IKEA furniture, being flat-packed and self-assembled with the humble Allen key, is perhaps the easiest furniture to hack at home with bespoke finishes and fittings to better suit your place.
Only issue is, we don’t always know how to find the coolest hacks — and we know first hand that going rogue with the glue gun doesn’t always result in the aesthetic masterpiece we pictured.
But in what is perhaps the biggest missed opportunity to date, we’ve only now just discovered that IKEA has a blog called Livet Hemma dedicated to hacking its pieces, and thanks to this article from Domino, we’re finally across it/buried deep in archives.
Livet Hemma, which translates to ‘Life at Home’, was launched in as early at 2011. You’d think with its marketing budgets, IKEA could have alerted us to the blog a whole lot earlier, but I digress.
The site, despite being a goldmine for step-by-step hacks and customisation tips, does have one undeniable flaw: It’s completely published in Swedish, however, is easily translated when opened in Google Chrome.
Our favourite examples of Livet Hemma hacks involve adding new materials to the facade of existing and affordable pieces. Like this Soderhamn sofa hack, that involves sewing contrast buttons into the centre of the cushions to transform the look of the lounge.
A second hack that has us head over heels is this woven material addition to the Gjora bed frame.
Whether you opt for strips of leather, natural fibres, rattan or even something like denim, the finished look will appear totally bespoke to you and can be easily transformed should you out-grow the design in time.
Last, but certainly not least considering this might well be our favourite, is this mosaic hack to the $20 Lack side table.
With a few sheets of basic tiling and some contrast grout, you can create a seriously cool and durable table for both indoors and outdoors.
Check out the tutorial below and find more hacks on the Livet Hemma blog now.
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