Watch Those So-Called Home Made Furniture Hacks

I found this great idea to hack IKEA products but sometimes the builder, a.k.a. IKEA Hack Extraordinaire leave out important details like hidden costs.  By the time you are done with this great idea you are spending more cash for less bed.  Here, let’s review….here is the finished product:

What you see are a couple of IKEA products.  Namely:

• 2 Expedit Shelving Units ($60×2) $120 I highly suggest black-brown if you are really going to do this.  Your shoes will hit the bottom of this (along with vacuum cleaners) more times than I can count.  These units are 72″ tall and IKEA has great inserts for this–like baskets, frosted glass or plastic bins.
• The Lack Side Table ($10×2) $20 – The author said 4 but I only see one used as a side table in the photo.  Perhaps they turned 2 more on their side for a headboard.  I abhor beds pushed up against the wall (it’s a clear sign you aren’t inviting anyone into your life anymore-just sayin’).  I would suggest an alternative Lack table on casters and just use that upper cubby storage for private things-uh, like a pair of socks.  The Lack on casters would make a fine alternative.
• Bed Slats $30 – While I think the bed is a good idea, the author clearly has a support system under the slats that have legs so you need one more thing–and that’s a power saw and other tools to build it.

So basically we’ve got the pieces for our bed at a cost of $170 but we still need to build the slat base as shown in the authors picture and who wants empty cubbyholes?  Not I.  So you’d have to add some cool inserts.  My favorites are the baskets which would add texture to the room.  There are also inserts that have doors which are nice.  There are 5 openings on one Expedit Shelf for this bed so even if you don’t use the front cubby and get the Lack on casters versus the $10 table to block the head cubby you’ll need at least 8 baskets or inserts.  We’ll use the pricing for baskets since that is cheaper.  ($13×8)$104.  Plus we dumped the cheap side tables for the $35 caster end tables.  If you really wanna get happy get a cool IKEA lamp to add to the decor.  I digress.  Our bed is now around $325 and we haven’t built that frame to support the slats either.

If you are going to invest $325 into your new (queen) bed then I highly suggest you just get the bed you want.  Need storage?  Look at IKEA’s BRIMNES Bed Frame that has storage and all you have to do is add slats.  It’s $249.  Add side tables and we can spend a few dollars on a cool lamp.  The whole point of doing it yourself is to save cash.  If you want to do that and can cut, hammer, paint, and measure – then use 2×4’s, 2×6’s, 2×8’s, and large sheets of plywood.  Invest the money into a really good mattress and then you can have a really cool bed when you get truly creative.  The real cost here is unknown because I kept so many scraps of wood in my garage and used them for this.  I also purchased the 2x4s, 1x4s and 2 1x6s–but I will guess that it was less than $75.