Ikea Hack: Lack Side Table

When it comes to furniture, a minimalist walks a fine line. To reduce consume and discard tendencies, a minimalist should try to buy pieces that are timeless and durable. However, avoiding highly priced furniture will prevent emotional attachment.

To find bargain furniture, I generally turn to Craigslist to buy second hand, but for something simple and affordable I go with Ikea. It’s a love-hate relationship; I like the simplicity of the designs, but I always question the material and build quality since they seem to fall apart more quickly than the vintage pieces in my home.

One of the first things I purchased when I moved to Minneapolis was the Ikea Lack side table. It was on sale for $8, and as it’s name indicates, it utilizes an extremely basic design. This morning, I was looking for an inexpensive project to upgrade my space and found inspiration through an Ikea hacking blog (hacking refers to the practice of Ikea furniture owners altering the designs to better fit their needs).

I used my old steamer trunk as the inspiration for how I wanted the end result to look. I did this project by myself in about 2 hours, but it would have been nice to have someone else around to help measure the spacing between fabric nails.

Supplies

• Ikea Lack side table – $10
• 8 Brass Corner Plates – 2 packs of 4 came to be $12
• Brass Fabric Nails – 3 packs of 25 came to be $6

Tools

• Hammer
• Small Phillips head screw driver
• Tape measure
• Small drill for making guide holes, or a nail does the trick if you do not have a drill

Installing the Corner Brackets

• Hold the bracket on the corner of the table or legs, use a drill or hammer a nail into the table to create the guide holes for the screws
• Screw in the brackets

Adding the Fabric Nails

• Use a tape measure before doing anything. I thought I would just try to keep the nails aligned and space them out by guessing, bad idea. It ended looking very sloppy and I had to remove them from the table and re-nail them in. This also damaged that side of the table so I put that side facing the window.
• Figure out how many nails are going on each side and measure out the space needed between them to make them even. Also determine where the center of the nail needs to be in order for the line of nails to be straight across.

Take your time and measure, the process is pretty straightforward but you can mess it up if you try to rush it.

Before and After

My little project was accepted on IkeaHackers. Such an honor! Click their logo below to check it out.

I also gave the Ikea Expedit book case a small makeover. Looks great with the trunk, and brings the living area together.