Sunday, December 26, 2010

Custom Headboard with storage (IKEA hack)

Here's my IKEA hack for building your own head board with plenty of storage space within. We've been looking around for a solution which would fit into our bay windows and after our experience with IKEA bathroom hacks I came up with this plan after discovering that a custom job would cost more than a grand!
Shopping List
  • MOSJO TV Unit - 39.99
  • BESTA Shelf unit/height extension - 70.00
  • VIKA AMON Table Top - 39.99
  • LACK Wall shelf - 29.99
Project Total - $180

The basic idea was to take two TV stands which are the same depth and rotate them 90° so that they become storage boxes. Then custom cut a table top to fit on top of them, within the bay windows.

After assembling the BESTA frame I felt that the edge should be thicker to attach the LACK shelf. Since we weren't going to use the two shelves that came with the TV stand anyway, I cut them down to about 3" deep and screwed them to the inside, level with the edge (arrowed) to provide more support.



Attaching the LACK frame was then straight forward;

Here are the TV stands, in position (plant to be moved later!)


I've always wondered what the 'paper filled' IKEA wood looks like and now I know! About an inch of chipboard with an inner core of corrugated cardboard. For our purposes this is just fine because these edges are never seen (they face the wall) and this constructions helps the wood stay lighter for lifting on and off.

Two angled cuts to the table top and voila, here is the assembled piece with the top in place and the shelf attached to provide something to lean against...

and here's Hagan presenting the big picture the next day ;)

Happy Hacking!