03.03.2011 – IKEA hack: Lack tables to floating shelves part 1

Oh yes, you read right, as indicated in my previous post, I am going to make floating shelves out of IKEA Lack tables. Let’s start at the beginning, which is: what the doodah am I going to do with all my DVDs? They ain’t pretty, they ain’t non-voluminous, but they are essential, because I don’t have nor want a TV and love my DVD collections. Thus I resigned myself to the thought that I will simply have to have a space somewhere for as many as possible. No way was I going to put them onto my planned Expedit floating cubes, because that would destroy the look. So I would have to build something new, and the one piece of all that is suitable, is of course the one where the hanging cabinet used to be, which is now in the sewing room. It’s also the place where Mr F’s food bowls reside, which will be incorporated.

You can see the pencil outlines I drew onto the wall to test out my plan. This is where the shelves will go.

I got the red Lack tables for a bargain price in IKEA in January, because they were on sale for £2.99 a piece. Can you believe it? So cheap that I picked up 4, figuring I’d use them for something, just not sure for what. The only ones on offer were the red ones, so the colour was decided then. Holy maloney, I just checked when adding the link, and the red Lack tables are £1.28 right now! Run to IKEA and grab em while you can.

What is so incredibly clever about this table, and what makes it so cheap, is the production method. It’s lightweight but sturdy, and the secret is paper. Yep, the Lack has honeycomb paper inside, and as we all know from experiments in school lessons (at least I assume everyone else did that?) folded paper is incredibly strong.

The National Geographic channel made a video of the production of the Lack in its factory in Poland. It’s rather fascinating to watch: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/ultimate-factories/all/Videos/07455_00

Which means, the Lack is hollow, which means further, that it is perfectly placed for mounting on cleats as a floating shelf.

More to follow, time for me to hit the road.

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