Category: Ikea

Hi-rise Wardrobe and Workstation - IKEA Sektion

8/3/2015

Intro

We really like all of the space saving concepts coming out of the Tiny House movement and we try to make the best use of space in each room. The 2nd bedroom has a 10 foot cathedral ceiling so I wanted to design a built-in wardrobe and mini workstation that would utilize the vertical space.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we weren't very satisfied with the IKEA Besta shelving so I decided to utilize the new IKEA Sektion kitchen cabinets for this project.

This is our last IKEA project on the main level.

Egonomics

The Sektion line includes 80" tall cabinets. I assembled the cabinets over a low, 2" toe space which places the top of the cabinet at 82". This allows the clothes rod to be placed at 80" which leaves plenty of space for drawers or shelves under hanging garments.

The higher cabinets require a ladder and are used for seasonal storage. The picture below shows a standard 8' ceiling height... we have a little over 10' available for hi-rise storage.

The wardrobe will be 5 feet wide and constructed from two 30" wide base cabinets.

The first cabinet needs to be plumb and level and is anchored to two walls

Subsequent cabinets are clamped and screwed together.

The 2" toe space matches the height of our baseboard for a built in look.

The first tier of cabinets hung. There is a five foot wardrobe and a five foot workstation.

Now for the next two tiers... remember this is a Hi-Rise built in. Note the Sektion suspension rail. It is far superior to the Besta product.

All Done! This room will do double duty as a guest room and office with a lot of overhead storage for seasonal items.

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Library Wall - NOT Our Besta IKEA Experience

6/23/2015

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Intro
Although neoTerra is not a Tiny House, we have downsized from the home in Chicago so we are always looking for ways to use space efficiently. We eliminated the study early in the design phase so we widened the main hallway by 18" to provide space for a 22' library wall. This allows the hallway to do double duty and reduced the house footprint by approximately 100 square feet.

We saw some ideas on the web that were built with IKEA Besta cabinets and Billy bookcases. Unfortunately, they discontinued the Billy suspended bookcases. I considered using Akurum cabinets in place of the Billys but IKEA discontinued those too so we had to build the entire project with Besta. It was not our Besta experience.

Installation
Since we've already installed a ton of Akurum cabinets in the kitchen, laundry room and bathrooms I feel qualified to heap criticism on the Besta product. What do I NOT like about Besta... let me count the ways:

The tops and bottoms of the cabinets are hollow. It is very difficult to put screws through the top or bottom to anchor cabinets together
The wall mount brackets for suspending the cabinets are terrible. (more on this later)
The hinges are of low quality compared to Akurum / Sektion. It is difficult to get doors centered and they sag almost immediately.

We designed the hallway itself to accommodate a shelving system with two-foot modules.

The west end of the hallway (in the foreground) has a 10 foot niche and the east end (background) has a 12 foot niche.

Each niche has a full height cabinet and three suspended shelving units arranged to create a display area and four bookshelves.

As I mentioned, the bracket system for suspending the bookshelves is terrible.

Akurum and Sektion both use an inexpensive galvanized steel rail for suspending cabinets. The rails come in eight-foot sections that can be cut to length. Cabinets can be hung anywhere on the length of the rail and then slid left or right into position.

Not so with Besta. The brackets are 22" aluminum sections joined together with flimsy steel spacers. If your studs are on 16" centers then each bracket will likely hit at least one stud. If your studs are on 24" centers then you may be out of luck. We used a combination of deck screws and drywall anchors to make sure that each bracket was attached in at least two locations.

The brackets are pre-drilled for attaching the cabinets and there is virtually no left-right adjustment. This is definately a system where the old adage of 'measure twice and cut once' comes into play. Oh... almost forgot to mention that the brackets are expensive.

Goofy Besta brackets

Once we got past the issues with the brackets the rest of the installation was fairly smooth. Now we have lots of space for books and mementos.

Conclusion
We really like IKEA products but I would strongly recommend spending a few extra $$ to get Sektion cabinets rather than Besta. Sektion offers a lot more choices in cabinet sizes, the suspension system is far simpler and the hardware is better.

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Our Island Hideaway

9/7/2014

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We don't have a separate dining area so we designed a fairly large island that could seat 5-6 people for casual entertaining.

To cantilever the granite top out from the cabinets we are using counter top support brackets from Centerline Steel.

Since the IKEA cabinets don't have backs, we added a 2x6 knee-wall to support the cantilever brackets.

TW designed a cool hidden compartment where we can store an eight foot folding table inside the island. We call it the Island Hideaway :-)

I think we now qualify as full-fledged IKEA Hackers!

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Industrial Lights - With a Little Help from IKEA

8/16/2014

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We wanted to find some minimalist, industrial style pendant lights to hang over the island in the kitchen. It seemed that everything we liked was just too expensive.

IKEA hacking to the rescue!!

A stainless-steel utensil holder and a pendant cord make a sleek, industrial fixture for about $20 each.

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IKEA Kitchen Installation

7/13/2014

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We spent the past week assembling and installing IKEA cabinets in the kitchen. They're easy to put together and installation isn't too difficult, but there sure are a LOT of them. I think we went a bit overboard.

It's best to install the upper cabinets first so you don't have the lowers in the way. We assembled all the uppers and lined them up along the wall. We wanted the cabinets to line up exactly with the windows, so we started at the center window frame and worked our way toward the corners.

Then we built 2x4 frames as bases for the lower cabinets. The bases are 3 1/2" smaller than the depth of the cabinets to create a kickspace.

Use a good, straight 2x4 and some quick-clamps to bridge across built-in appliances. This helps insure that the cabinets on either side are aligned and level.

We hung a few upper doors to see how they look. The hardware is very sturdy and installs easily. We will leave the blue proctective film on until the very end.

But the high point of the week is that the beer fridge arrived on Thursday and it fits perfectly!

Almost done. The kitchen is ready for sinks and counter-tops. The laundry room is next.

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IKEA Has Landed

6/21/2014

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A truckload of IKEA Arkurum cabinets arrived yesterday for the kitchen and laundry room.

We'll be spending 4th of July assembling them. Someday soon we'll be IKEA Hackers
http://www.ikeahackers.net

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Hi-rise Wardrobe and Workstation - IKEA Sektion

Library Wall - NOT Our Besta IKEA Experience

Our Island Hideaway

Industrial Lights - With a Little Help from IKEA

IKEA Kitchen Installation

IKEA Has Landed

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