White chopping block

Materials: Ivar shelves (4) 33"x20" and (2) 17"x20"; (3) Ivar Side units, cut to correct height; (1) Lagan countertop 50"x26"; (2) Byholma baskets; (1) Gorm height extension post; (1) 39" Observator crossbrace; string and white paint

Description: We had very little countertops at our new home. We had a lot of Ivar shelves (from the shelving unit in the office).

We decided to take our three side units and cut them to the height of our cabinets. We now had 6 pieces - 3 shorter ones lining up with each other, and three longer pieces that lined up. Now we painted all of the Ivar pieces white.

We put all the pieces together and added the crossbrace to strengthen the unit. L brackets were added to the top of the side units. Then we screwed the Lagan countertop onto the L brackets.

As you can see above, I miscalculated how long the countertop would be. So we went back to Ikea and got Gorm pieces and some baskets. We screwed the Gorm extension post and tried on the baskets. (I'm sure there is a better way to attach them. But they aren't going anywhere, so we were satisfied.)

It was really easy to put together. And we are very happy with it overall! It fits all of our appliances, dry food, and pots and pans.

See more of Lauren's chopping block.

~ Lauren Ellis

Piecemeal kitchen island

Materials: Bekvam kitchen cart (or similar item), Lagan countertop, Vika Byske Table Leg, drawer slider, wooden slats, cutlery tray

Description: I've had an IKEA kitchen island since sophomore year of college when I moved into a dorm room with a kitchen. It's been the perfect fix for the common lack of counter space in every apartment I've lived in since then. In June, I moved into a tiny studio apartment (200 square feet total) in Brooklyn. The 'kitchen' was just a refrigerator, a stove, a sink, and two cabinets in a nook to one side of the apartment. I knew I need more counter space, as well as a space to eat and work, so I built this multi-purpose kitchen island/bar table/workspace using my old IKEA island and some other IKEA products. Unfortunately, some of the IKEA products I used have disappeared from the site, but I'm sure there are other similar items you could use.

First, we mounted the Lagan countertop at 39", slightly lower than standard bar height but still high enough for 29" stools to fit comfortably under. We secured one end of the counter to the wall using L-brackets, then attached the Vika Byske leg to the other end.

Because the kitchen didn't have a single drawer (something I noticed after I had already moved in, of course), I fashioned a utensil drawer out of a cutlery tray that was almost exactly the same size as the surface of the bottom island. Using a 3/4 extension 18" bottom mount drawer slide from McMaster-Carr, we attached the utensil tray to the top of the smaller kitchen island. Because the bottom mount drawer slide was mounted in the center of drawer, it was slightly wobbly, so we used some wooden slats and screwed them in on one side of the bottom island to steady the drawer. It works great!

~ Molly, Brooklyn, NY

Bathroom to Computer room using Kitchen Cupboards

Materials: Adel (cabinets) and Lagan (countertops)

Description: Our computer room started it's life as a first floor powder room.
We used an Ikea upper corner cabinet for a lower cabinet because we didn't have room for the depth of a lower cabinet. We used Ikea uppers for the two upper cabinets with adel glass panel doors.

The shelves in between the cabinets are EKBY TONY/ EKBY BJÃRNUM cut to size.
The counter top is a wood Ikea Lagan top. We used a table saw and jig saw to cut the top to fit.

See more of Ashli's computer room.

~ Ashli Malinek, Vancouver, British Columbia