Ikea Hacks

Those of you who regularly read my blog will know that I am a fan of IKEA. This doesn’t mean that my home or the homes that I style and design look like an IKEA catalogue – quite the opposite in fact – IKEA in moderation blends with other more prestigious brands or vintage and repurposed items disguising its true origins but looking every bit as lovely (when you select the right pieces).

I have been in and worked on all kinds of houses all over the world from multimillion dollar mansions to modest little flats and to this day I can’t think even of one that hasn’t had some bit of IKEA in the mix – the most common repeat performer is the good old Billy bookshelf – of which IKEA apparently produces a mind boggling 41 million of every year!!

There is no denying that ‘Billy’ is no looker – his cousin the ‘Expedit’ shelf (who shows up at the party just as often as Billy does) got most of the looks in the family, but when you combine the function of an IKEA item with the creativity of an ‘Outside of the box’ thinker, what you get is an “IKEA Hacker.” There are whole web sites dedicated to IKEA modifiers or ‘hackers’, and there is some really clever stuff out there – some simple, some not so simple – but the ideas keep on coming and are great for people that like the convenience and price of IKEA but prefer to add some personalised flair or to completely repurpose and reinvent.

Some of my favourite hacks are simple towel rails attached to the inside of kitchen cabinet doors to act as pot lid holders, magnetic wall mounted knife holders used to organise kids match box cars, and “wall mounting” and illuminating a Besta cabinet (like we did in our apartment in Milan).

Above is my very own IKEA hack – One weekend when Tim was out of town I potato stamped my KIVIK sofa with acrylic paint to give it a touch of Memphis and a touch of me. I knew a white sofa in my house (where the red wine flows freely) was a bit of a risk, and although the KIVIK has a removable machine washable cover, red wine (OK – and dark chocolate too), were just too much for my white sofa to handle. The potato stamp not only provided a cool and irregular (and still washable!) print, but most importantly it provided camouflage for wine and chocolate stains old and new.

Design hacks are not limited to IKEA of course, however it’s the plethora of options that make it the go to choice of Hackers world – wide. So friends, put on your creative hat and get hacking!