Hackea: A $2.99 laptop stand and more

A laptop stand for $2.99
A cheap Vink CD rack can be used to prop up your laptop too. The connecting portions are snipped off and filed down. Erik M says "the laptop doesn't touch the spikes of the cut metal in my case (I use a 14"). And it's for display only, to raise the screen to the height of your eyes and help with the passive cooling of the computer. I use an external keyboard and mouse."



See more of Erik's laptop stand (in Spanish).

Lova this!
Zoe lights up the Lova leaf canopy. She says, "I bought the Lova leaf canopy at Ikea and it was to dark on my bed after I installed it. I bought a cord and socket from Ikea and made it into a really big light. I ran the cord up the stem and along the main vein. I tied it to the leaf at the places that the other veins crossed and left holes. I could have easily taken the green bag from packaging and cut it and tied it up with those but I wanted some pink accents."

A bright pot of plant
Timo find another great use for bright breeze Ikea lampshades. He says, "I had the idea when I was walking through the section with all the lights and so on. Well, I saw these lampshades and wondered how they would look as flowerpots, because I needed some. I removed the metal inside the lampshades and cut out a circle of multiplex. The inner pots are surrounded by a bag so the water won't damage the lampshades or my floor."

A row of foosball fun
Erik V rounded a few foosball players in to hit up the fun.

He says, "I have a Grundtal rail in my kitchen and to make it more fun and practical (instead of those awful meat hooks that you can buy separately) I got a couple of wooden foosball players and just put them on the rail before putting it together and screwing it to the wall.

You need:
- 1 Grundtal kitchen rail from Ikea
- 5 or 6 wooden foosballplayers from the ... uhm ... foosball supply store

Varde block kitchen cart
S. Sanchez-Wade wanted a kitchen cart that didn't cost a fortune, but didn't want it to look cheap.

He says, "So I start searching and all the ones I loved were at least $500.00! I guess the John Boos carts were out of the question. Here is one I was attracted to and especially this one. Not a J. Boos, but I liked the look.

So I went to Ikea and found one that had the lines that I wanted (and the stainless steel to match my appliances: Varde Kitchen Cart and I hacked it to kinda look like the expensive ones. The top is well oiled with mineral oil!"

Hackeas: A little embellishment goes a long way

Desk and wall art
Jennifer needed a desk for her guest room, but had little space. She says, "I saw the Norbo wall mounted table at Ikea and knew I could do something with it. I was on a very tight budget and decided to spend my money on other items. The next time I went to Ikea. I found the same desk (missing one screw) for 1/3 the price in the As-is section (my favorite). I painted it in my kooky way and then mounted it to the wall."



See more here.

Paper napkin it

Lydia hacks lots of these chests and frames as presents. She says, "I've improved the looks of some of the mini-chests with the effective paper napkin technique. I've done many of them, some with asparagus, strawberries and gardening utensils. I use the latter to keep my secateurs, seeds, string and other small things I need for gardening. The nice old-fashioned look comes from applying two layers of paint with crackle glaze in-between.

My golden angel key cabinet which has been refurbished with the same method.


Then there are some pictures of my object frames. Since I'm absolutely fond of lighthouses it suggested itself that I created some lighthouse sceneries, and I think I was quite successful. I simply glued the pictures (taken from old calendars) into the frames as a background and used sand, sea shells, seaweed, etc. to decorate the foreground.



Dress up your wardrobe too
Heidi jazzes up the plastic panels on the Aneboda drawers and wardrobe. She says, "I just used Japanese paper/tissue paper and gift wrapping paper to decorate my Aneboda drawers and wardrobes and make their 'sterile' look into something more fitting to my bedroom.

Hackeas: It's butts today

Wag the jacket
Nick made a coat rack out of a Fabian shelf and some Bastis hooks.

Nick explains, "I found my couch always covered in jackets since I had nowhere to really put them, and I found the hooks amusing, so now I hang my jackets up on my dog butt coat rack. I picked red, green and black to give it kind of an African/Jamaican theme, for no reason in particular. (They only had a few colors available.) The assembly is really simple, just a few screws and that's it.



Tail end
Gunter says, "I love Ikea, dogs and books (well, not exactly in that order) so I have grabbed a Bastis hook, glued in a small neodym magnet and pepped up a plain metal bookend with it.

Hackeas: Simple hacks

More hackeas - quick hack jobs you can do easily.

Panel headboard
Markus says, "Once again the 'as-is' territory pulled through! I came across this $.99 natural Anno panel curtain. I love the material and knew I could find something useful to do with it. I cut it in half and made two panels with it. Instead of using them as curtains over a window I thought they would look nice just hanging up on the wall above the headboard. It really adds a nice touch to the room and makes the room feel a little taller.

Simple sideboard
Stephen says, "I bought some pieces of the Ikea Bonde system. When I 'reorganized' my living room, I happened to have a shelf unit with glass door leftover. I wanted a side board at the wall behind the table. So I thought, 'Why not make use of the shelf?' Two brackets, some screws and hanging the shelf sideways did the trick. The hinges keep the door shut.

See more of his bonde sideboard.

Simple nightstand
Stephen says, "I like this nightstand I made better than any stock Ikea ones. It's two simple elements: a Bravad approximately-cube-shaped wall shelf with Capita 6" legs. If you use the stock screws with the legs, you need washers or something similar to keep the screws from going all the way through the wood.

It's probably the easiest hack imaginable, but the resulting product is pretty great."

Simple knife stash away
With a circular saw, Tricia cuts a slot into her Bekvam trolley and voila! You have a knife slot.

Simple coffee table
Martin says, "I have a Lack TV unit which I now use as a coffee table. I did not attach the original legs but screwed on some casters (height about 1 inch). And that's it.

Magnetic photo gallery
Maria began looking for interesting, easy-to-make creative solutions when she started decorating her home. Here she shares two of them with us. She says, "I used Gruntal magnetic containers to create my photo gallery and customized fridge magnet. The background for the old photos is coloured paper."

Quick wall decor
Amy says, "I covered five Malma mirror frames with 1" square and 1" x 2" ceramic tiles. I attached the tiles with Elmer's glue after layout. "

Kid's art display
Chica and Jo uses the Jabba laundry holder (hey, this hanger is becoming popular!) as a piece to display art in a child's room!

Pink trash can
Jennifer, "So...I had this lamp shade from Ikea that did not fit any lamps in my house. I loved the color and shape so I just kept it in my 'I will do something with that later' pile. I also had this random piece of wood that I had been practicing a painting technique on. After recently rearranging my studio a little and the only room for my trash can was on the other side of the room... I knew I needed to fix that problem. I combined all three to make my 'pink trash' can.

I ripped out the guts of the lampshade, turned it over and glued it to the wood base. I wanted to cover the seam, so I added a cute pink ribbon around the base to hide the glue. I then was left with this ribbon seam because I had not planned it out properly. I grabbed a bright green pipe cleaner and made it into a little pipe cleaner rosette and glued it on. My partner thinks it looks like a Caterpillar that has crawled up to sleep. Go figure... I finally decided it needed something on it, so I came up with the cute play on words of 'pink trash'. I can now put trash in my desktop trashcan and dump it into the larger trashcan when it gets full."

See more of the pink trashcan.

Hackeas: With love from Turkey

Handem from Turkey sent me a collection hackeas, which are simply delightful. "I am aware that these are not world-moving hacks. But wanted to share anyway!" he says.

Blanda blank salad bowls as decorative items.

Ordning food warmer as pencil holder.

Grimle dinner table as coffee table (link not available), with legs shortened.

See other hackeas:
- Get organised in no time
- No sweat hacks
- Cheap and easy to the rescue
- Ideas that make you go 'Why didn't I think of that?'
- The tiniest hack ever and more
- An instant attic, legs and kitchen utensil holders
- Ikea hacks you can do in 30 minutes or less