Expedit square into a stereo cabinet

Materials: Expedit, saw, extra white board

Description: I am one of those rare people that still has on old Television and an Old type of stereo. I have small house and search a long time for the perfect TV cabinet.

Than I came up with the idea to redesign the EXPEDIT square cabinet.

I shortened the side panels with 1/4 and filled the hollow space with a piece of wood (4.4cm thick). This I glued tight and after that it was strong enough I drilled in holes to placed the top board again.

From a spare piece of white board I made to carriers to enable the top board to be supported. The TV is now standing on these carriers. Between the carriers is enough space for the DVD player or HDrecorder.

The standard boards I moved a bit (drill holes) such that my stereo fits in the middle and the speakers on the side.

Very simple, took me half a day (including the drying of the glue).

~ Lietje, NEDERLAND

Rack for your Pc/Hi-fi system

Materials: 1/2 Ikea Lack (small), 2 Ikea Lack (medium), 1 box Ikea Capita (16cm, 4 pcs), glue

Description:
Mount Lack one over the other (start with medium Lack). Use little shelves as base, and the other using capita legs as in photo.

You can also use a small Lack under the shelf on the floor to enforce it. (but it's not necessary if you don't plan to use it with heavy items).

Use glue or similar between legs and the respective base (and so for capita legs)
if you need more space, you can add another lack (medium or small, depends on your needs).

~ Enrico, Italy

Semi-home made 'LACKured' media cabinet

Materials: Lack Shelving Unit, Power Drill, 2-1/2 in. Hole Saw, Key Hole Saw, 1/4" brushed nickel aluminum channel, BIN shellac based primer by Zinsser, satin white spray paint, translucent white plexi-glass, plastic oval grommet, Loctite super glue

Description: I was inspired by an Ikea hack done by Matt in Portland. Ever since I saw this I wanted to do this to our birch Lack shelf purchased in 2005.

When we moved into our new home, I took the opportunity to follow thru and transformed the old shelf (first picture) with white spray paint, 1/4" aluminum channels in a brushed nickel finish and custom cut white translucent plexiglass doors and top. This semi-home made 'LACKured' (lacquered) finish gives the cabinet a more high-end look that matches the aesthetic in our new home. I modified Matt's hack by adding a grommet hole behind the TV so I could hide all the cables. Also only one side of the shelf has doors so we could still use the open side to display objects and see the brick wall behind the cabinet.

Link to slide show and more pictures.

Step by step instructions after the jump.

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Besta Boas Chalkboard Room Divider

Materials: Besta Boas TV storage unit, medium-density fiberboard, chalkboard paint, industrial strength velcro

Description: We recently moved into a 1000 sq. ft. apartment and quickly discovered that our large couches only fit in one configuration in the living room. Unfortunately, this covered the wall designated for the TV. In order to fit the couches, we had to put our old, ugly TV stand in the area between the dining area and living room. We decided that we needed a better-looking unit that also served as a divider to separate the two areas. We drove four hours to Ikea only to discover that our chosen unit, the Besta Boas, lacked a back panel and, therefore, was unsightly from behind.

After some quick thinking in order to salvage our drive, we recalled how much we liked the kitchen that had a chalkboard wall in the last Pottery Barn catalog. We decided we could implement this on a smaller scale with the TV unit.

After assembling the Besta Boas, we measured the opening on the back. We then went to a local home improvement store and determined that MDF was the best choice material to cover the back, as it was lightweight, durable, and did not need to be sanded (we chose the ¼ inch thickness). We had the MDF cut to the correct dimensions (at no cost). We decided to affix the MDF to the unit with Velcro in order to allow for easy access to the wires and leave space for the power strip to plug into an outlet. Velcro also allowed for the MDF and unit to blend together seamlessly.

We painted the MDF with chalkboard paint (3 coats) and attached Velcro to the back of the top and left side of the MDF and unit. We chose industrial strength Velcro, so this was more than sufficient to hold it in place.

(Be sure to note the Ikea living room rug, Ikea picture frames, and Ikea table and chairs.)

~ Leah and Albert, Texas

Stolmen Floating TV Stand, So Simple Anybody Can Do It!

Materials: x2 Ikea Stolmen Posts, x2 Ikea Clothes Rail 43 1/4", x4 Ikea End Fixtures, x1 generic universal 32- 60" LCD TV flush wall mount, x4 rope binding hooks, x6 1/4"x1" hexagon bolts with nuts, x6 flat washers, x6 locking washers, Screwdriver, Wrench, Pliers, Ruler, Level

Description: I started this project because I wanted to have a cool way to mount my newly purchased 55" LCD television. The problem was that I live in a small apartment and I needed to save as much space as I could without putting more holes in my wall. Seeing as how Ikea no longer sells their Stolmen TV mount, I went onto the internet for ideas, including this site, and I found pictures of other people's project but they either had vague descriptions or required an excessive amount of work or materials (like a drill). So that's how I came up with this idea where I would use a hooking system that required only basic materials from Ikea, any hardware store, and a basic tool kit (which was also purchased at Ikea- i.e. no drilling needed!)

I started by setting up the poles equidistant from the wall and using a level to make sure they stood up straight.

I then loosely attached the 2 clothes rails using the end fixtures (loosely so that I can adjust them a little later)

Using the two mounting brackets from my universal tv wall mount, I attached two of the hooks to the bracket- one at the top and one around the middle of the bracket. I attached the hooks to the bracket using a combination of the bolt, washer, locking washer, and nut (two for the top hook and one for the bottom hook)

The bracket-hook combination was then attached to my television using the screws included with the wall mount. Measuring the distance from the top hook to the bottom hook, I was now able to make final adjustments to the clothes rail to match the same distance so that each rail would carry the same weight of the TV. Once finally adjusted, the rails were screwed tight in place.

Once the rails, the poles, and brackets were all tightened into place, the TV was then carefully lifted and gently placed into position so that the top 2 hooks were latched onto the top rail and the bottom 2 hooks were latched onto the bottom rail. The TV was centered by simply sliding it either left or right on the rails.

~ Victor Pham, Chicago

FROSTA speaker stands

Materials: 2 x FROSTA Stools and 8 dowels

Description: Each speaker stand will require 4 FROSTA stool legs and 4 dowels (from IKEA as well!)

Simply stick four of them together. Use two dowels at the top of the stand to prevent the speaker from slipping backwards. Use the other two at the bottom of the speaker stand to prop the stand up a bit and to reduce the tilt angle as well.

Since there are already drilled holes at the front, I threaded some rope through it to hold them together and to cover up the drilled holes as well.

That's it!

~ Brandon, Singapore

Billy Tobo hybrid TV unit

Materials: Tobo, Billy

Description: We got a new 37" flatscreen TV but I couldn't find anything that would suit for the base unit.

Our apartment is not the biggest and space is always at a premium so we needed something on wheels that would take up as little space as possible whilst containing the TV, the HTPC and all the junk.

By combining a Tobo, a bit of some Billy shelving some castors and some pine board we ended up with a nice unit that has lots of storage and is easy to move into position for movie nights but pushes up against the wall when we want more space.

See more of the Tobo-Billy TV unit.

~ Matt Casey, Barcelona

1 1/2 Billy entertainment centre

Materials: Billy bookshelves, Besta Jagra

Description: I wanted an entertainment centre to fit our new, bigger TV, plus some much needed storage space. Shopping around only revealed that getting something the size I wanted would end up costing $3000 and up.

I have a six year old son who owns the house with his toys, so the TV room was more like his play room. I wanted to ensure that his toys stayed in the same place, but hidden.

Initially, I thought about buying a couple of Pax wardrobes and cutting half the doors to fit the TV, but the TV size did not flow with the Paxes. After browsing IKEA for a day, I settled on the Billy bookshelves and a Besta Jagra, all of these in black-brown... but I still had no storage room for the toys.

Then I stumbled across this site. It inspired me, and I got the idea to simply buy two smaller "Billys" (1/2 the size of the big ones), adding some doors to the smaller ones, not installing the backer board and shelves in the small ones, and fusing these smaller Billys to the big ones, to create the extra space.

I used some pieces of MDF painted black, and some screws to hold the thing in place and make it easy to take apart if needed and the result looks great (in my opinion, of course).

Hope you guys like it!

~ Daniel, Nemarket, Ontario, Canada

Hack Rack

Materials: Lack Side Table

Description: A simple HiFi Rack was needed.
Given was my Amplifier and an old TV stand from B&O that I purchased on a online auction.

Cables should dissapear in the back and it should look ... nice.

I bought myself an Ikea Lack Side Table and just used the board without any legs. I drilled a hole into it, 57mm of diameter. The inside was then covered with some foam rubber and the hole covered with a bass reflex tube I had as a spare part ...

The complete board was then sticked and screwed onto the metal foot. That's it.

~ Pete, Switzerland

Extra long media furniture

Materials: FAKTUM wall cabinet, FAKTUM legs, SIGNUM cable outlet kit, PERFEKT SOLÄR plinth

Description: So, moving in to my new apartment made me realize just how much stuff I had and how little extra space I actually had available. Therefore I had a little brainstorming session, and this is what I came up with.

Instead of using a normal media furniture (I couldn't find any that wasn't super-expensive), I decided to use the FAKTUM wall cabinet made for kitchens. In this case I used 4 double door and one single (HÄRLIG doors, doesn't get cheaper than that).

With a little magic called FAKTUM legs, 2 pieces of oak-worktops (not IKEA but I saw that they have them now as well) and PERFEKT SOLÄR plinth it ended up really really good.

To continue the magic, do the finishing touches with SIGNUM cable outlet kit and hide all the ugly stuff inside one of the cabinets, like in my case printer, WLAN, the base station for the music etc and most of all the cables.

~ Johanna Bergman, Sweden

Stolmen Entertainment Unit for a flat panel TV

Materials: Stolmen system modified with tv mounting bracket, bolts, screws.

Description: I modified a Stolmen system to accommodate a flat panel TV wall mounting system, one that would normally be used to mount a flat panel TV to a wall, using one of the larger (46") shelves as a panel on which to mount the TV. My goal was to create a stabile support for a flat panel TV while preserving the aesthetics of the Ikea Stolmen system. My theory of Ikea hacking is that the final product should not look overly "hacked" to the casual observer.


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DIY TV Riser

Materials: NORTORRP shelves, CAPITA legs

Description: Needed to raise my TV about 6-8" and did tons of research online and it seems most home theatre guys make their own out of MDF. Since I'm not very handy, I decided to try to look for an IKEA solution. I got some inspiration from how other people made monitor stands out of shelving and legs so off I went.

I used Ikea's NORRTORP shelving since it is solid pine (the EKBY JARPEN was my second choice, but it is particle board), and 6" CAPITA legs. With the shelving and legs, the TV was raised 7". The total cost was $70, but the NORRTORP set comes with another shelf so I can use that for another project.

I temporarily fastened a second set of legs in anticipation of getting a new center channel speaker to place under the TV. This way I can rearrange the legs later to make sure the legs don't get in the way.

See more of the DIY TV riser.

~ Kevin

Clean Minimalist TV Stand

Materials: Ikea Lack shelf, Ikea Capita Legs, MDF, Acoustic Speaker Cloth, staples, cabinet magnets

Description: I wanted a TV stand that looked clean, modern, and would hide all of my components but leave them usable by remote. I had seen this Ikea shelf used as a tv stand a couple times and liked it but thought I could contribute something. On another Ikea hack I saw someone use speaker cloth stretched on a frame to cover up an opening and thought it was clever so I combined the ideas here.

Step 1. Acquire Lack shelf : )
Step 2. After putting the shelf together I made the necessary measurements to know what size to cut the MDF strips to for the frames.
Step 3. After having the MDF cut and tacked together into rectangular frames I screwed the cabinet magnets into place on the shelf. This was the hardest part. Getting those screws to penetrate the veneer on the shelf on the insides of the shelf was quite frustrating but we found beer helped with that.

Step 4. I then cut the speaker cloth to the appropriate sizes and stapled them to the MDF frames.
Step 5. I decided to use the feet to raise the level of the shelf and TV a bit higher and to give a more 'open' and 'clean' look. I used 8 legs total as I wanted it to be as sturdy as possible, my plasma TV is quite heavy. I arranged them with 2 on each end and in the middle. The other 2 legs were mounted in the middle a quarter of the way in from the ends to provide good support where the tv would be.

*Note: You'll notice there is a bit of a gap inbetween the frames and the shelf openings, this was unintentional. The Home Depot guy cut the MDF the wrong size and we had to re cut them to even it out and thats what happened. I decided it wasn't the end of the world. Oh, and dont mind the SNES hiding under there.

What we're left with is a TV stand that looks really clean, hides aways all the components and gives me easy access to them when necessary. The whole project was finished over the course of a few days. I'm quite happy with how it turned out but I need to do some serious cable management behind this thing. I'm thinking about screwing some zip ties to the back and running the wires through there....I'll get around to it.

~ Justin Clark, Lakewood, Ohio

TV Stand Lacking a Troll!

Materials: Lack tv bench, trollsta side table

Description: Inspired by a recent hack I removed the legs of a Trollsta sidetable and a Lack tv bench. I drilled some holes into the Lack and using the Trollsta screws I replaced the Lack's short, stubby legs with the sexy, curvy Trollsta legs.

Et Voila!

~ Negin, Washington, DC

Dump your old music cabinet

Materials: BESTA, LACK

Description: Everything is getting smaller this days: no more vinyls, no more tape decks. But a good amp is still needed, so let's just get a smaller music cabinet for now.

I created mine from a small Lack side table. I used 4 Besta wheels instead of the table legs. I got at my local hardware store 4 metric threaded insterts. I just had to drill the hole to the correct diameter and screw them in. I also got 4 metric compatible bolts (allen in my setup).

~ Felipe Chas, Madrid, Spain

Entertainment center for small spaces... Ikea style

Materials: (2) Ekby Osten Shelves, (1) pack Capita Brackets, (2) Vika Fintorp ($42.97)

Description: We have a tiny den. We had an Expedit bookshelf, Ektorp couch and a Kivik ottoman and couldn't get in the room! So we needed a small entertainment center to house our TV and devices. We didn't like anything we saw, so here's what we came up with.

1) We attached 2 Vika Fintorp legs to the front of the Ekby Osten shelf (46in). We could've used the cheaper Vika Curry legs but these have a bit of flair!

2) The Capita brackets have a cool slanted design and are designed to attach on top and bottom so they were a great choice to attach a second shelf.

3) Use wall brackets to attach the unit to the wall, (because the shelf isn't wide enough for 2 sets of legs).

In the end we have an entertainment center that gave us lots of extra storage space and at a mere $42 it's a bargain!

(Two spare pillows cover up the power strip!)

~ The Terrals, Charlotte, NC