It’s launch day, folks! The IKEAhackers book is out. Woohoo! To celebrate, I’m pouring myself a glass of red and raising it to all IKEA hackers out there. You guys are the inspiration for this book. What a ride it’s been and thank you for giving me the nudge I needed to make this book happen.
Jane started Maflingo when she left pharmacy. Her blog covers home interiors, IKEA hacks, home décor, creative things, organizing and money-saving. Her blog is also an outlet for her to share random musings on life which she hopes make people chuckle! And she chose the name ‘Maflingo’ because when her daughter was little she said ‘maflingo’ instead of ‘flamingo.’ And the name stuck.
I chose her fantastic cabin bed for the book because it offers a beautiful solution to a perennial problem — how to effectively use space and maximise storage. Her cabin bed DIY is by no means an easy hack but the results are more than worth the trouble. Just take a look at this “Before-After”.
Photo: maflingo.com
Gorgeous, right? And what I like most is how tidy, roomy and organised the room feels in the After.
We wanted something simple, yet stylish that would last her for years.
In her own words, “My daughter’s room is relatively small, with a large low window that makes it tricky to put furniture in front of it. Although her old wooden bedframe had space underneath it for underbed storage boxes, we liked the idea of raising the bed higher so we could have lots of drawers underneath it.
This meant we were using vertical space rather than trying to fit even more furniture items into her small bedroom. We looked at readymade cabin beds and mid sleepers but they were either too expensive or they were aimed at younger children. We wanted something simple, yet stylish that would last her for years.”
She nailed it.
Here’s what she has to say about her cabin bed hack:
Jules: How did you find ideas/ inspiration for your cabin bed hack?
Jane Taylor: I knew we wanted a mid-sleeper/ cabin bed because we wanted to make the most of the small bedroom. Raising the bed onto drawers seemed like the best solution and it gave us plenty of storage space too. I looked at lots of readymade cabin bed and storage bed hacks on the IKEAhackers.net but wanted to make use of the ‘dead space’ behind the row of drawers. That’s when we came up with the idea of a den!
J: What was the most challenging part of the IKEA hack?
JT: The most challenging part of the hack was attaching the support frame for the plywood bed base to the back wall! We live in a fairly new house with cavity walls. For some reason this wall seemed to have an extremely wide cavity (as if the internal wall was built 20cms away from the external wall!)
We drilled and drilled with a 20cm drill bit and could not find anything to secure the anchor bolts to. We didn’t know if it was because the brickwork behind the plasterboard had crumbled like meringue or whether there was some other problem. It was a mystery.
In the end, rather than secure a wooden batten to the wall, I made a complete rectangular frame to support the bed base which rested on the floor along the back wall and was secured to the skirting board at the bottom. Our friend, who is a joiner, did manage to fix the frame to the wall at the top in two or three places.
In the end, the wooden frame provided a much stronger support for the plywood bed base than our original idea.
J: What do you like most about your hacked IKEA item?
JT: I love the secret den! Everybody loves the secret den. My daughter, Emily, actually sleeps in the den as much as she sleeps in the main bed!
I love the secret den! Everybody loves the secret den.
J: What is one tool that’s essential for an IKEA hacker?
JT: A good quality cordless screwdriver with a long battery life.
J: What’s one advice you’d offer to newbies?
JT: Planning is the most important part of an IKEA hack! The actual build doesn’t take very long if you have done your research and planned everything carefully. Draw it to scale, measure, measure and measure again!
Love the cabin bed? Get the book!
What’s in the book? Details in this post.
Last day for your pre-order bonus ebook.
To get the “Hack it, Jules” ebook, all you need to do is:
1. Buy a copy of IKEAhackers.net 25 Biggest and Best Projects from Amazon, Barnes & Nobles or Indiebound.
2. Forward a copy of your receipt to ikeahackers@gmail.com
3. We send you the pdf!
4. Available only for pre-orders until August 15.
The post IKEAhackers book: Who’s behind this amazing cabin bed? appeared first on IKEA Hackers.
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