IKEA Tool Box Hack

I need a toolbox to store my supplies and tools for building electronic circuitries. Something that looks good in a normal office setting. Why not another IKEA hack? I always wanted to try one of the FIRA mini chests. They are functional, but too plain looking. Since this tool box is for electronics, metal handles make sense to me. A quick search at IKEA found the cheapest handles, Kosing, 6 pieces for $1.99. Not bad. I have already figured out that I need to mount the handles alone the center line of the small drawers. Otherwise the back of the draw will hit the screw and stop the drawer from being pulled forward. One other thing that I did not anticipate is that the handle screws are too long. I had to add four #8 washers to the screw to make it fit. I put three at the bottom, one at the top.

Other than these two little things, it's pretty easy to do. To recap:

1. before assembling the chest, measure the locations for the handles at the top plate. Make sure it lines up with the center line for the left (and right) mini chest.
2. Drill hopes for the handle screws. Make sure they are right. I actually was off by 1/16 of an inch on one side. Luckily I can redo it by switching the top plate to the bottom.
3. Assemble the chest, screw in the handles before installing the horizontal dividers.
4. Done!

Some pictures to help explain:

IKEA Self Watering Plant Pot Hack / Flood Rescue

I am at the beginning of my Terrace dressup project. Bought a few IKEA PS FEJÖ self watering plant pot. The color scheme works nicely with the rest of the terrace. Planted our Clementine Mandarin orange tree in one of them. Then came the heavy rain. Because the pot is self watering, meaning there is a water reservior in the bottom, there is no drain hole. With a few days of non stop rain, the pot of soil turned into slush.

What to do? Physics to the rescue. I bought four feet of aquarium PVC flexible tubing / air hose from a pet store. Filling it with water first (or you can suck the water into it after insertion), I dug down into the mush/soil and inserted the tube under the top plate of the water reservior. As long as you keep the outside end of the tube below the pot, gravity from the outside end of the tube will draw the water out. You can see it draining here:

About 30 minutes later, the soil in the pot is (almost) back to just very very wet. I will keep the hose there now and next time it gets flooded, a little (careful) sucking and I can siphon out water again.

Another IKEA hack – Solid Wood Table

Combining different parts from IKEA to build a better personalized product is alway satisfying. My own shoe rack + Magiker shoe storage cabinet is one. This particular kitchen counter top + office table leg hack results in a strong and clean looking desk !

IKEA Shoe Storage

Shoe storage is very important to keeping the house tidy. Us Asian especially like to take our shoes off at the door. Any normal shoe storage solution is likely to be too small. What to do? We bought two IKEA MAGIKER short shelves with doors for our entry hall. Out of all the series at IKEA, I always like the MAGIKER series. It's clean look, especially in the lighter colors, matches a modern interior nicely without being too cold. Since we have very light bamboo floors, the color further matches.

The original idea was to use those cabinets as secondary storage, while giving us a display space for the entry hall. Once we put them up we realized that they are perfect for shoes. The only trouble is that we could use double the shelves. Today I found a new shoes rack that is not in their catalog call FRAN. They fit perfectly in the cabinet, but you need to take one of the doors off temporarily to put them inside. See pictures below: