vintage wallpaper for fira boxes

another fira mini chest hack to add to the collection. i really like this one from patty. the vintage wallpaper definitely takes it up a notch.

"i have 5 units that will be bolted into one tall stack. i had thought about papering them all alike but i have decided to finish each one with a different vintage wallpaper.

i should have known this before i started but these wood boxes need a light sealing before papering...duh. i learned on the first one that a light coat of paint or a varnish will make the paper adhere and be smoother."

see more of patty's vintage wallpaper fira mini chests.

hack your own custom built-in shelving

john's hack of an ikea bookcase into a custom built-in.

"the area shown (pix below) is a 1970's southern california wet bar. i cut the cabinet down so i could install a 36" tile counter (used old counter), repainted the cabinets, added ikea pulls, then the book case.

i basically cut up a $39 book case added a few left over dowels and fitted it inside my existing opening. the cabinet below houses a rack of my audio equipment sounds great, looks great."

mini web server cabinet

this one's from robert who tipped me on his web server cabinet project.

"it's a file & web-server that i have built to fit into an ikea galant effektiv cabinet. i wanted a server in the office but i couldn't stand to have another computer around buzzing all day long. so that's how i came up with the idea of hiding the server in one of our ikea galant cabinets we already have in our office.

it's not really a hack but i think it's a pretty cool and unusual way to use a galant cabinet."

view more of robert's web server cabinet.

update: the cabinet is an effektiv with older style doors. thanks, narf.

customizing ikea in an eichler style home

some weekend eye candy from jenny. she sent me a couple of links to this gorgeous update of a 1950's eichler style home by architect mark marcinik, as featured on sunset magazine, north california edition.

this ikea kitchen cabinets (akurum?) gets custom stainless steel sliding doors.

while this amazing bathroom vanity is propped on top of effektiv cabinets. love the blue and white doors.

read the article on the eichler home update, or go view the slide show.

photos by thomas j. story, sunset magazine.

gorm kitchen storage

i've always been fascinated with a larder full of food and enjoy ransacking my friends' kitchens just to see the brands they buy. advertising research, heh. terry's gorm kitchen storage unit had me squinting quite a bit to read those tiny labels.

"i wanted a quick cheap way to fix my food-storage shelving. in order to stack small cans and bottles, i needed to prevent them from falling out the back. on a whim i bought two pieces of 2ft x 4ft pegboard at home depot. (if you can fit a larger board in your car, you can buy 4ft x 8ft pegboard.) there were two kinds of pegboard; this silvery one was cheaper, about $2-$3 each.

amazingly enough, the holes on the pegboard lined up both vertically and horizontally (with one exception, explained below). i attached the board using long screws/bolts and nuts with fender washers (big flat washers with small screw holes) so the screw head wouldn't slip through the pre-drilled shelf hole. the screws need to be long enough to go through the washer, the gorm upright, and the pegboard. the 1-1/4" screws i bought were too short; i had some 2" screws that worked but were a little long. also, here's the only tricky part: that cross brace that aligns the system can get in the way depending on where it is affixed; best to affix it after installing the pegboard, if you have a choice.

trickier still: this is where you discover that you didn't quite get the shelving square when you affixed that cross brace. the very bottom pegboard holes did not quite match the upright holes, but this was due to a slight sideways skew of the shelving.

the cans under the pegboard helped to hold it in place while i installed the screws. voila, finished shelving with two pegboards attached. of course, this could be handled more elegantly with more forethought, but I'm happy with the result - and the cost.

pimp my lamp

hummmlan embellished the kaskad lampshade and grundton floor lamp base into these sweet lamps.

"i like to redo and reuse things. i thought the lamps would be nicer if i 'pimped' them a little. i’ve used small 'mirrors' and some ribbons with beads on them. and just glued them on the lamp shades. easy as that!"

convert a vestby bed frame to a bookcase

andy built this low slung bookcase from his ikea vestby bed frame. great repurposing of old furniture.

"i needed a low, long bookshelf, and was unable to find one to buy, so i decided to do a conversion project with my old bed, and it worked out great!

it was quite simple, and made really efficient use of the materials the vestby was comprised of. pictured below (left) are the six, six-inch long pieces of wood that were the only pieces salvaged from the original vestby (right) that i didn't use in the bookshelf. i used everything else, including all the hardware, and only needed to buy a box of screws to finish the project.



this project was actually quite cost-effective as well. the vestby costs $59 CDN, and the pine itself would cost about $70 to buy at home depot, according to my estimate."

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