Bedroom series #4: What to do with odd shaped rooms?

Uneven walls, sloping roof or living in an attic bedroom? We can't always have the perfect room but that doesn't mean it has to be any less. Ikea hackers have found ways to hide the ugliness and bring on the beauty.

Hide it behind Pax doors
Wim from Holland bought his house and had to deal with a low ceiling, making it tough for him to put in a standard wardrobe.

low ceiling problem

He says, "To solve this problem we could use sliding doors, but we didn't like that style. We went to Ikea to see what parts they had available and we liked the Pax series.

I fitted the interior with just with cheap plastic fittings in the measurements of the Pax front doors and drawers. To create enough distance between the doors I used 10cm (approx 4") wood strips.

and you can't tell the room has a low ceiling

Richard's attic bedroom storage with the Malm
He says, "I had a need for more storage in my attic bedroom, so I employed three Ikea Malm dressers, a few cabinet doors that matched my finish, and carved myself a nice built-in storage space.

I built a cavity with plywood (after I measured all my dressers and doors) in my knee walls. Then I insulated behind the cavity, and slid the dressers in place. I just hung a clothes rod behind the door cavities for shirts and such.

I finished with some Ikea mood lights above, and voila!

About the only part that wasn't from Ikea was the wood trim outlining it all, but that was recycled from a salvage yard.

Mary's attic bedroom storage with kitchen cabs
She tells me, "I was turning an attic into a bedroom; it had short walls because of the roof. So I bought four basic kitchen cabinets with flat white doors and wire pullout trays, and set them into the wall (may have to trim base to fit) and added 1/2" shoe molding.

More space, less filling! (In the picture, you can also see that the lights are from Ikea and the little bedside table has been repurposed as a bathroom cabinet.)

Sloping wall gets a new face
I love how Rapunzel turned this lemon into lemonade. The sloping wall is hidden behind this fabulous looking fabric headboard, surrounded by cabinets (akurum, I think).

This is how the room looked before, with 15-year old Pax wardrobes.

The wardrobes were removed but the problem with the wall is that it is warped backwards, with the bottom the wardrobes close to the wall but gaping at the top.

The view from the bed was less than pleasant, as you would be able to look directly into the wall gap. To solve this problem, Rapunzel added wall cabinets between the wardrobes to create a nook for the bed underneath.

Then, she mounted a panel of fabric by way of a square timber attached to the bottom of the wall cabinets. The fabric is attached to the timber by velcro, which I think is brilliant. The look of the room can be easily changed just by changing the fabric. Fantastic!

The sloping wall makeover is documented here.