replacing a built-in wardrobe's sliding doors

bruce's wardrobe needed new sliding doors and the pax stordal made a great fit. love the birch finish.

"my wife and i love the malm furniture in our bedroom and needed to find replacement doors for our closet that would complement the furniture. i came across the pax stordal sliding door frames in the as-is department at ikea for $50.00 and bought six 1/8” baltic birch plywood panels for $2.99 each.

wardrobe sliding doorsi cut the metal frame of the doors down to fit in the existing closet opening in our bedroom and then cut the plywood panels to fit the frame and applied three coats of polyurethane. i used the pax stordal hardware for the top and the existing sliding door hardware i had for the bottom. the side trim for the pax stordal doors was cut and used as a top trim piece on the finished project. the total cost of this hack was under $90.00 for great looking doors."

Chic Getaway

It's almost the weekend which makes me think about getting away. I'm going to the Hamptons this weekend but one of my favorite places for peace and quiet is Maine, where many chic New Yorkers also go to getaway. One of those chicettes is Patricia Herrera Lansing and her family.

I love how the outside of the house looks like an old fashioned barn with antique wicker furniture on the porch, while the interior is open and modern with a mix of antiques and contemporary furniture.

I love how the antique farm equipment, painted in bright colors by Patricia's mother-in-law, looks like sculpture outside the entrance to the main house. What an original and creative idea!

Photos by Eric Cahan

inspiration: statist tree towel rack

more eye candy. this is eric's bathroom after a gorgeous paint over. and the ikea statist trees as a towel holder completes the look.

see more of eric's diy bathroom wall painting.

sheer window curtain sun control

ikea's sheer window curtains look great but do little to block out the summer sun. here how you can cut out the glare, a tip sent in by stacy.

sheer window curtain2 layer sheer window curtain"i needed something to control light and glare, and that would be less 'officey' than the existing mini-blinds. i bought a pair of inexpensive wilma curtains, but they were a little bright for my taste. i toned them down by adding a second layer of fabric (a sheer tablecloth, cut in half), attached to the top of the curtain with a small cross-stitch beneath each tab."

White Done Right

I dream of marrying an architect like Derek Sanders. An amazingly talented architect who not only creates beautiful spaces but also co-owns one the chicest restaurants in NYC, La Esquina. Too bad he already has the perfect wife in Michelle Kessler Sanders, the newest head Miu Miu USA. Sooo not fair!


The Sanders loft reminds a little bit of Sally Hershbergers home in California with the white backdrop to the warm brown of the furniture that create the perfect tranquil hideaway.


I love how sleek chrome plays off the warm brown in every room. I think this should serve as a great example of what you could do in a plain white rental if you weren't allowed to paint.

Photos by Jacques Dirand

calling for hackers in the NY area

you hack ikea?
you live in new york?

then, you could get you and your ikea hacks in the new york times. woohoo!

penelope green of the new york times' home and garden is doing a story on ikea hacking and wants to feature a few of us hackers in the flesh.

if you're interested, please drop me a line at ikeahacker [at] gmail [dot] com with your contact information as well as hacks you've done. it doesn't matter whether your hacks have or have not been featured on this site.

thanks!

make your own ikea video game furniture

i'm not much of a gamer but i like how one can build video game thingies into ikea furniture. like this computer mounted lack coffee table and ikea video game chair.

yos made this about 4 1/2 years ago before all the media transfer networking devices. his purpose was to stream music from his main computer to the home theater in his living room. he also installed old games on it so he could play old video games on the big screen.

yos writes: "back in 2001, during one of my weekly ikea trips, i grabbed another lack table and decided that i wanted to build a computer into an end table so that i could stream all my music into the living room. this was way before most of the easy digital music media centers. i cut a hole through the lack table only to understand why they are so light! i had to reinforce the inside of the lack table in order to mount the plexiglas box that i chose for my computer (small form-factor).

i painted some cut 2x4's and mounted them inside the lack table and then mounted the plexiglas computer inside. the computer had a second purpose - to play old school video games that did not run on my new computer. :) the computer was outfitted with a sound activated cold cathode neon blue light that pulsed the table to the music. this was finished up with a custom piece of beveled glass (not shown in the pictures). what a hit at parties!

click to view computer end table flickr photoset

when the easy media centers came about a couple years later (2003), i decided to migrate all the "guts" of the lack table plexiglas computer into this ikea video game chair (can't place the name and i can't find this anymore on ikea's site).

this was not only easier to gain access to the computer components, it was functional too. the chair maintains stability so you could pull it out and sit on it while playing old school computer games. this computer chair was also outfitted with a cold cathode neon light (red) so that this was also a hit at parties!

click to view video game chair flickr set.

both computers have been retired as computers, but still function as interesting art pieces at my new home."

Check out this stream