How-to: Make a replacement Samtid lamp shade

Materials: board, cutting tool, patience

Description: The Samtid floor lamp is a beautiful design, and will last for many years. Sadly, the skimpy plastic shade that comes with it disintegrates after two short years, and Ikea does not sell replacements. It doesn't matter if sunlight hits the shade, it doesn't matter if you used a low-heat compact fluorescent. They just fall apart. DO NOT throw that base away. Here is a template to make your own replacement shade.

Instructions:
Print out the pdf on regular old letter sized paper. Your printer may cut off the edges of the images; don't worry, just print out at 100% size. Tape the pages together according to the indications. Tape onto your Bristol board, card stock, or sheet plastic. Cut out on lines, "weave" tabs together, and attach to your base. The template includes the original shade, and also a slightly taller and (I think) much more graceful shape.

Years of extended life for a great but flawed Ikea product!

Download the pdf here.

~ Matthew Bird, Providence, RI

Read More »

How to: Mount a SAFE floating 2 x 4 EXPEDIT shelf

Materials: 2 EXPEDIT 2 x 2 shelf units,

Description: This is slightly a hack, but more of a work around for those who want to mount an EXPEDIT 2 x 4 shelf on the wall.

The instructions clearly state that you cannot mount a full 2 x 4 bookshelf on the wall (fig. 2). Also, I have baseboards, a power outlet and a phone jack (yes, we still use a LAN line). I wanted the book shelves flush to the wall and not cover up the outlets.

So, to bypass that and still have a safe structure towering over your kids, I came up with this solution. I mounted the two shelving units using the included wall brackets. One of the brackets was screwed in with a wood screw, the other bracket was secured using a 90 lb. dry wall screw. For added insurance, I put a two small brackets on the top and bottom of the lower unit. These L-brackets were secured with two wood screws each along the studs. I put one underneath the unit and one just under the top board of the unit. This lower unit poses a risk of climbing, plus I wanted to put some books in it.

I found that the easiest way to mount was to place an L-bracket on the wall first, then gently set the unit up against the wall on the bracket. This made it easier to hold the unit flush against the wall for centering and leveling. I then penciled in the spot for the screws and removed unit. The included wall brackets are uniquely designed so that you can make small adjustments after the two screws are already in place (fig. 3)

You will notice a small space between the two units. This makes for a great place to store mail or papers. Without a small gap, the unit is simply a heavier version of the 2 x 4 shelving unit. At least, that is my logic.

I originally wanted to create a gap large enough for additional IKEA baskets. Thus, the empty space would become a shelf. My wife did not like the added height of that idea, so we went with the smaller gap. I don't really like the amount of space under the lower unit, but it was the only way to clear the outlets.

~ Ed Flowers, Atlanta, GA

Read More »

How to: Create a personalised picture with Lack and decal

Materials: Lack

Description: I have an old LACK side table from IKEA that I no longer use.
My sister-in-law wanted me to make her something personal and from the heart. That is when I realized that I could do something fun with the old table.

1. I made a personal picture using Illustrator. I then send it to Parts of Sweden and let them print a furniture decal for me. They already have lovely decals so you don't have to know how to use Illustrator. You can choose between all the Disney motifs and many more.

2. Wait for the furniture decal to be delivered to your home.
3. Unscrew the legs.
4. Clean the table with a rag.

5. Remove the safety paper on the back of the sticker and place decal on the table.
6. To see how to place the decal you can see a videoclip on Youtube here. The video has some Swedish text but hey, you´ll learn some Swedish at the same time.

7. Attach whatever you can find at home that will make it easier for you to hang the picture on the wall. I bought this little metal thing and I am sorry to say that I do not know what it is called. However you attach it on the back of the picture.

8. Now hang it on the wall. Tadaaaa!!!!!

View more decals at Parts of Sweden.

Read More »

Ikea Besta goes Pirate (and loses a leg)

Materials: Ikea Besta

Description: Those that have multiple Besta cabinets next to each other may not like two legs 'next to each other'.

This little hack (although it's a bit of work and you need the proper tools) is a way to get rid of that superfluous leg.


The steps:

0. Get your Ikea Besta cabinets. Attach them properly to each other (preferably 4 screws).

1. Get am aluminum plate approx 2 mm thick.

2. Drill proper holes (4x 4mm for mounting, 1x 8mm for the leg itself).

3. Route out a section of the Ikea Besta cabinets. Don't go too deep, there's nothing below the top cardboard layer!

4. For strength, I've glued a piece of paper using 2 component glue on the bottom of the routed section, and saturated the cardboard with the glue. This isn't required though.

5. Ikea Besta cabinets are made of cardboard. You can't use those to mount the alu plate, so I added little wooden blocks on the inside (things will be hidden from view by a door anyway).

Okay, that pesky extra leg is gone now. Your Ikea Besta just went pirate...

~ BluezNL, Netherlands

Read More »

How to: Disassemble a Hemma Cord Set

Materials: Hemma Cord Set

Description: After not being able to find the information online, I created & posted an Instructable on how to disassemble the common IKEA Hemma Cord Set. I thought it might be of interest to the readers of IKEA Hackers as well -- since being able to separate the Hemma opens up possibilities for all kinds of projects.

The second photo is an example of what one can do with a disassembled Hemma Cord Set (it's not the focus of the hack itself).

See the instructable.

~ Michael Hanttula, Los Angeles

Read More »

How to: Secure the Vika Glasholm glass board

Materials: Vika Glasholm board

Description: My brother in law was looking for a white board for his home office. He wanted an easy to clean one so he decided he preferred glass and got the vika glasholm board. Once at home he realized it was really heavy and couldn't find a good way to hang it. At the end he screw this six round door stoppers to the wall and assembled it.

Sorry, but he was already working on something when I took the photo so I blurred his writings.

~ Ana, Bilbao

Read More »

How to: Add electric sockets to Lillangen cabinet

Materials: Lillangen

Description: First assembly the chassis of the cabinet. After chassis is ready, do a "mold" for your electric sockets with paper and scissors. When you have your mold ready, use marker to make the outline for the sockets hole.


Then take a drill (4mm) and drill as in the mold picture shows and when you have removed the extra bit away, just take a coarse file and even the edges.

After you have tighten the screws, put some silicone on the upside of the socket (wait until it dries) and you're ready to wire the socket.

~ Dj Ankka, Finland

Read More »

How to anchor to a wall when it's far away

Materials: Expedit TV stand, Velcrostraps, door pull handles

Description: This is not much of a hack, but a easy simple way to anchor items to the wall.

I had my TV go up in smoke thus I had to buy a new one and thus a new entertainment center to put it in. After I had everything put together I noticed the wall mounts were about 2 feet above the top of the wall I am putting it against, so I had to come up with some way anchor it to the wall so that it would not tip over.

Here is what I came up with. I had some Velcro straps , attached them to the wall mounts that are all ready on the unit using some zip ties. Mounted 2 loop style pull handles on the wall. Ran the Velcro straps through the handles and back on themselves.

After I did this I realized how easy it to undo the velcro straps to get behind the unit, and how this could be used on a lot of other furniture that needs to be attached to a wall for stability, and how much easier this is then trying to screw the unit straight to the wall.

~ ddgiant, Pleasant Grove, Utah, USA

Read More »

How to: Add tension to Dignitet wire curtain

Materials: Dignitet corner bracket, hacksaw, file

Description: While the Dignitet curtain wire looks nice, it is not the most functional since it tends to sag (even when tensioned properly taut, it will sag). The corner bracket alleviates that, but gives a problem when you have 2 curtains on either side of the corner bracket: you then need to undo one of the fixings with an allen key whenever you want to put the curtains in the laundry.

solution: make a cut in the Dignitet corner bracket (on the top, obviously) so that it is a slit rather than a hole.. use a file to get rid of sharp edges.

It's so small, it's barely a hack, but it does make is sooooooo much easier to take off the curtains.

-It took about 5 minutes per bracket. You should fix the bracket to something like a work bench when cutting it, since using a vice is most likely going to scratch it.

~ Jake, Dublin

Read More »

How to: Extend UTBY Legs

Photo: IKEA.com

Materials: UTBY Legs (901.289.71)

Description: If you want a free standing cooking island with a countertop of more than 90cm you need to extend the UTBY legs since they are only 16cm .

16cm (legs) + 70 cm (cabinet) + 4 cm (countertop) = 90 cm

To get to 95cm (or more) you can extend the screws of the feet with a 4cm piece of an M8 screw and an M8 x 30 coupling screw. Both you can get at the hardware store for almost no money.

I bought a 200cm M8 screw for 2 EUR and cut 8 pieces out of it. Together with the 8 coupling screws I've paid 15 EUR for parts.

The only downside is that you can't use the bottom part of UTBY since it is not long enough.

Tip: The coupling screw gives extra stability if you adjust the extension piece so that the coupling screw goes right to the UTBY leg.

See more of the UTBY leg extension.

~ Frank Schroeder, Amsterdam

Read More »