IKEA Living Room Hacks

Oscar Cederwall from Bålsta, Sweden converts the Bonde TV Add-on into a handsome sideboard. Oscar says, “I did this hack a couple of years ago. The color of my Bonde side board is not available any more as far as I know. The main reason for why I decided to…

Jim recently completed an entertainment unit with an Asian bend. Nice. Very nice. He says, “Basically, it’s an Ikea Expedit reconfigured and modified as an entertainment center in an Asian inspired style. The first photo shows it without the bottom cube shelves and removable shelves. Photo 2 shows it with…

Elodie gives her old TV unit a new burst of life. Again. “This is a third life for my TV furniture. At the beginning it was ‘birch’. I transformed it in brown and flashy colors, and some years later I painted it in white and then I put a shiny…

Cindy always wanted a window seat/bay window thing in her living room. Here’s how she fulfilled her wish with a few Traby bookcases. She says, “I adapted some Traby bookcases to form a window seat that doubles as a daybed for visiting guests! The units are basically different size Traby…

Helga gets crafty with her Svenning chair. The fabric is simply gorgeous. She says, “I embroidered some fabric I got from the offcuts bin in John Lewis (a big chain of department stores in the UK, who sell good stuff, including lovely fabrics). Then I used it to recover my…

All the furniture in Andrew’s house are on wheels. Hmm … certainly makes cleaning easier. For us, he gives the Tullsta Armchair mobility. He say, “Basically, I remove the stick legs from the Tullsta and replace it with a wood 2×4 box and Rill casters to put the armchair on…

Over at Eddie Ross‘, they’ve posted an amazing step by step re-upholstery of a Manstad sofa. The chocolate twill cover is from the Slipcover shop and tucked using only a staple gun and an Exacto knife. The right suit really does make the sofa. See more of the slipcover re-upholstery.

The IKEA TULLSTA armchair is one of the most enduring armchairs in IKEA’s range. It’s compact and easy to place. The curve lines give it a timeless feel. Another great feature is the removable slipcovers so it’s easy to keep clean. And you can quickly change the color and style…

Julie spruces up an old LACK coffee table with mosaic. She says, “It was pretty simple, actually. I got my dad to make a wood cover (pine sides + mdf base) to slide over top of the original table. I think he made it about 1mm bigger on each side,…

Tim gets hold of some Platta wooden decking to embellish his window sill which gives it a nice natural look. He says, “I just made a hack using five Plattas. They were to be used for your terrace for flowers or walking on it I suppose. I don’t really know.…

It’s a Saturday and perhaps you’ll like a round of baseball too. Matthew made this baseball card collage table that’s so awesome. Happy weekend and happy hacking. He says, “I discovered an interesting way to give the LACK side table a baseball make-over using a bunch of vintage baseball cards,…

Eric, who is a Masters candidate for a degree in Industrial Design, has been hacking Ikea for a while now. His most current hack is his successful recovery of his Snille Chair. It’s a mutant between a Benjamin stool and a Snille – a Benjamille? He says, “The stem and…

This is Lily’s very first IKEA hack — Billy bookshelf room dividers — and it’s a nice one. Clever use of BILLY bookshelves to section out a ‘sleeping area’ and create storage. Definitely a snuggle-worthy corner. She says, “I’m renting this large one space studio but didn’t like the idea…

An old cushion headrest and makes two under the hands of Gianluca and Rossella. They share, “We were trying to fix an old bamboo sofa, so, after new covers for the sofa cushions, we were thinking about adding little cushions. We had this cylindrical foam rubber cushion from Ikea. I…

Chris scores some seats from a bowling alley and pairs them nicely with Ikea swivel legs. He explains, “Through my relentless searching of craigslist, I found these free seats from a bowling alley. Initially I was going to build a bench with them, but a stop at Ikea led me…

Vidya gives the Poang chair a swift makeover. She says, “My husband and I have always disagreed about the Poang chair. He loves the comfort – I don’t like any of the fabrics that it comes in. The cover we have for it is plain white and it is so…

This is from Ran, who wanted a big, low coffee table, but couldn’t find one that fitted the two requirements. So he hacks one from Lack shelves. I love the size and the white strip. It would work great with Capita legs too. He says, “I thought about using a…

It’s amazing what new skin can do to furniture. These from Anna of Forty Two Roads look simply gorgeous with new fabrics. Anna writes, “I recently reupholstered some furniture in my house with Ikea fabric (from the As-Is bins, where I usually hunt for cool fabric pieces). I’ve really been…

Monica got a Magiker coffee table (link no longer available) but was soon sick of people seeing all her junk under the glass. So she took old CD covers and pasted them on the top of the glass. Then mod podged over on top of that, and a polyurethane spray…

Well, we’ve had Dennis and Elvis, so it was only a matter of time that we have superheroes. Enjoy this series of decoupage stools from Eva. She says, “I hacked 3 Benjamin stools using the decoupage technique. The first and second are made applying various pictures from old art magazines…