Who says you need a lot of floor space for your furniture? If you’re squeezed for space and need a work station, this wall-mounted desk hack from Mette Nagy Stovner has you covered.
You just need a little room on your wall, and you’re in business.
Mette looked at the IKEA IVAR desk unit, but it wasn’t the look she was going for. So, she did what any hacker would do; she figured out how to get what she wanted by making it herself.
And what she came up with was simple, clever, and quick.
Mette took the humble IKEA IVAR cabinet and, with a quick flip (literally), gave it a sleek upgrade. A few tweaks later, and she has a space-saving, stylish laptop and workstation. If you’re looking for a hideaway home office or homework spot, you need to check this out.
What You’ll Need
- IKEA IVAR cabinet
- Decor chains
- Appropriate hanging hardware
- Magnetic catches
Hang the IVAR Cabinet Sideways and Get a Desk!
1. Mount the Cabinet
Hang the IVAR Cabinet on the wall at the desired height with the appropriate hardware. It’s best to install it directly into the wall studs. Use the appropriate anchors for the wall if there’s no stud. Use the hanging instructions for the cabinet provided by IKEA as a guide.
Get the height right. We have a wall-mounted desk and cabinet, and one thing we took our time with when installing it was the height. Remember, you’re planning to use it as a desk, so you don’t want to hang it too high.
When we hung our wall-mounted desk, I sat in the chair I planned to use, and we marked where we wanted the desk surface to land on the wall. We measured up from there for the hook placement, etc. I would think a similar technique would work here.
2. Add the Chains
One of the concerns that showed up over and over in the comments was about the stability of the desk. Mette added decor chains on each side of the fold-out for extra support.
Many people feared it would come out of the wall as soon as someone leaned on it or put too much weight on it.
However, Mette responded, saying, “The chains hold up to 24 kg, so I think that would be enough for arm support! If not, we will upgrade to better chains, I think. The test runs this weekend have gone really well for both kids and adult use! But if one has kids who climb on furniture, I would consider further support.”
I have to say, I share the concerns. We found out the hard way that we didn’t have enough support with one of our drop-down desks.
The chain itself didn’t break, but the weight of the desk pulled it out of the cabinet part. We had to get heavy-duty hardware, and we haven’t had a problem since.
3. Finishing touches
Though Mette did not mention it, you’ll probably need a magnetic catch to keep the fold-down desk in upright position. Also, drill new dowel holes for the horizontal shelf.
The IVAR shelf is slightly shorter than the height (now width) of the frame, so longer shelf pins may be necessary.
Make This Floating Workstation Work for You
Those three steps were pretty much the entire hack, pretty simple! But there’s definitely a lot more you could do. For example, the upper door adds hidden storage. But if you needed it to stay open, you could add some stay-put hinges.
Adapting it for a monitor
This would be useful if you needed to keep a larger monitor in the cabinet. As-is, several commenters mentioned that a monitor would not fit. But if you left out the shelf, added stay-put hinges, and considered mounting the monitor to the wall, through the back of the cabinet, that would be pretty cool.
Cord management
Otherwise, Mette designed it as more of a laptop station, so she didn’t need this step. If you have items with cords, a cut-out in the bottom makes it easy to slip cords through, allowing the cabinet to close flush.
Personalization
You could also adjust the look of the cabinet to suit your decor by adding a wood wax, stain, or painting it.
What do you think of this desk hack? Is this transformation of an IKEA storage staple a win? What adjustments would you need to make (if any) for it to fit your needs?
Inspired?
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