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Hacking IKEA Furniture

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Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture

#201

Post by hattmall »

MomsAVoxell wrote: post #123
bborud wrote: post #69

An architect friend of mine once said that he admired IKEA above all other furniture manufacturers because it made a modern range of aesthetics available to the masses. IKEA had done more to evolve the public taste than any other manufacturer. And I do have to agree. I can remember what ghastly furniture most shops used to have around here. There was a lot of what we call "cabin furniture" - which isn't made to look…

>IKEA had done more to evolve the public taste than any other manufacturer. I have lived and worked around a fair chunk of the western world, establishing my local headquarters each time, building myself a home. Long, long ago, I gave up on IKEA for everything except cookware and meatballs. The reason? I grew rapidly tired with seeing my living room everywhere. Move across the US, get invited over for dinner with new…

A lot of people have the exact opposite desires. There are millions of people who have the exact same things because they saw some influencer recommend it and they thought it was cool. I think it's probably the majority that want to have the same things as everyone else, very few people strive for uniqueness.

Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture

#202

Post by bmitc »

clickety_clack wrote: post #125
MomsAVoxell wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>IKEA had done more to evolve the public taste than any other manufacturer. I have lived and worked around a fair chunk of the western world, establishing my local headquarters each time, building myself a home. Long, long ago, I gave up on IKEA for everything except cookware and meatballs. The reason? I grew rapidly tired with seeing my living room everywhere. Move across the US, get invited over for dinner with new…

IKEA is fine when you’re just starting out, but after years, you realize that it’s got a shelf life. Good furniture really is better. You can get great stuff for very reasonable prices on Craigslist and Facebook marketplace, and it’s much more solid, durable and interesting than the cookiecutter ikea stuff.

I've had a lot of my Ikea furniture for over a decade. That includes a dining room table, several bookshelves, office table with glass top, coffee table, and several other things I've forgotten about, and we have some dressers that are years old as well. And several of these pieces have been involved in a move or two.

Applying care and some wood glue during construction will yield a very solid product for years to come. And you have to have a little bit of taste and discretion when buying, as Ikea indeed has a wide range of quality among their items. Any item that has real wood will definitely last.

Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture

#203

Post by Markoff »

forinti wrote: post #78
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...

That is weird. Why is it inside your apartment? Does someone have to check the meter regularly? Anyway, great job.

For what's worth my father's old apartment somewhere in central europe has this inside of the apartment as well, common in older buildings, my 60s built Prague residential building already have them in basement, we have also (central) heating meters outside the apartment measuring the supplied hot water, same with electricity/power meters (with online readings over fiber).

Only thing inside my apartment (well technically it's vertical shaft going through whole building, but there is small access door to meter in every apartment in case you wanna stop the water in the apartment) is remotely read cold/hot water meters with antenna.

They are usually checked only once a year anyway.

Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture

#204

Post by conductr »

forinti wrote: post #155
conductr wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meter still looks very accessible to me

Sure, but somebody has to be home if the gas company wants to look at it.

I agree with the observation but also just no different before and after

Just going to assume this is a locale or property quirk

Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture

#205

Post by jansan »

>For those of you who look down on IKEA furniture, I'd like to hear about what alternatives you think need mentioning.

I do not look down at IKEA, but there are things I would buy at IKEA and things I would not. For example I would not buy a sofa from IKEA. For this in Germany I found Bolia, who offer higher quality Scandinavian furniture with a not too outrageous pricetag.

Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture

#206

Post by MomsAVoxell »

manwe150 wrote: post #159
MomsAVoxell wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While helping friends move, as one does, I often challenge them to disassemble and reassemble their IKEA gear and still have it tight on the other side, so to speak, of the particle board .. Some do it with grace, some of us with a bit of duct tape. Others, not at all.

I challenge you to dissemble your bespoke furniture and have it still usable after reassembly

In fact I regularly do that with the tables and chairs which were built in a local factory here in Vienna in 1918, and they are rock solid.

Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture

#207

Post by galkk »

cptskippy wrote: post #91
katsukare- wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Europe a CNC, or at least good and repeatable saw is available at large hardware stores. You can get any product cut to any shape precisely as long as it's a rectangle. I've not noticed one that offers more than this such as drilling holes. But even if you were to get the wood cut and prepared perfectly, there's still a lot of skill to turn that into nice desk for example, with good joinery, veneer on exposed end…

> In Europe a CNC, or at least good and repeatable saw is available at large hardware stores. You can get any product cut to any shape precisely as long as it's a rectangle. I've not noticed one that offers more than this such as drilling holes. That's not the case in the US. The big box hardware stores have a large track saw vertically mounted that can cut full sheets of wood, but there usually isn't someone working…

Idk, I never cat problems with getting a random Home Depot employee to cut it, the problem is that they are usually very rough cuts, far from square and precision

Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture

#208

Post by dwd »

msisk6 wrote: post #178
pessimizer wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of it is very good, although you have to dig to find it. They use real wood in many pieces; it's not all disposable. I don't think that the good stuff is popular, though, and it certainly isn't highlighted. When a durable (often secretly classic) design slips in, it doesn't last more than a few years. The price is usually too high and it's usually too heavy (for their audience, not for me.) I've still got some r…

Funny you should mention this. Just yesterday my wife and I went to the local Ikea to pick up some bookcases. I was originally just going to buy a bunch of the Billy bookcases; we have a few and know their limitations. But then I noticed they had a much better series called the Hemnes made with actual solid wood shelves and legs so you can route power cords and clean under them. Nice. So instead of a bunch of Billy's…

Bought four Hemnes last year for my sitting room library and various pieces of molded hardwood for a kick board and fascia. Finished up as a single fairly solid built-in bookcase the full length of one wall. The legs allowed for passing wires under (accessible via the removable bottom shelf) and up behind so it can have lighting.

Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture

#209

Post by culebron21 »

wccrawford wrote: post #89
PeterStuer wrote: post #86

Always wonder why those "IKEA Hackers" don't just start from plain furiture panels. More quality for very little less effort.

Do you have an example of these "furniture panels" that are higher quality and require less effort than a mod to a fully-realized piece of furniture with easy instructions? I left off "as cheap" because you didn't say it, but it's a huge part of the puzzle that you deliberately ignored, too. But I'm really interested in seeing these "furniture panels" that you're recommending.

Leroy Merlin cuts particle boards and laminates the end faces for you, at any arbitrary dimensions (rectangular though). You pick the boards, make the order for cutting with the staff, leave the carriage with the boards, and in 15 minutes they're ready. All you have to do at home is drill and screw the boards together, add hinges etc. (You'll need a drill director for precision.) So this is doable without any home workshop. I myself made couple of lockers this way.

One example where IKEA hacking wouldn't have helped: I needed a thin (20cm) and short (80cm) locker for the bathroom. Ikea had nothing close to this -- at least 30cm thick and 1.5m tall. So, I searched Leroy Merlin catalogue fr the most suitable door facades (they weigh twice less than particle boards of the same size) -- and designed the locker around them. We've been using it for 2.5 years.

Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture

#210

Post by mastermage »

unsupp0rted wrote: post #136
MomsAVoxell wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>IKEA had done more to evolve the public taste than any other manufacturer. I have lived and worked around a fair chunk of the western world, establishing my local headquarters each time, building myself a home. Long, long ago, I gave up on IKEA for everything except cookware and meatballs. The reason? I grew rapidly tired with seeing my living room everywhere. Move across the US, get invited over for dinner with new…

I don’t understand this at all. Everybody has my phone and my AirPods, or a model close to them, and that’s fine. I don’t need my AirPods to have a monogamous relationship with me.

What do you think Phone Cases are for? People love phone cases because it gives their devices a bit uniqueness. AirPods also have cases. Other than that for Obvious Reasons Phones all look similar. The shape of your phone is not self expression. However i would hazard a guess if you look into the phone on the home screen you will not find two alike.
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