Project: Expedit with legs / Cost: $$$$

Guess who finally has a camera again?!

Yes, as it turns out it's rather difficult to blog about home projects when you drop your camera on the ground mid-photograph, bending the lens beyond all repair. Stupid gravity!

Anyway, a new camera has been acquired and, now that I finally have some free time again, I'm back and ready to post some of the projects I've worked on over the past few months.

Good old reliable Expedit. Why don't you have leg accessories?

First up, a quick but effective Ikea hack. I'm in the process of leveling up my bedroom from the current college-student-style mess of mismatched cheap furniture to something not much more expensive, but significantly better looking. Most of what I'm using is from the Ikea Hemnes family, which is a lovely line that unfortunately is completely devoid of anything that can hold Kassett magazine boxes, of which I have and use many.

What to do? The best option was an Expedit unit, but without legs it didn't match the rest of the furniture.

Because Expedits are reasonably cheap, I decided it was worth trying an experiment. I would pick up some legs, and then force them to attach to the Expedit in some way or another, presumably through brute force or coercion.

So an Expedit came home with me, as did two sets of Besta legs. At $10 a pair, the legs were a bit more than I wanted to spend, but if I could get them to work they would look perfect.

Behold! Overly expensive legs, in all their glory.

Expedits are predominantly that weird wood chip mulch Ikea is so fond of, so I figured it wouldn't be too tricky to drill leg holes into the unit. Of course, that requires having a working drill, now doesn't it? Wouldn't you know it, I had the drill, but the drill bits, on the other hand, were AWOL.

I guess I could have waited until the next day, gone to a hardware store, picked up drill bits, brought them home, and then drilled the appropriate-sized holes (FYI: you want to drill the holes just slightly smaller than the width of the metal screws that attach the Besta legs), but I wanted this thing done immediately. My patience, at this point, had completely evaporated, so I instead decided to stab out holes using a screwdriver and a hammer. I'm happy to say this is a legitimate option if you don't have a drill. If you have a drill, though, do yourself and your sanity a favour and put in the holes the right way. You'll save an obscene amount of time that way.

An important thing I should note is that, when placing the holes for the legs, you must be sure to avoid drilling/stabbing your way into the huge screws that hold the Expedit together. If you match the legs up exactly with the corners of the unit, you'll end up hitting these screws when you drill your leg holes. As such, it's better to line them up just a little off to the side. They'll still look right, and you'll actually be able to attach them that way.

Once you put in the leg holes, you only have about 5 more minutes of work to do to screw in the Besta legs. It's stupid easy at that point. Just follow the directions that come with the legs and you're all good.

Look! You'd never guess I had to stab this thing with a screwdriver to get it together!

Overall, I'm happy with it. Does it match the Hemnes furniture more this way? Yup. Do I wish I'd had the drill bits? Heck yeah. Was it okay without them. Yeah, I suppose so. Would I do it that way again? Um... NO!

Still decent-looking from the side

Close up on the leg. It actually looks like it belongs there. Fancy that.

Final project cost to me: $100

Time to complete project: About an hour and a half (if you include putting the Expedit together and my bootleg drilling solution. Give yourself about 10 minutes if you already have an existing Expedit and a proper drill setup)

Website Link: Top 5 Cheap Furniture Basics

I've bought a wide range of cheap furniture of, over the long-term, varying quality. The very worst? An over the toilet bathroom organizer from Zellers that was terrible to put together (I got blisters from it! Ouch!). The best? Probably my Billy bookcases from Ikea.

I'm a firm believer that stores like Ikea have, amidst the cheap stuff that'll do the trick for a year or two that you'll toss out when you move, a few top notch inexpensive items that'll actually hold up.

Apartment Therapy released a set of recommendations awhile back on the top 5 pieces of cheap furniture and I couldn't agree more with them (well, except for the part where they left out my beloved Billy bookcases that is). The commenters also left a long list of additional good finds. The article is a great list of cheaper stuff that you can rely on to last (unlike the aforementioned POS bathroom organizer... damn you Zellers!).

I'd like to add my deep love for Ikea's Expedit unit for a reason Apartment Therapy didn't mention: it is VERY VERY light. That fact may not matter to some of you, but I'm a massive weakling, so it's nice to know I have furniture in the house that I can actually move myself. A few years ago I picked a horrid cheaper Expedit-like shelving unit that Ikea made for about 10 seconds and then smartly discontinued, and I was completely unable to lift the box it came in myself. Expedit: it's not just a sheving unit; it's also good for people with no upper body strength!

The Expedit units have a number of great storage box and shelf options available, both from Ikea and from other companies as well. I personally have these Kassett boxes in green for storing my craft supplies and they both look attractive and do their job well.

If you want a cheap table to inflict your creative whims on I'd also recommend Ikea's Lack tables (yet another super-light friend for the strength-challenged). Their finish doesn't hold up the best over time (I have a few water-related mini-warps in the finish on mine), but they're one of the most delightfully hackable tables out there and are cheap enough that you won't be too upset if your hack doesn't go as well as planed. They're a good practice ground for hacking furniture, as this article notes. The Home Cheap Home book I reviewed awhile back also had some beautiful ideas for more artsy (and a bit harder) Lack table alterations.

Link: How to remove a stripped screw without an extractor

I am afeared I will at some point will need this detailed article from Apartment Therapy on how to get a stripped screw out... and so may you, so here's the link.