Ikea Hack: A Sewing Desk

This was what my sewing corner looked like last week:

The sewing machines are on that same corner desk I've had for ages and never get around to finishing refinishing.  (Also it's missing a leg ever since we moved).  Next to it on the left there are two Ikea Helmer file cabinets which hold sewing and craft supplies.  You saw the new craft room last week; this is the story of the sewing desk.  So far it works really well and I LOVE using it. 

First: a can of Rustoleum's gray automotive primer: 

I used the same auto primer on an Ikea Raskog two years ago, and it came out really well.  The primer is made specifically for metal and metal paint, and that cart came out pretty much indestructible.  I wanted to use the auto primer again for this project because of all the abuse these Helmers take while I'm sewing.  

I also sprayed the handles gold (also R's American Accents): 

Once the primer was cured, I painted both Helmer units in Rustoleum's American Accents matte finish spray paint in Coastal Sage (sort of a blueish chalkboard-green color):

When both Helmers were painted and put back together, I purchased a 2x4' birch project panel at the hardware store and used it to create a desktop to go on top of them.  I raised the height of the desktop by placing a pair of 1" risers cut from an old shelving board on top of the Helmers.  I also used sections of clear Ikea Komplement drawer liner in between the wood pieces to keep them from sliding around.  

 So there's a new desk, for the cost of two cans of spray paint and a $26 piece of wood.  I turned two small pieces of furniture into one functional one, and moved a big, bulky, broken table out of the way.  Now I have a well-organized space that's comfortable and intuitive to use.  

Bonus:  my favorite part about my new sewing desk is the power strip on the right side - see it there, with the cords sticking out?  I have all the sewing machines, the light, the iron, and the pencil sharpener run through that power strip, so that I can turn the ENTIRE workspace on with one button.  Fwoosh! Ready to work.  The power strip even has USB charging ports, so I can charge my phone or whatever while I work.  Sweet!   

Making Over the Craft Room

It was time to do a complete overhaul of the entire craft room.  Here's what it looked like before:

Cluttered, crammed full of small furniture, and with a terrible, dark paint job.  We basically moved in, shoved a bunch of crap into this room, and never touched it again.  Bad. 

This little bookshelf wasn't being put to use very well - it was crammed up against the doorway and stuffed full of random crap that belonged in the closet.  

The closet doors were missing, and nothing in the closet (or out of it, truthfully) was very well organized.

First I set about organizing the room.  There were a couple of boxes which should have been stored in the garage that I moved out there;  everything else in the closet got reorganized and re-stacked, so that it would STAY in the closet.  Surfaces were cleared, things were put into plastic bins and stored on an Ikea Hyllis shelving unit in the closet.

Next:

1. I painted the room, in a color I mixed myself by adding some yellow-gold to the SW Silvermist I had on hand leftover from my bedroom. The resulting shade matches up to SW Comfort Gray, if you're interested.  
2. I hung curtains - I moved the white Ikea Matilda semi-sheers from my bedroom into this room, once replacements for the bedroom arrived in the mail (more on that later).  
3. I found the closet doors in the garage, ordered some replacement hardware for them, and re-hung them in the room.  The doors also got a fresh coat of white paint.  
4. I hung the ironing board on the wall behind the entry door, to keep it out of the way
5. I hung a pendant lamp over the sewing table, using an Ikea Hemma light kit and a glass sconce I've had for years.  It and the sewing machines are plugged into a power strip mounted on the side of the desk so that I can turn the entire sewing table on with one button.  
6. I moved a short bookcase from the door of the room over to the corner behind the sewing desk, and moved a small dresser to the door of the room, to hold the printer and printer supplies
7. I hung new art (printed from online) over the bookcase and art table in the rear of the room

Here's the whole room, more or less, in its finished state.  It's lighter and brighter, the windows softer, the furniture balanced and the floorplan open.  I rearranged the furniture and moved that little bookshelf next to the window to balance out the art table on the right side.  I LOVE my new sewing desk, and having doors back on the closet makes a huge difference in how clean and organized the room feels. 

The desk is made from a pair of Ikea Helmer file cabinets, spray painted in "Coastal Sage" (Rustoleum American Accents), with a 2x4' birch project panel across the top - up on 1" shelf risers to make the desk height the correct height.  I've got both sewing machines, the overhead light, and the pencil sharpener and iron plugged into the power strip on the right side of the desk, so I can turn EVERYTHING on at once with the touch of a button.  

Finally, the closet doors.  There's nothing remarkable about them, except that they're finally hung (it took some doing, and I had to buy all new mounting hardware), and they CLOSE and hide all the "organized clutter" inside.  

Tada!   

Ikea In the House

I'm one of those Ikea nerds who can walk you through Ikea and discuss, at length, virtually anything in the store, all by name.  I know where everything is in the store.  I know where all the shortcuts are and how to use them.  My friends call me the Ikea Tour Guide.

What can I say?  I love me some Ikea.  You want to know how much of a dork I am?  I keep a list of all the Ikea I own - so I can remember the names, and so I can check, while I'm in the store, just to see, do I have that already?   I don't know why, but today just for kicks I thought I'd share.

So, if you've ever asked yourself, Jesus, does this woman have the entire store in her house? - I'm here to tell you that, well, I'm working on it.  Here's a list of all the Ikea I DO have.  I'll link major hacks I've done and posted about, and I'll mark where things are discontinued.

KITCHEN/DINING ROOM

ANTAGEN dish brush, black
BLANDA steel mixing bowls
FARGRIK salad bowls
FASCINERA acacia wood chopping board
FINFORDELA chopping mats, gray and teal
FIRA wooden chest (discontinued), coffee supplies organizer
FULANDAD plastic spatula/turner, 2, gray
IKEA PS 2002 watering can, blue
KAUSTBY dining chair, black (discontinued)

KOMPLEMENT drawer/shelf liner

LAMPLIG return-edge bamboo chopping board

Apothecary cabinet I made out of MOPPE units and some stray lumber.  Probably my biggest Ikea hack to date.

PERSBY black recycle bin (used as trash can) 

PRICKIG microwave dish cover, blue

RINNIG green scrub brush

RUSCH wall clock, spray painted bronze

SKANKA saucepan

SMACKER plastic cutlery tray, gray (discontinued)

SNUDDA lousy Susan, wood

TOLERANT (really?) saucepan with lid
VANLIGEN green ceramic flower pot

White plastic serving trays, 2 (discontinued, I forget the name) 

LIVING ROOM

HEMNES 2-door cabinet with drawer, painted black, with gold FAGLAVIK (discontinued) knobs
HEMNES coat rack, black (with HEDRA knobs)
LINDRANDE gold display box
RASKOG utility cart, black, holding some plants
SANELA velvet throw pillow cover, turquoise (badly stained and needs to be dyed)
STOCKSUND loveseat, Nolhaga gray

STOCKSUND loveseat cover, Ljungen blue

TOMAT spray bottles, 2, white, one for my hair and one for my bad cats

Blue frosted glass serving tray, coffee table  (discontinued, I forget the name)

  

BEDROOM

ALVINE KVIST duvet cover and matching shams
OFELIA puffy throw blanket (discontinued, or at least redesigned, sadly)
RAKSOG utility cart, blue, holding some plants and books and things
SONGESAND 6-drawer dresser, brown with spray painted gold handles
TULLSTA tub chair, white, with spray painted feet
TULLSTA tub chair cover, Norvalla light green
ULLKAKTUS teal throw pillow
A large silver "Moroccan"-look tray (it's old, I forget the name)

CRAFT ROOM

FORHOJA wheeled cart, 2-drawer, used as an art table

HELMER file cabinet, 2, black and white, used to hold up ends of my sewing table

HEMMA pendant cord kit, light above my sewing table (discontinued/replaced)

HYLLIS metal shelf, 3-tier, in the closet holding bins of craft supplies
MOPPE wood chests, 2, on top of my art table
NOMINELL office chair, reupholstered (discontinued)
RUTER ironing board, with the ugliest cover you ever did see
UNG DRILL 24" oval picture frame

OTHER

MOPPE unit organizing my small tools in the garage, unfinished

BEKVAM wooden spice racks, painted green (not currently in use)

BYGEL plastic cup: I have one hanging on my tool rack in the garage, and one that forms a "pocket" in a wooden chest I use for the SCA

EKBY STODIS plastic shelf brackets, black (not currently in use)

FAGLAVIK gold handles and knobs (discontinued), some in use, some in storage

FIXA S-hooks, various places around the house, mostly in the garage hanging up tools

FRAKTA blue Ikea shopping bags, 4

GRUNDTAL magnetic knife holder;  formerly used to hold tools in my sewing room, now in storage

JATTEBRA blue glass plant pot, currently not in use (discontinued)

KASSET black photo boxes, 9...where the heck are they?  They're packed away somewhere and I can't find them!  (discontinued) 

KUGGIS mint green melamine box/tray (not currently in use) 

MANGER ironwork scroll headboard, used as a plant trellis on the back patio

MUS stuffed mice, all over the goddamned place

RASKOG utility cart, black (bicycle repair stuff) and taupe (spray painted, currently not in use)

SMACKER plastic cutlery tray, blue, holds tools (discontinued)

SNALIS white plastic storage boxes, 9 (not currently in use, used to hold my fabric in the craft room)(discontinued)

SOARE woven grass placemats, 4 (not currently in use, although I do love to smell them.  The dried grass they're made of smells amazing) 

TOFTBO bath mat, 2, teal and taupe

VARIERA plastic organizer boxes, 2, holds tools in garage (discontinued)

YNGAREN footed glass bowl, blue, holds cotton swabs in bathroom

Towels, teal (I forget the name)  

Yes, there's another list which contains all the Ikea I DON'T have but want to buy.  Of course there is.  Handles, textiles, furniture covers, glass vases, chairs, plant stands - and yes another Raskog cart.  (In case you were counting, I already have three. But I don't have the new green one!) 

Is that a lot of Ikea for one person?  Do you have more?  Tell me in the comments, I love to talk about it.  For now, Adjö!  

FÖRHÖJA Cart For Art: Another Ikea Hack

The new MOPPE sideboard that I built replaced this Ikea FÖRHÖJA"kitchen cart," previously used as a kitchen island and more recently as a storage piece in the living room.  It was home to a 10g fishtank (recently updated to a 20g), a potted Benjamina Ficus, four Ikea SNALIS plastic storage bins filled with aquarium supplies and other random items, and a cat scratcher nobody was using anymore.

I loved my FÖRHÖJA, I just wanted to change the color and repurpose it.

So I Did! 

Meet my new art cart/table!  Many, many coats of stain and sanding sessions went into this. People, there were problems with staining this thing.  All told I went through four different stains, who knows how many coats of each, and sanded it all down and started over THREE TIMES.  The end result of all that abuse is a cart that's a bit rustic looking, which I did not want, but it's FINE the way it IS because it's DONE.  HMPH!

Anyway. I actually do love it now that it's finished. :)

This thing has 30+ pieces.  That was a lot of staining and sanding and staining.

So! Much! Storage! 

So many drawers!  Baskets! Stuff!!

I added a two-prong hook to the front for aprons and towels; and a hanging Ikea basket (BYGEL, spray painted gold) to the side to hold large tools and bottles and brushes.


I got the water hyacinth baskets on Amazon, and lemmetellya, they're my favorite thing about this whole piece.  I looooove the way these things smell. 

The MOPPE drawer boxes on top are the ones I made in August.

I also added a 6" board to the top, on a pair of long tension hinges, so that I could extend the table top for a larger work surface, and also have some storage space behind/under the unit for large canvases and boards...but it doesn't work!

Turns out the long hinges aren't strong enough to hold up the extension when you put any weight on it (I think they're made more for holding trunk/chest lids open); so eventually I'll need to get a better holdy-uppy solution so I can use the extension.














As much trouble as the stain and the hinges have been, I LOVE it now that it's finally done!  It's taller than my old art table, which is fantastic - I'm 5'9, I have a tall easel, and I like BIG canvases.  It also takes up significantly less floor space than my old table, which opens up the "art room" behind the couch.  The extra floor space also helps with getting Shelly in and out of the back door - she's weird about her walking clearance, and won't go through anything too narrow, and won't step over, like, a SHOE that's in her path. Weird dog. (She's really old). 

More space in a tiny duplex is always welcome! 

Now I have a great new space to do more stuff like this:

Volcanic Seascape, November 2018, after a USGS photo of Hawaii's coastline back in July when Kileauea erupted

[Funko Pop] Bob Ross, patron saint of aspiring artists ❤

What's Going On

NO  DISASSEMBLE

Remember the Ikea FORHOJA kitchen cart that I was using as a sideboard type thing before  I built the apothecary unit?

This is it, all disassembled. It's already been sanded down fully, and given a first coat of stain. Judging by how the staining is going, it may need 25 coats. We'll see.

What else am I doing right now?

• Crocheting a blue shawl
• Crocheting a multi-colored sweater
• Painting the legs of a little nightstand-table I have sitting around in my bedroom (finished)
• Sewing 5 cushion covers for a friend's couch
• Working on a painting I'm making for a friend for Giftmas

What's Next After That? 

• Refinishing my bedroom nightstand
• Refinishing an old wooden plant stand
• Crocheting a rug for my roommate, as soon as we find the right yarn
• Crocheting some slippers, maybe 
• Sewing a skirt or top for myself out of the leftover fabric from a dress I made recently 

What's New? 

I finally bought myself a new sander!  My old one was a work horse, but it was too big, heavy, and high-powered for me to wield safely anymore - it shook me and hurt me so much my hands and arms would be unusable for days after, every time I used it.  I got myself a little $23 Porter & Cable in-line palm sander, and it's GREAT!  Much more easily controlled, and it does as much work as my big one ever did - surprising, for such a little, lightweight thing.  Yay!  

More news on the FORHOJA as it develops.  Meanwhile, here's a crocheted scarf I just finished yesterday: 

ooh, ahh

MOPPE Sideboard, Finished

Folks, we have a finished apothecary/card-catalog sideboard, made with Ikea MOPPE chests:

At the end of the last post, I'd just finished assembling this thing.  In case you're curious, it went a little something like this.  Ignore the measurements on the paper; things got adjusted a bit when I realized the actual measurements of the MOPPEs are not exactly what Ikea's website say they are.  But this is the general idea of how the thing went together.  Essentially, I just made a house for the MOPPEs to live in - top, bottom, sides, and dividers in between each column of MOPPEs. Everything was glued together and/or joined with glue and dowels. 

 I decided not to put feet on this thing, as it was already 38" high, and that's tall enough for me.  I keep a fishtank on top of this thing, and there's only so high I can reach to clean the tank, you know? 

After all the glue was dry, I sanded and stained the entire thing, then clear-coated it with Polycrylic to protect the wood.  Most of this thing only has a single clear coat; the top got three coats, to be on the safe side - again, because I keep a fishtank on top of it. All the drawers are very different, because of the wood that Ikea uses in the MOPPEs. I think it's kind of neat. 

Adventures in engineering:  how the heck did I get this from the detached garage into the house, over a rocky pebble driveway? I used a pair of 5' shelf boards I had laying around.  I slid the unit onto one, and laid the second in front.  Slid the unit onto the second one, moved the first one to the front, and so on.  It took a minute, but it worked beautifully, and even allowed me to ramp the unit up over the front step and the threshhold without incident.  Whew! 

54 drawers got stained, sanded,  and clearcoated. 54 knobs (3/4" screw buttons) were glued in place, and then 54 label holders, labels, and 108 of the tiniest screws I'd ever seen. 

Lastly, 54 papers  were inserted, and the drawers went into the unit:

And it's done!  That was both a ridiculous amount of work (look at the size of this thing! (Cut the chatter, Red 2), and hardly any work at all.  All this really entailed was building a frame to house a bunch of pre-made boxes, which were all glued in place.  I had the shelf boards that I used for the top, bottom, sides, and dividers cut to length and width at the hardware store; I only did a little adjusting on my saw at home to make sure things fit perfectly.  

So, what happens to the Ikea FORHOJA cart that used to occupy this space?  

More on that soon. 

The Greatest Ikea Hack of All Time (For Me, Anyway)

How do you take a cheap Ikea organizer unit and turn it into a huge, expensive, pain in the butt?  Like this:

Okay, wait.  First, let me show you my inspiration and supplies:

This is a photo I found on Pinterest that made me gasp and clutch my pearls.  I slowly craned my neck around behind me like the girl in the Exorcist and glared at my MOPPE art table organizer unit.  My roommate dropped her pen and asked, "What is wrong with you??"


That apothecary cabinet.  The first thought I had as soon as I let go of those pearls was, I could MAKE THAT.








Here are the two Ikea MOPPEs I fixed up for my art table back in August. 

I adore it.  But what if I had another one...that was HUGE...and could hold all the little household bits and pieces?  I remember thinking, while staining these things, "A whole bunch of these could be kinda cool."









Here's the Ikea MOPPE by itself, as it comes from the store - unstained and fully assembled.

Very potential.  Such ideas.  Wow.











I spent about a week planning and sketching, and making supply lists.  When I was ready, I walked through Ikea pushing this thing around:

I swear there were PLENTY more left on the shelf. 

The first thing I did was set about staining 9 boxes and 54 drawers:

This is only about a third of them. 

As soon as  the boxes were stained and dry, I started assembling the unit: I set out three boxes on my bottom board, dowelled and glued them all together, and then set in the remaining six boxes the same way.  

All the clamps I own. 

Before adding the top board, I glued in six 1/4" square sticks behind the boxes.  I know the boxes are glued in securely; but just on the off chance that repeated use of the drawers knocks them loose (it won't), these sticks might add a little extra security against the boxes being pushed out of place (won't need it).  There's so much open space behind them; I really wish I could have made this thing double-sided. Right now it's going to be used against a wall, but one day it might make a nifty room divider or something.  Maybe I can go back and add more boxes in the future.  For now, when this is done, the back will be covered by a sheet of Luan.

Surprisingly not front-heavy. 

While I was waiting for all the glue to dry, I stained a billion more drawers.  I also cut out papers for the drawer bottoms (thanks, Past Me, for making templates in August that I could use later!), and labels to go into the labels holders waiting to go onto this piece.

Fiskars paper cutter FTW. 

As much as I want to show you a picture of a finished project - it's not done yet!  I can't WAIT to see this thing finished!  I'm hoping it will be by the end of the week.  I'll post updates along the way.



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Ikea HEMNES Pantry Cabinet: Part II

BEFORE

Hi.

This is my Ikea  HEMNES cabinet-turned-pantry.  You may remember it from such posts as this one from October.

I'd gone back and forth with the idea of painting it for months before I frosted the glass in October;  but once that was done, I was sure, and I was just waiting for a chance to get to it.

Enter Thanksgiving weekend.  I don't celebrate it, myself, but I had five days off of work, and my roommate was out of town for one of those days, so I prepped and painted this thing in about eight hours.

Here's the whole thing after painting.  *drooool*  I LOVE IT.

There was barely any finish on this thing to begin with, so all it took was deglossing and then sanding very lightly to get a good surface for the paint.

The paint itself is a 50/50 mixture of plain black semi-gloss latex and black latex chalkboard paint.  I guess that makes it quarter-gloss?  I don't know.  But the texture and sheen are really nice.  I love a piece of furniture that feels good.

For the first few hours I worked on this, I was listening to Hamilton, which is one of my favorite things in the world. Every time I look at this picture in particular, I get Wait For It stuck in my head all over again.

I almost painted the inside of this unit a pale muted blue.  I'll be honest with you, the reason I didn't was that I didn't want to go to the store to get blue paint.  There are days when you just don't want to put a bra on, you know?

The knobs and drawer pulls I used on this unit are Ikea's FAGLAVIK, which, sadly, was discontinued about three years ago.  They're so smooth and soft and pretty.  They had a brushed nickel version, a chrome, and a brushed brass - these guys.  I looooove them .

I mean, that's just sexy.

















I love this cabinet.  I love the color.  I love that it didn't become a big black hole like I was worried it would.  I love the way the glass and the black look together.

But wait til you guys see my other Thanksgiving weekend project.  I'm almost done with it, and I'm crazy excited to show it to you!




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How To Make Your Food Blurry in 87 Easy Steps

Here's a fun thing about my 1965 duplex:  there's no pantry.  Like, at all. So my Ikea HEMNES glass-door cabinet is now a food-holder.  It works great!

The problem is, you can see the food. All the time.

Also, my kitchen is full of snakes:

Yes, I forgot to take a "before" picture again.




















Anyway, this is nothing a can of glass frosting spray can't handle.   I copied my design from a window cling film design you can get just about anywhere.


I sketched the pattern onto the front of the glass doors with a sharpie, a yardstick, all the math ever, and about seventy-eight little square templates (okay, 3 of them. But I had to make them over and over again because the Sharpie ink kept making the edges soft, which wasn't remotely helpful).

The next step was to tape off all the lines on the inside of the glass, using the Sharpie lines as a guide.


Frosting the glass on the inside means - I hope - that it'll be less likely to get scratched by people going in and out of the cabinet.  Of course, there's more chance of the food scratching it this way, so, six one half dozen the other?  Time will tell.




















In all it took four rolls of thin Washi tape, for both doors. Man that stuff's handy.

The next step was a Pinterest Fail.  I attempted to do the thing where you spritz water onto an area to be painted (in frosted or silver, from what I've seen) and it comes out looking like *drumrolllll* antique glass, or watered glass, or whatever you want to call the pattern of wibbly woobly melted-looking bits of glass.

However. This is not what happened.

What happened was the water caused the frosting spray not to adhere to the glass at all, and it fell off in big chunks as soon as it was dry. Also, some of the glass outside the squares was not as dry as I thought it was - hence the streakiness you see here.

So,  I had to un-tape and scrape clean an entire door and re-do it from scratch, including taping. So, I guess technically I did three doors this weekend, not two.

However, the end product was worth it:

Can you see the food? Is there soup??  YOU HAVE NO IDEA!  MUAHAHA!!! *ahem*cough*

So it doesn't block out anything.  At best this made the food blurry - but I'm satisfied with it. It's still a little less messy-looking, but this tones down the chaos effect that we had going on here before. The food just sort of fades into the furniture now, instead of sticking out like a sore thumb.



















The full monty.  Sewing machines and stack of grocery bags and all. (Sorry).


Even though I used the thinnest Washi tape I could find for the "lead lines", I still wish I'd tried for something thinner.   Still, I think it works just fine the way it is.  It's not supposed to mimic leaded and frosted glass, only lend the impression of.

Overall, I'm pleased with the way it came out. The food is nice and blurry, and it helps the cabinet, and the kitchen, look a bit more clean and organized. And I like the way the glass pattern works with the style of the cabinet itself.  I'll be honest, I neglected to even consider that when I was picking a design - I just wanted something pretty - but it works!



There are, of course, more things I want to do with this cabinet.  But these doors were the thing I wanted to be sure to have finished before the Halloween party this year, so that people don't have to look at all the disorganized food.  Fait accompli.


See you next time!