA panels. (I am using the top part of the LENDAs in another room).

I cut 23 1/2 " off the Lenda. When attaching, keep in mind that the ANITA is slightly wider than the LENDA, so I used HeatnBond to take them in a bit at the connection point. about 1/2 inch or a turn of the seam on each side. pinned them together (facing outside to outside), and sewed a seam. Then used HeatnBond to hem the curtains and added ribbon trim. The HeatnBond is adhesive, so attached it to the ribbon and then placed it on fabric & ironed.

~ Whitley Levy, Texas

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New headboard for old

Materials: old Ikea bed frame, single ikea duvet, Ikea Malin Vag fabric, plywood, staple gun, velcro cable ties

Description: Did you know that 1 in 10 Europeans were conceived on an Ikea bed? Our little scamp is among that flat-packed-furniture-boot-knockin 10% so even though our bed had it's fair share of battle scars & we really wanted a funky new frame, I decided to see what creative improvement I could come up with for sentimental reasons - & saved a few hundred euros in the process!

As the old Ikea frame was still in excellent, no-squeaking, sturdy-enough-to-bounce-on condition I realized that all that was needed to add some more groove to our bedroom was a new head & foot board.

Here's the super simple penny pinching how-to.

~ Sheri, Berlin

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Saralisa fabric and graffiti fusion as wall decor

Materials: Ikea Saralisa fabric, Ikea fabric frame, permanent marker (ink pen), stapler

Description:
1. I cut a 24" sized square from the fabric and stretched it on the fabric frame using a stapler.

2. I attached it to the wall.

3. Drawing with a permanent marker I extended the pattern on the wall until it reached the desired shape.

It's hard to stop drawing but "less is more", let the framed picture be dominant.

See more of the Saralisa wall decor.

~ Sublót blog, Hungary

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How many times...

Materials: Britten Nummer fabric

Description: Buy 1,2mts of Britten Nummer fabric.

Soak it in tea for, about, 4 hours, this will give it an old-vintage touch. Drain and let it dry. Iron and starch the fabric.

Prepare a framework with 4 of 1mt wooden strips, joining them with wooden glue and some metal brackets.
Tense the fabric on the framework and fix it using enough staples.

Hang it and.... count.

~ Erika Serrano, Barcelona (Spain)

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ERSLEV rug gets a sunny disposition

Materials: ERSLEV Rug

Description: 1. Lay out your drop cloth first and tape to floor-should be larger than 4'7" x 6'7" for paint overflow from stripes

2. Lay out the rug on top & measure out your stripes (can be a little or a lot! I did mine in 1, 2, 3 & 4 inch stripes with 1 inch in between for consistency. Then tape them off with frog tape or painters tape so the paint doesn't seep through.

3. I choose three different colours of paint - all latex - but you can use one or as many as you like. I did the yellow first then the dark grey and let it sit over night to completely dry. Then I did the lighter grey the following morning because there were less of those stripes. Total time was about 6 hours.

4. Let it sit for another few hours till it is completely dry and voila! Instant colour and designer touch added to any room!

Colours used:

Beauti-tone Natura: Best Dressed F038 (Bought)
General Paint: 8670W (Already Had)
C.I.L. Essentials: Obsidian Glass (Already Had)

~ Refresh Interiors, Squamish, BC.

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Slightly Shadowy

Materials: 4 SEMINE Panel Curtains, a few screws

Description: A very very simple hack: using an existing pergola as a shade, by overlaying 4 Semine Panel Curtains in a zig-zaging pattern. The textile is strong enough as to be tensed on every step by using small screws. The pergola's wide was almost the exact panel wide. Lucky me.

~ Tresco, Tel Aviv, Israel

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