Making Pax with playful Ikea hacks
Who among us has not wanted to rebel against Ikea? So clean, so orderly and so cheerful about both, the Swedish mega-retailer is just begging for mischief.
For most of us, ignoring the designated paths at the local store in favour of taking a sneaky shortcut is sufficiently rebellious. Others are putting their Ikea subordination to more constructive use.
Ikea hacking is the practice of making your own creations from the company’s products — another way to get the most bang for your flat-pack buck — whether it’s by reupholstering the modestly priced Poang chair or turning Pax wardrobes into something that mimics builtin cabinetry.
A website called Ikea Hackers provides regular doses of inspiration, and the company itself has even embraced the phenomenon: The 2013 catalogue features hacks of its own, including one dresser repainted with wild swirls of colour and another recovered with fabric. Jumping on the bandwagon, the popular design blog, Apartment Therapy, rounded up 10 hacker versions of the simple Ikea Lack table.
Clearly, Ikea hacking can create many design possibilities.
A bedside table in a magazine lured Lindsay Stephenson into the world of Ikea hacking. Stephenson, who runs an online stationery shop, flipped to the sources page expecting to be disappointed by the high cost. She was intrigued to discover that the stylist had painted an Ikea Rast three-drawer chest ($39.99) and put nice brass pulls on it. Stephenson figured out how to imitate the job, posted the result at her blog, www.aubreyandlindsay.blogspot.comand “it kind of went viral.”
With that first project, Stephenson captured the essence of everyday Ikea hacking: making the inexpensive look expensive. She and husband Aubrey Silverberg have since graduated to much larger hacks. They installed a new kitchen that uses Ikea cabinetry but adds elements such as filler panels and crown moulding to give it the tailored look of custom work.
While a custom kitchen would have cost up to $20,000, Ms. Stephenson says, the Ikea cabinets cost about $4,000.
“Mind you, that’s not apples to apples,” she notes. “Keep in mind that $4,000 doesn’t include building or installing, measuring, pots of coffee. … I would definitely say it’s a lot more work.”
Jennifer Flores has also made low-cost Ikea furnishings look posher than they would as free-standing units by attaching them to the walls of her house with filler panels. Her daughter Chloe’s room, for example, takes cabinets from the Pax system and disguises them with panels that make them appear built-in. (The versatile Pax product line is a popular choice among Ikea hackers.)
“I guess that’s the thing with Ikea — everyone loves how functional and accessible it is, but they don’t love that it’s ubiquitous and it kind of screams big box,” says Kyle Lin, a derivatives analyst for a major pension plan and an avid do-it-yourselfer.
Lin, his wife and their two young children recently moved to a new house, leaving behind some older hacks at their former residence. But there will be more to come, Mr. Lin promises, because modifying mass-produced furniture is addictive.
“There’s the reward itself for assembling a piece of Ikea,” Lin says, “but when you take it to the next level it’s a pretty good feeling.”