I found a bin of VIKA OLEBY legs on clearance on for $2 a piece. The tall ones were desk height, and I didn’t like the lines that much, but the short ones… beautiful! 4 legs, into the giant ikea bag, and home to sit for 3 years.
I took quite awhile to figure out exactly how I was going to use them, and once I decided, it took more time to find a source of 1″ birch ply that would match.
This entire hack was done at my local hackerspace: Pumping Station One.
The joint I used is called a scarf, and is extremely strong. Technically, a scarf should use at least an 1:8 ratio of material thickness to joint length, but the top section of each VIKA OLEBY was only about 4.5 inches long, and 1 inch thick, so my ratio is “only” 1:4.5.
First, I built a tablesaw jig to cut the legs at the correct angle. To cut the joints on the tabletop, I screwed a riser to the opposite end of the table to hold the angle steady, and used a router to cut the other half of the joint. As an experiment, I used hot hide glue to bond the legs to the top. Not the easiest stuff to work with, but very very strong. I finished the table with a shellac sealer, and couple coats of water based polyurethane.
Two interesting notes about VIKA OLEBY :
– All plies of birch have their grain running in the same direction, not alternating as in plywood. That made it noticeably easier to work with.
– The curvature of each leg was slightly different. This is fairly common in bent wood laminations, but perhaps is part of the reason Ikea discontinued this product.
I don’t have pictures of the build process, but here’s the final product.
Jules is the author of IKEAHackers.net: 25 Biggest and Best Projects".
- 12 Room Divider Ideas To Create Cosy Spaces in Your Home - September 21, 2023
- DIY door stopper you can easily make from this one IKEA item - September 19, 2023
- DIY floating shelves: Alexia’s unique and creative IKEA hack - September 16, 2023