Hairpin Expedit for the hall

Unfortunately I didn’t take any in progress pictures because I was under some time constraints with this project. This is my first Ikea hack, but 99% of things in my bookmarks come from this very site.

I didn’t really think out the pattern for the top of hack before I started, but I am pretty happy with the outcome.

For this hack I used …
Materials:
4x 16 inch Hairpin Legs from a shop on etsy.
1 x Expedit White 1×5
Copious amounts of Wood Glue
Several Wood Screws
Clear Varnish
3 Pallets
4 Different Spray Paints + A spray on metal primer

Tools:
Mitre saw (Can use a mitre box +handsaw but it will take a lot longer)
Palm Sander
Power Screwdriver
Varnish Brushes
+ Tools needed to build the expedit and break pallets.
Hand Plane (Optional)
As many clamps as you can lay your hands on.

Method: (I think this is the most efficient way of doing it to keep mess to a minimum and use space most efficiently.)

1: Break the pallets and remove all the nails. There are plenty of videos available from the usual sources if you need help with this.
2. Build up the Expedit as per standard instructions
3. Using some low grit sandpaper, hand sand the outside of the Expedit, giving the wood glue something to key onto. (Good idea to do this now to give any dust a chance to settle and be wiped off before gluing)
4. Decide on the pattern before starting cutting any wood.
5 Once the pattern is decided upon, a good idea is to miter the ends of the wood, as a lot of pallet ends will have received damage during their life. I only realised halfway through that this was a good idea, and regretted not doing it from the start.
6. Cut and glue your wood. Along the bottom, use thicker pieces, that don’t have any curves in them. This reinforces the base, and spreads weight as evenly as possible. I skipped out putting a thick plywood on the base as I had stumbled upon some nice strong pallet lengths.

7. For the sides, I screwed into the wood on the top, taking care not to screw into the Expedit’s frame. For the verticals on the face, I glued and screwed them.

8. After allowing all the glue to dry, start sanding. This is the messy part, but didn’t take too long really if you work up from a 40 grit.
9.Once sanding is finished, wait for the dust to settle. Then tidy up, and make sure to wipe down the surface of the wood. Hoovering at this point is a great idea as well.
10. The finishing touch is 3 coats of clear varnish.

At any point, you can spray paint the legs. (Ideally outside). 2 coats of primer, and 2 coats of the colour. Legs were attached with wood screws(Length will vary depending on legs and the thickness of  the wood)

The hand plane was a No.4 smoothing plane, just to take level off some of the top.

Hopefully this is thorough enough, I can’t really think of anything to add, and I hope the pictures help.