IKEA Bike Rack Hack for Renters (no drilling!)

In order to maintain harmony in the family, we had to figure out a compromise between the dimension of our apartment and the fact that my partner has no intention of parking the bicycles outside.

Although a bike rack seemed like the most obvious solution, we couldn’t find anything that could meet our needs. So, we decided to build it by ourselves. Our two main goals were:

1) it has to stand without drilling the wall since we’re renting and we’re not allowed to do so
2) it has to be cheap.

IKEA BIKE rack for renters with no screwing, no drilling

Materials:

  • Bestå legs (20 SEK at the as-is corner)
  • Ivar side unit (30×226) 125 SEK
  • Ekby Valter brackets (28cm) 25 SEK each

Stuff and tools we already had at home:

  • Screws
  • Drill
  • Wood glue
  • An old inner tube
  • Tennis racket grip
  • Felt pads

We went to IKEA and with a bit of work we came up with a cool bike rack, that cost about 300 SEK (yes, we are incredibly proud of it!)

Instructions for an IKEA No-Screw Bike Rack

1. Make the front feet

ekby valter brackets to create a stand

First, we took the IVAR side post and made it stand. We used 2 Ekby Valter brackets as front feet for the structure, using the already-made holes for the screws. We also put some wood glue in addition to the screws, just for being 100% sure. The IVAR side post sits on the small jut-out section of the bracket, as shown in the image below.

2. Make the lateral feet

ekby valter brackets to create a stand for a bike rack

Making the lateral feet was a little bit tricky. We cut away the jutting part and made some new holes for the screws to not cross the screws used for the front feet. Repeat on the other side of the IVAR frame but with the lateral leg facing the opposite side.

3. Add the bike hanger

ekby valter brackets to create an IKEA bike rack hanger

We used the last 2 Ekby Valter brackets as the bike hanger. The brackets are attached with the wide part of the bracket facing up. Then, we attached the two pieces you cut off from the lateral feet to make a stopper at the end of the bracket. This helps to prevent the bike from falling off the hanger. Then we covered it with an old inner tube and some tennis racket grip, to avoid annoying scratches on the bike frame. There are definitely ways to make this part look prettier, but we used what we had on hand.

4. Lock the top

IKEA BIKE rack for renters with no screwing, no drilling

For the upper part, we changed the Bestå legs’ normal screws, with some wood/iron ones.

We mounted the Bestå legs, put some felt pads on the surfaces in contact with the floor and ceiling, placed the rack, and adjusted the length of Bestå legs to brace against the ceiling. Put the bikes on our IKEA Bike Rack and all was in harmony.

~ by Pam, Uppsala

Jules Yap