Martin Cooper

DIY Murphy Bed using a Next Bed Murphy Bed Kit and IKEA PAX wardrobe cabinets. While our daughter was away at university, we relied on her room as a guest room. When COVID struck , our daughter moved back home full time, so we lost our guest room in the process. We don’t have a constant flow of guests in and out of our home, but we have enough visitors where we needed to come up with a suitable solution. We decided to turn my home office into our new temporary guest room. Wasting space on a queen size bed that is only seldomly in use was not ideal, and occasionally conducting client meetings in my office, having a bed in full view was completely out of the question. This is where the idea of a Murphy bed came into play. I called around for quotes. And was surprised at how much carpenters were charging to build a Murphy bed. I figured that I could build one myself. So, I found the following inspiration photos on www.houzz.com and set about designing and building my own. Found! Th...

Installing the IKEA MOPPE mini chest of drawers in the IVAR side unit. Very easy to do. No glue or screws needed. IKEA items used:  8 IVAR metal rods 40 x 6 mm (comes with the IVAR shelves ) 1 IKEA MOPPE mini chest of drawers 42 x 32 cm IVAR side unit (50cm depth) How to add mini drawers to IVAR side unit Make 4 x 6mm holes on each side of the IKEA MOPPE box. The top two pair of holes are situated 3.2 mm from the top edge and 2.7 mm apart. Related: 8 ways to turn IVAR into a super useful folding screen I prefer centered for balance. But that is flexible. They should fit the holes in the IVAR system. Now for the bottom pair of holes, I made them 25.7 mm below. 3.2 mm from the bottom edge. Do remove the drawers before drilling the holes. Push the rods from the inside through the new holes and into the IVAR holes on the side unit. It has to be a tight fit so you may need a hammer. The size of the metal rods fit just right to allow the drawers to move....

I wanted to hide the cat litter box in a piece of furniture such as the STUVA bench, but I did not want to do anything too complicated. I also hoped that this way most of the litter stuck on my cat’s paw will remain inside. Additionally, it may help with the odour. IKEA items used:  STUVA 90x50x50 STUVA bench | IKEA.com Other materials and tools:  Sandpaper Paint (optional) Adhesive hooks (optional) Drill Saber saw  STUVA bench cat litter box instructions:  1. Use a bowl or a plate to draw a big circle on the front of the drawer. It’s easier to do this before assembly. Related: Easy to Clean Stuva Bench Litter Box 2. Use a drill to make a hole next to the line (inside the circle) big enough for the saw. Then insert the saw into the hole and cut out the circle. 3. Use sandpaper to sand the circle and get rid of any possible splinters.  4. Assemble the front to the rest of the bench. Optionally, you can u...

The IKEA IVAR cabinet is so easy to customise with paint. Give it a mono-colour or give it as many as you like. #1 Karoline’s colorful IVAR cabinet paint hack  I wanted to create a really colourful piece of furniture. I love that the IVAR cabinets are solid wood so they are so nice and easy to paint – and the simple design is amazing.  IKEA item: 6 IKEA IVAR cabinets   Photo: IKEA.com Other materials: Wood paint and acrylic paint in different colors  Just lots of colourful paint. The IVAR cabinets are so great, and I look forward to see all the different ways to repaint and remake them in the future.  It cost the cost of the IVAR cabinets (440 dollars), and the paint was all I had leftover in my stash. New paint in all these colours could be 150 dollars, but you can also be lucky to find cheap paint samples or mix your own like I did.  It took an afternoon to do, and I loved every bit of the process. We had fun assembling them and...

Hack a laundry pedestal so you don’t ever have to bend down to load or unload a machine. We are addicted to Houszz. We’ve been collecting photos of things we like in various idea books for months. All to fuel an extensive refurbishment of a run-down Victorian farmhouse we bought. One of the things we saw were washing machines and tumblers on a laundry pedestal. But we couldn’t afford the custom joinery to get them built – IKEA to the rescue! Before and After! IKEA items used: METOD frames : 60×100 wall unit with 2 x VOXTORP beige doors 60×40 wall unit with VOXTORP door Corner sink unit with VOXTORP door 30×60 base unit with VOXTORP door 2 x METOD/MAXIMERA 60×60 2-drawer sink units with VOXTORP doors 2 x METOD 60×40 fridge-freezer top cabinets with VOXTORP doors Various VOXTORP cover panels 1 x VOXTORP plinth 1 x VOXTORP déco strip Other materials: 2 x B&Q white breakfast bar worktops 1 x B&Q white worktop 1 x existing sink 38x64mm timber and metal br...