There’s no doubt that Ikea furniture has its own unique charm. The instructions may be questionable at times, and it can take hours to assemble something seemingly simple, but that’s the price you pay for the kind of bargains you can get at Ikea. Plus, there’s nothing quite like the accomplishment you get from putting together your own furniture.
Aside from the sense of achievement you get from assembling it yourself, another huge benefit of Ikea furniture is the way it lends itself to being adapted and used in inventive ways. With a little creative flair, you can put Ikea furniture to all sorts of alternative uses. These are our favourites:
Bekvam step stool to children’s play kitchen
Image courtesy of Mommo Design
It’s amazing what a lick of paint and a few accessories can do. Ikea’s Bekvam stepping stool is not only a lifesaver for vertically challenged adults, it can also be adapted in multiple ways for children to use. Our favourite is turning it into a play kitchen. Simply paint the steps black with matte paint, and once they’re dry, draw hob details onto the top with a white paint marker. Glue some colourful knobs onto the front and some hooks to the sides for your utensils, and presto! One play kitchen.
Ekby Alex shelf to space-saving dressing table
Image courtesy of A New Bloom
Creating a dressing table from the Ekby Alex shelf is an ideal project for anyone who needs a designated area for doing hair and makeup, but is short on space. In addition to the shelf, you’ll need brackets to mount it to the wall, and a couple of desk legs to add a stylish flair and balance the weight. We love A New Bloom‘s tapered desk legs, but a hairpin design or chrome legs would look great, too. Hang a mirror on the wall above it and grab a chair or stool and you’re ready to go! You could also use this Ikea furniture hack to create a narrow table for your hallway for a perfect place to keep your keys and mail.
Stack a Lack to turn a table into shelves
Image courtesy of Live from B5
The Lack side table is among the cheapest Ikea furniture. It costs £5! At 55cm square, it’s the perfect size to fit into a corner, but on its own can look a bit plain. By stacking two or three Lack side tables on top of each other, you can create a simple corner shelving unit with bold lines. To re-create this for yourself, simply assemble your first Lack as normal, then assemble additional Lacks with legs in three corners rather than four. To create the stack, you could either drill holes in each leg and in each shelf to hold them together securely (and make it easy to de-assemble if you need to). Or, you can glue each table in place in the stack and reinforce the joins with brackets hidden in the sides that face into the wall.
Bookcase to storage bench
Image courtesy of Melodrama
Whether you’re after some restaurant-style seating for your dining table or a hallway bench to put your shoes on and take them off (and store them), then this is the Ikea furniture hack for you. Ikea’s Kallax shelving unit comes in a variety of finishes, and can take a good amount of weight when tipped on its side. The shelf spaces make ideal cubby holes – for your shoes, or for dinnerware items like cloth napkins and table clothes. You could leave it there, and decorate your bench with a few scatter cushions if you’re not in the mood for a DIY project. Or, using MDF, two-inch thick foam, a good amount of fabric and a staple gun, you could create a backboard and padded seat for your bench like Melodrama did.
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