Hackers Help: How do I hack this Kallax headboard?

Jules Yap·
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Recently I found a post with a light hack to use KALLAX bookshelf as child’s headboard. But I can’t find any tutorial, it seems to be very easy but in fact a bed width is 80-90 cm and if we put KALLAX bookshelf used in photo this way, its proof is only 39 cm.

Suppose it has been done with two units (39+39=78 cm) but it results small for a 90 cm bed, but I would like to adapt this idea to 90 cm measure. Any good idea or recommendation from expert hackers?? Please, need help, my child’s room is small and that’s a perfect idea.

image1

~ Sue

Photo source: Unknown.

Jules Yap
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8 Responses

  1. i would put 2 of the kallax units there, but turn one so that it’s sideways.
    not only would it then function as the back for the front unit, but if you only attach the upholstered board with velcro/3m strips, you can access that storage.
    42cm+39cm still doesn’t = 90, but it gets you closer. 81cm.

    of course, another solution, as mentioned above, would be to create a little hidden ‘closet’ in there. attach a 12mm thick piece of mdf (1/2″ for americans) to the back of one unit. it’ll stop the inserts and toys from falling, and it will add stability for the closet rail(s) that you can then attach to the back and the wall to take up the remaining 51cm. 90cm-39cm depth leaves you with 51cm, which is plenty of space to hang children’s clothes, especially out of season ones. if need be, you could have 1 clothes rail, and then just use plastic tubs to stack under for miscellaneous storages.

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  2. Look closely at the picture, where the red trapezoidal box with the stuffed animals is resting on top of the unit.

    Do you see the *corner* of the wall there? See where the color changes from white to a light grey? That tells us that there is a bump-out into the room that takes up a little over half the depth of the bed. There isn’t any *dead space* beyond the back of the cabinet.

    In fact, the cabinet and covered headboard cleverly makes a DEEPER niche to fit the bed into the room.

    Of course, this picture is one solution custom made to fit a singular situation and I know it does not match anyone else’s room configuration.

    I think that a corner position for this arrangemet is still a good one. If you have the Kallax cabinet facing outward into the room, you could turn the headboard into the face frame for a closet door that leads to the “dead space” behind the back of the cabinet.

    *You could install closet hanging rods for clothes between the wall and the back of the Kallax and hang clothes.
    *You could install shelves for storing bed linens or toys or whatever.
    *The door that hides all of this from view could be turned into a chalk board or a magnet board (although chalk dust on your bed pillow or magnets falling on your head might be a drawback!).
    *Or make the door into a picture frame for a favorite poster.

    If the unit will be accessible from both sides/is not in a corner, then you can put two Kallaxes back to back facing to the side and wall mount a third one in-between facing the bed. Or run a shelf between just above pillow height for a convenient bookcase headboard.

    Lots of possibilities!

    I just wish there was an IKEA store in my town. I would have so much fun just rearranging the configurations in my head on the shop floor ….

    Oh well, maybe some day!

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  3. I would double up two of the Kalax units so that nothing falls through and then on the back of the one closest tot he wall add a piece of plywood so nothing falls through I would attach them together with metal brackets and then for the headboard I would actually sand/rough up the outside of the unit and use homasote instead of plywood. Cut down a piece of 2×4 and place it behind the connected units and the wall to help hold them away from the wall to your desired width of the bed. Homasote is what people make tack boards out of in commercial offices and cubicles. It is fairly sturdy and would allow tacking. wrap it with fabric and then use liquid nails to glue it in place. To help hold it for a bit while the glue dries I would suggest using finish nails.

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  4. If it has to be in this configuration in a corner, in order to avoid the gap in the middle, slide both KALLAXs close together and offset them to be flush with the edge of the plywood on the room facing side, leaving the excess gap in the corner. Possibly add another sheet of plywood to the open side of the KALLAX that faces the corner so things don’t slide off into that gap. That way you can have a “raceway” for electrics without a gap in the middle of the shelves.

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  5. If you are able to use it as both a headboard and a room divider (not pushed into a corner like that), you may want to think about using this KALLAX unit which is 86cm wide. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60294622/

    Attach the plywood to the bed frame (Hollywood frame?) first, then attach the KALLAX to the plywood using the provided wall mounts (possibly with extra wall mounts or angle brackets on the lower portion.

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  6. Get a piece of thing plywood (in the width you want) and pad it with batting and fabric. Attach it to your 1 Kallax from the inside of the shelf.
    The thing is, if your plywood is 90 cm and the kallax is 39 cm, you should really build a brace behind the plywood to support that gap. If you build a simple box frame to go in that gap, then I wouldn’t even screw the kallax and plywood together. I’d use a wood adhesive between the two surfaces, clamp them together until it’s dried. With the box frame support behind the plywood, you could safely lean against the plywood headboard and not worry about it falling in.

    If you want the kallax shelves to be accessible from both sides of the shelves, than buy two and leave a gap between them, so that the overall width is 90 cm. same thing – get plywood and cover it, brace the gap with a simple box frame and glue on the wood headboard piece to the shelves.

    I’m assuming this is not going to be a freestanding structure and that you’ll have a wall behind the headboard, like the Picture you attached n

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  7. That’s an older model expedit and not a kallax which is why I think you’re having trouble figuring it out. There used to be a 5×1 cube expedit where the kallax only comes 4×1 or 4×2. There might be a second expedit behind it, but I doubt it. It just looks like a decorated piece of plywood that’s been wedged between the expedit and the bed.

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