We needed a wardrobe. That was basically the first thing we said (other than “we need a bed”) when my boyfriend signed the lease so we looked high and low – searched gumtree and browsed through every single available wardrobe at Ikea. Everything we saw was either too expensive, too ugly or did not have enough storage space.
Honestly, I first got the idea for this from IkeaHackers.net – a few people had submissions of making the Expedit range into wardrobes but since Expedit has been discontinued and sold off in the bargain bin, we couldn’t find the right size. For that I gumtreed the 4×4 unit ($50 only!) and we managed to snag the 1×5 unit ($65) in the bargain bin on one incredibly busy Saturday morning.
Irrelevant: my favourite time to go to Ikea is when they’re refreshing the displays – hello bargain bin furniture!
Again, if you do attempt this hack you are fully responsible and liable for any consequences that occur as a result of making this hack.
All instructions are in the pictures, click to enlarge.

To attach the Hektar spotlight, you can either clamp it on or you can drill it onto the unit as per the instructions included with the Hektar lamp. Just play around with the placement before you decide on where you want it!
To make the wardrobe more stable, you can use a flat steel bracket to secure the bottom and top units together. You can also anchor the unit to the wall but since we can’t drill anything into walls we had forgone that. But really, the unit is very stable by itself – assuming you’ve placed it on a flat surface!
If this is for a child, you can even do without the bottom 1×5 unit. I just found that the 4×4 unit was too low for my liking, especially for hung clothes.

Have you attempted an Ikea Hack?

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