Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Hacking IKEA Furniture

greenlightning.eu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 288 posts

Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture

#31

Post by lstodd »

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #11
torginus wrote: post #7

I was thinking along the lines of Ikea-style furniture from scratch. Most local hardware stores carry these giant CNC routers, and the technicians there can cut particle board sheets to requirements. How cool would it be if they offered a simplified furniture CAD program, where you could choose what material you need how many shelves of what size, etc and it would generate the needed program that would drill the requ…

That would be very expensive compared to ikea. Look at the very popular Lack table, it's made from cardboard hexagons with four pieces of wood-like thing in the corners to hold the legs. You can't make that yourself for cheap, and just the material cost in eg. wood, would be more expensive than the full table in ikea. Otherwise, there are many youtube channels specializing in woodworking where you can learn all the b…

yeah, those cardboard tables.. I had to glue in 2-4 (5 by 10 cm) stringers and refix legs to them for it to hold a measly epson c8600 and even then it stands on wooden planks to distribute the load.

ikea is a great inspiration for making your own furniture and then a source for bearable spare parts.

Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture

#32

Post by jfengel »

A non-hack I learned about yesterday. I was taking apart an IKEA dining room table. The screws and bolts were obvious, but the top would not separate from the frame.

After much parsing of the assembly manual (which took some effort to find online since they don't make this model any more), I realized that the top had slid over a knobbly dowel. Pulling horizontally popped it off.

I Sharpied the directions on the bottom before I reassembled it. We'll see if far-future me can figure out what I meant.

Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture

#33

Post by sheepscreek »

I love KALLAX the most of all IKEA series. Sturdy as heck, can take a lot of weight, extremely versatile and durable. I've used it as a bookshelf, for putting boxes away, as a wardrobe organizer, you name it. Oh and the price is right. Nothing else comes close.

Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture

#34

Post by IncreasePosts »

artisinal wrote: post #12
vanrohan wrote: post #2

IKEA furniture is great for small adjustments to fit your needs. Not costing a fortune also makes it easier to experiment with it. Since they're so common, it's easy to find CAD drawings for most of them. I did a small hack/conversion on a Billy closet to hide some pipes in our apartment. https://vanderwalt.de/blog/customizing-ikea-billy-to-hide-pi...

My mind immediately went: I’m sure there is some German law or ordinance or regulation against hiding your Gaszähler. This surely goes against die Niederdruckanschlussverordnung. Now that you have published this online, police will visit you to remove the Billy! Perhaps I am too pessimistic with German laws. PS: It looks much better this way.

As long as you can easily slide it out of the way and it isn't fixed to the wall, it wouldn't be a problem for anyone who needs to service it. Therefore, it would not be against regulations, because all regulations in Germany are logical

Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture

#35

Post by lstodd »

mft_ wrote: post #23
ajsnigrutin wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be very expensive compared to ikea. Look at the very popular Lack table, it's made from cardboard hexagons with four pieces of wood-like thing in the corners to hold the legs. You can't make that yourself for cheap, and just the material cost in eg. wood, would be more expensive than the full table in ikea. Otherwise, there are many youtube channels specializing in woodworking where you can learn all the b…

It depends on your comparison; a Lack table is maybe an extreme example. I say this because I’m currently working on a project to build a full kitchen’s worth of cabinet carcasses using good quality 19mm plywood, and I’m aiming for it to be cost neutral with Ikea’s kitchen cabinets, having sourced the plywood from a local DIY store. (Obviously ignoring the cost of my existing tools.) Which is to say, if you could sou…

I applaud you and your project.

But CNC isn't the silver bullet. What I ended up with is 25mm glued wood for frames, 55mm for tops and 15mm plywood plus veneer for facades.

If you use 19mm for frames, you won't have enough strength for hinges, which would inevitably be abused.

If you use 19mm for tops, they will sag and vibrate. The best top I have is actually 55mm IKEA glued oak.

Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture

#36

Post by callahad »

Ylpertnodi wrote: post #22
a3w wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 2014, IKEA made headlines when its legal team sent a cease-and-desist letter to Jules Yap, the founder of IKEA Hackers, demanding that she hand over the domain name. Good to see the site still online, after the PR department took note that legal teams were not-only filing useful claims. Ever since then, I avoid sharing pictures of IKEA furniture. Like Mattel, suing barbie blogs of children. If I did not design it,…

> Even building architects will sometimes sue if you photograph the house. ? In the US there's the 1a - you can photograph anything you can see (from a public place). In the there's the assumption you can photograph anything without a 'do not photo, military dogs' etc. Never heard of a non-publishable building. Even gchq can be photo's.

Check the "Freedom of Panorama" article on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_panorama - lots of restrictions around the world.

Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture

#37

Post by gpugreg »

The kettlebell in this [1] image looks a bit like the one [2] that was recalled due to radioactivity. It's probably a different one, but I thought I should mention it anyway. Better safe than sorry.

[1] https://greenlightning.eu/diy/hacking-ikea-furniture/images/...

[2] https://www.produktwarnung.eu/2025/09/12/rueckruf-erhoehte-s...

Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture

#38

Post by nunez »

Beijinger wrote: post #27

There are tons of websites like this: https://ikeahackers.net/ I read, IKEA first wanted to have them closed down, but then they realized, it does not matter why someone buys their stuff, as long as they buy it. I like Ikea. I lived in so many countries, and it is an excellent place to buy furniture if you have to. But I consider it "throw away" furniture. Quality is okay or soso and it is unlikely to survive several…

IKEA furniture can hold up very well if you follow the instructions precisely and don't disassemble them (in most cases).

We have furniture from IKEA that we bought at least five years ago that still functions great. A mattress we got from them is absolutely stellar with a memory foam topper; all of our guests love it. I think our coffee table is ten years old now.

However, everything goes to hell once you try to take it apart. This is why our mattresses are not on IKEA bed frames. Taking them apart has ALWAYS weakened them significantly. (We use Thuma Japanese joinery bed frames, which are AMAZING for moving and very high quality).

Which is kind of moot when you're talking about high-quality furniture, as they are usually single pieces as well.

Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture

#40

Post by vanrohan »

xattt wrote: post #8
vanrohan wrote: post #2

IKEA furniture is great for small adjustments to fit your needs. Not costing a fortune also makes it easier to experiment with it. Since they're so common, it's easy to find CAD drawings for most of them. I did a small hack/conversion on a Billy closet to hide some pipes in our apartment. https://vanderwalt.de/blog/customizing-ikea-billy-to-hide-pi...

This look lovely and probably felt extremely satisfying once everything was said and done.

Thanks!
Post reply on HN