How Did That Get in My Lunchbox?: The Story of Food12 Makeovers for the IKEA Dresser Everyone Owns Here's proof that you can have champagne on a beer budget. BEFORE: BORGSJO cabinetBEFORE: BORGSJO cabinetThis line of shelves allows you to mix and match cabinets to create different looks. After: Refined Office StorageAfter: Refined Office StorageLining a wall, a row of these cabinets seriously impresses. This blogger used glass doors on top and solid doors on the bottom, so there's space above for pretty things and plenty of hiding spots below.See more at Avery Street Design » 23 Crafty Ways to Repurpose Empty Wine Bottles IKEA Expedit turns into beautiful blue sideboard cabinet I used to have 2 Ikea Expedit shelves in my living room, one next to the other. I actually really liked the look of it, Nifty Rustic Denim Ottoman with Handy Storage Ikea Products used IKEA KNAGGLIG box IKEA RILL casters Using an old pair of jeans and an IKEA Knagglig box, I made a really handy
Packing the Pax & Blinding with a Billy With a new baby boy on the way, we had to find a way to squeeze our 10yo and a 4yo daughters in the same Making a bedroom for 3 We needed a space-saving solution for our sleeping space, because we only have one room for us and our child. Items we used: KURA high Hackers Help: Advice on 3 sliding doors? I know that the PAX sliding doors are sold in pairs, but my space will exactly fit 3 of the 29.5″ wardrobes. Monitor & Laptop Stands Bamboo Tablet + Laptop holder IKEA items used: Rimforsa Knife holder I saw these nice Bamboo tablet/smartphone/laptop stands on Amazon. But they were relatively expensive and more geared towards small West Elm-Inspired IKEA AROD lamp hack IKEA product: AROD floor lamp I’ve had a trusty AROD IKEA floor lamp for quite a few years, and while it does its job, the Reliable Appliance Garage out of 2 MULIG shelf units I needed a shelf unit in my garage to hold all of my kitchen appliances.
I had an open slot between my upright freezer andIF YOU’RE a sucker for homeporn, chances are you’ve spent a bit of time trawling the IkeaHackers site marvelling at the way people more creative than you have managed to take an IKEA product and make it look like something uber-luxe that belongs in Don Draper’s penthouse. If you haven’t yet experienced the sheer joy, here are a couple of drool-worthy examples.As the IkeaHackers site (which began in 2006) began to gather a slew of fans, IKEA sat up and took notice. Then in 2014 they decided to shut down IkeaHackers over trademark claims.The move caused a huge online backlash, with many design and tech sites writing that the legal action was “beyond boneheaded”. “IkeaHackers is … harmless fun, a burgeoning community of fans who are excited about Ikea and the hidden genius of its products,” wrote Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan at Gizmodo, in an article protesting the closure of the site.“And what’s more, it gets more people excited about the company (and into its stores)”.
Leonie Hoskin, deputy range and design manager of IKEA, now agrees wholeheartedly with these sentiments and admits the company “reacted in the wrong way”.“I was there in the office when the site was shut down,” she recalls in a meeting room at the IKEA store in Sydney (Hoskins is fielding questions from Australian journalists over cups of coffee and snacks of meatballs while she’s back in her birthplace for a brief stay).Thankfully, someone in the company realised the legal action was a bad idea, and the IkeaHackers site was reopened 24 hours later. Hoskin is well and truly qualified to speak about the event on behalf of the Swedish homewares giant. Originally from Melbourne, she started her career as a communication and interior design co-worker at IKEA 35 years ago. Since then she has worked with the company all over the world and now lives in Sweden working with the designers and product developers.These days IKEA has learned to embrace the hacking culture. The design team now have their own hack-a-thon sessions where they tinker with each other’s product and clever hacks that they’ve seen on the internet are posted on the office walls.
Hoskin admits she recently tried to hack a wire basket contraption from IKEA for her own home, but had a huge amount of trouble as “it was designed so well that it took me so long to saw it in half”.“We’ve gone from being afraid of hacking to embracing it,” she explains. “Now we love it”.Rather than a thorn in the company’s side, the designers now see the hacks as a learning tool. “We look at them and ask ourselves ‘what are people trying to tell us about our own products’.“It’s a really good way for us to learn. The insights we get are reflective of the true needs of life at home.“It’s a lot of fun … you often look at the hacks that these people have come up with and think ‘wow, what an amazing mind’”.“I also often have a sense of envy that people have the spare time to invent these things,” she says with a smile.When asked about her favourite hacks, Hoskin immediately refers to the classic Frosta stool.But Hoskins’ favourite of the bunch is the fact that someone managed to turn it into a children’s bike.
Hoskin admits that IKEA has to be careful about endorsing the hacks too enthusiastically, from a health and safety angle.“The [stool] has been tested as a stool, but hasn’t been tested as a bike, for example, so we have to be a little bit careful”.She also loves the way people have let their imagination run wild with the Mydal bunk bed frames in children’s bedrooms.Innovation is clearly at the core of IKEA’s culture. So much so that late last year the company launched a research hub in Copenhagen called Space 10.The studio will partner with individuals from the worlds of art, design, and technology on a series of research projects that will result in a range of prototypes, as well as exhibitions, events and workshops.And if you look closely you’ll notice the lab is decorated with hacked IKEA furniture … a sure-fire sign that hackers are no longer left out in the cold by the big Swedish family.From assembling its furniture to surviving the showroom, many couples are tested with the so-called IKEA Meltdown.