winning ikea storage

here's a double bonus from francine reculez of milano, italy. one of them even won a prize in an "ikea decorated items" contest.

francine adds, "the first is a piece using the ivar storage system, added with a couple of home-made cabinet doors and decorated with sides from vegetable & fruit wooden cases. of course, it stands in my kitchen."

"the second piece is a wooden cabinet from a few years ago, no longer in the ikea production line. i simply painted them with acrylic paint (bronze, light gold, dark gold and silver) and pasted on ikea wooden leaves. i also wrote some lines of poetry."

i can see why this beauty bagged the prize.

tiffanikea

elizabeth thomas created the kvintol mosaic lamp to sell at a craft fair but her husband swiped it instead for his office. now, she says, he meditates on the beauty of illuminated glass when coworkers are being annoying.

"i had lots of small pieces of left-over stained glass which i glued (with weldbond - great for glass-on-glass gluing) to the curved glass shade of the lamp. i mosaiced the base to match."

kai's sleek stolmen desk

this is from kai muller of germany. i'm really loving it - the desk and the lovely wall art.

kai says it is really simple - he drilled holes on the desk and then threaded the stolmen posts through. the hack (and painting of the mural) is documented on his site, stylespion.de. even if you can't read german, the pictures say a thousand words.

ikeahacker forums now open!

finally!

you can now post your hacker help questions in the forums, rather than email me. hopefully, you'll be able to get your advice, ideas, solutions and answers much faster.

to fully access the forum, you'll need to register yourself - it's quick and painless. all it takes is a username and email and you're off and running. you'll get to post, reply, vote and send private messages to other users. do drop by the watercooler and introduce yourself as well. it'll be great to finally get to know you.

for starters, i've posted some questions i've received such as:

• how to solve the problem of a poang chair digging into your back?
• have you seen a knappa lookalike?
• can i make sliding doors out of hinge pax doors?
  

also, i've decided to move the genius ikea hack contest submissions to the forum. don't email me - just post 'em there. to kick things off, i've posted tay's super shelf. go check it out. you still have a bit of time before the contest ends - so post your ideas pronto to win prizes.

besides that, i thought it was time for a new look, so i've made a new banner out of ikea's assembly man! :) and also improved the search system with hacks now listed in categories on the right side bar.

phew! seems like there's a lot happening. skip on over and have fun at the ikeahacker forums. see you there.

- jules

ikea pet bed

the things we'll do for our pets. even if mine are just guppies, i understand the lengths we'll go to spoil them. so thuy's pet hack really made me smile.

"it's a a pet bed for a cat or small dog. it's something i haven't seen anyone do yet. i had this idea for about 2 years when i bought the bed and never got to paint and add a cushion until recently (2 years later and my cat finally got the stylish bed she deserves, though it seems she prefers to sleep next to me. aw.)

the hack is very easy...no tools required:

1. take one ikea duktig doll's bed:
2. buy or make a cushion to fit the bed. in my case, my talented sister made the cushion with faux fur. she made it to be used as a throw pillow, but i thought it would be cute for the cat to have an animal print bed.
3. paint bed any color. i used one can of black matte paint. the cost was $1.99 at home depot. it took several coats - i used the whole can.

the project cost less than $30, and a couple days (of not actual work, but to allow coats of paint to dry thoroughly.)"

ikeahacker forums coming soon!

well, i've been working on a new thingamajig for ikeahacker. with the increase in traffic, i've been receiving quite a few hacks, hacker help questions and mail in general. which are all good. do keep them coming.

that said, i feel that i am a bottleneck to the process, especially the "hacker help" section. i currently post one or two hacker help questions per week, which simply translate to a long, long wait. very frustrating if you're looking for answers, like NOW!

so, in a day or two, depending on how much sleep i get, you will get to post your questions at the ikeahacker forums. it's not quite done yet, still some minor tweaks and should be ready to roll.

if you do have a question, please do hold off emailing it to me and wait for the forum launch.

- jules

ikea spotting: soyburger's mac basement

thursday eye candy. mark friesen tipped me on soyburger's collection of macs [and i do like macs :) ] housed beautifully using the ikea stolmen system. and i must say very good use of it.

anyone remembers the name of the low white media unit on the left? i wish it wasn't discontinued.

especially like this countertop from the stolmen too.

stolmen drawers make such handsome display units.

love the red klippan. i never tire of its simplicity. the skruvsta looks really good in this set up too.

go here to view the entire flickr set.