apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Arrrgh! Damn you, IKEA, for not being in St. Louis...

The pictures are all beautiful, but I seem to remember that Lack's can't hold much weight - which would make the desk especially challenging...

SpaceMonkeyX - I completely agree with you. I grew up in Philadelphia with one of the first US Ikea, then lived in the Washington, DC area with 3 Ikeas, but now I live in Memphis with no Ikea, Chipotle, Panera or Trader Joe's. *weep*

The lack is also too narrow to be a desk...

That's funny that you posted my photo of my lack shelves. I sold my house recently and decided there was NO WAY I was taking those damn things with me. They were such a pain to put up, leave so many holes, need to be screwed into wall studs or fall down....etc.etc. I loved them once, but will never use them again. Good luck with yours Sarah.

so, about that floating desk... is it , or is it not a Lack shelf?
and if it is , is it safe?
it could be a very good solution to my desk space problem....

I was looking at using LACK shelves to construct a built-in closet office, similar to the last photo, however each shelf only supports something like 10-30 lbs.

mms, the floating desk is not a Lack shelf...just an inspirational photo. You would have to use lightweight things if you used it for a desk...no stacks of heavy books. It is also pretty narrow, but would work for a laptop and some office supplies.

definitely not a lack shelf. i'm using the narrowest ikea board possible for my desk and its still about 1.5 times wider than the lack (which hangs about 3 feet away from me now).

lack shelves work excellent if you put them into the drywall. our lack shelves hold about 15-20 bottles of alcohol, full, without cringing. granted, we also have "support" underneath, but its mostly decorative.

here's a photo that was before the support:
http://www.olya.org/archive/bar/DSC_8013.jpg
we have two ikea shelf supports screwed in underneath, flush to the shelf. it actually looks pretty good, at least in my opinion. :-)

anyway. key is proper support; these things are pretty sturdy - but not wide enough for a desk, unfortunately.

definitely need an IKEA in St. Lois

We don't have an Ikea in Las Vegas, but thank god we at least have Chipotle, Panera, and Trader Joe's!

just to clarify, the last photo of the desk in the closet is from domino as well. it's from a magazine that i own, anyway, and i may not remember correctly! :) they actually suggested using a length of laminate countertop.

mmms, if the lack shelf isn't sturdy enough for your desk, here's another idea: http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/2008/01/looking-for-slim-good-looking-computer.html

I use the stainless steel lack shelf as a vanity tabletop in the alcove in my bedroom. I also bought Ikea's helmer (in the gray color) for storage, and hung the lack shelf so that it floats about six inches above the top of the drawers. Add to that a couple of square column lights, a mirror on the wall (all from Ikea), and voila! Cheap, chic vanity. God, I'm a genius. Sorry, it had to be said.

Can anyone recommend a different type of wall shelf that is sturdy enough for books? I am trying to free up floor space in our office by using wall-mounted book shelving, but the Lack shelves can't hold enough weight.

I think Mac & IKEA is a fine combination.

The shelf above the bed looks very uncomfortable.

Didn't you guys already do this exact post before? Like carbon copy?

I used standard lack shelfs for my desk for a while. I had keyboard / mouse on a lower one, and a flat screen on one above, and printer above that. Worked fine, but check your weights.

In an Ikea showroom a few years ago, I saw a lovely, skinny vanity table that was made from a lack shelf and a pair of table legs. (Ikea sells a number of them in the desk/table area) The addition of the legs to the wall-mount allowed it to hold extra weight. The showroom was a teen bedroom and there was a mirror of some type hung above on the wall. The stool for the vanity was on casters and doubled as the desk chair. It was a cute solution for a tiny space. I always thought that it might be a good solution for a narrow hall entry where super-skinny table was needed as a landing strip.

lurker...I'm not so sure the addition of legs will actually allow it to hold more weight because the thing is hollow so, even with legs, weight in the center will put a hole in it.

Chairgirl i feel the same way...I grew up in Memphis and now live in Little Rock. We don't get any good stores, although we finally got a Pottery Barn Container Store. Honestly though, compared to most places we have some of the best affordable antique shops around though. I just bought a beautiful 18th century English cupboard from Wilshire last weekend for a mere $300 here. I can't stand to furnish my place with anything else but rare finds that tell a story and have character....Ikea bite me.

Regarding desk idea ...

Lack specs ...
Max. load: 11-33 lbs
Cost: $19.99

iMac specs ...
Weight: 20-25 lbs
Cost: $1200-2200

I also hate the Lack, after having them myself. I make a lot of jokes about them whenever I see them.

"Those shelves Lack the ability to hold anything."

Never again will I buy the Lack shelves - they are such a pain to install and create huge holes in your walls that are no fun to patch up.
A better idea for the wall mounted desk would be to use the counter tops that Ikea sells - they can be cut to whatever length you like and then mounted to the wall or have legs added, and can hold a lot of weight compared to the lack shelves.

Thank you so much for all these opinions! i'm heading to Ikea next weekend to get stuff for our new place. its great to hear what is and is not a good buy!

thanks!

http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/2008/04/stuff-you-can-do-with-lack-shelves.html

Marrria,

I used Ikea lack shelves to create my library. The 80 linear feet of shelving holds about 400 books and magazines. Another 60 linear feet form the entertainment center in my living room. The key is to make sure you use appropriate wall anchors. Mine are drilled into concrete and mounted with concrete screws, however at my previous place they were mounted into wall studs. There are a number of wall anchors sold at hardware stores that can be used if you have problems mounting them into studs.

Just installed Lack shelves in my studio, above my drawing table. The hold stuff like pencils, brushes, paints, so not much weight, and I love them. They were however, a regular pain in the rear to install. Husband left many holes in the wall, besides the ones we used.

Hi John H. Would you happen to have a picture of your library on line? I would love to see a library made with lack shelves as that's something I was looking into doing.

I have a lack shelf in my living room above the flat screen...I love it. I used screws called WallDogs....they are supposed to grip into anything and everything and boy, do they ever!! I screwed it into studs on the right and the left and it's been standing strong for two years now. Just remember to put the two small screws into the bottom of the shelf to secure the shelf to the brackets. I didn't have a hard time installing it at all, and I did it by myself...the hardest part was getting the shelf into the brackets while not being able to see where I was. My friend tried the smaller lack shelf, and it pulled out of the wall after a few weeks...the crash scared his roommate to death. Just make sure you use the proper anchors and mark your drill holes before you drill so you don't create extra holes....I got the longest Lack shelf and am only 1/2 inch off from one side to the other! I was pretty proud of that )

I have used an Ikea lack shelf supported by door stoppers as an extra thin shelf on my expedit book case to support my tv with my dvd player sitting beneath.
Check it out: http://topia7.com/blog/2008/06/ikea-hack-tv-shelf-with-door-stoppers.html

We used Ikea's Jarpen shelves with the Bjarnum brackets to create a pantry out of the closet near our kitchen. Here's the end results (I blogged about it too, which you can read about if you're really bored at work). Like others said, the key is to buy the appropriate hardware (aka anchors and screws specifically for your type of walls) and drill into studs whenever possible.

It was definitely a lot of work to do, but the result was something that we can't remember how we lived without! And, thanks to Ikea, creating a pantry cost less than $500, and will hopefully help our house sell (fingers crossed!).

Yes, it just depends on the wall anchors you use... My friends have them lining one of their living room walls and are holding tons of books. They look great!

these are fab! and I love Ikea!
http://xobeau.blogspot.com/

I have a Lack shelf high above my toddler's changing table. It holds wipes and a basket of distraction toys and lotions, all out of his reach but within mine when I'm wrangling a squirmy boy. I put a stick-on mirror on the underside, and sometimes he likes to make faces at himself while I'm working on the other half of him.

We have 900 DVDs sitting on 3 Lack shelves. They definitely hold weight.

oh man, if only my wall studs weren't about 40 inches apart...

I have my sofa and love seat arranged in an L-shape. The space around the love seat is very tight so I couldn't use even the skinniest end table. I mounted a Lack shelf on the wall at table height and use that as an end table between the loveseat and the wall. Works perfectly and looks good.

As for the desk, I got an ikea Lack coffee table top from the as-is department for $4, and use it as a desk. It's not floating like the Domino "inspiration" photo, since I've used legs. It does however, take up less space than the normal Ikea desks, while still being plenty of space to hold my iMac and a few other odds and ends.

I just did the desk idea the other day. I replaced a huge desk with one of these shelves, stuck a slide-out keyboard tray and wire caddy underneath, and voila!
http://flickr.com/photos/asurroca/2818896888/

For those who don't live near an Ikea, the online shopping and delivery option is great. In fact, I live near the Brooklyn Ikea, and it's still more convenient to order online than to go through the store and lug all that stuff around. Also, what I love about ordering online is that you can do it all while you're at home with a tape measure to measure your spaces.

Here's my "lack" home office. I have quite a bit up on the shelves and haven't had a problem.

http://renovationtherapy.wordpress.com/2008/02/10/home-officerevamped/

Souk1501,

Unfortunately, I don't have digital pictures of my library and entertainment center made up of the Lack shelves. However, I Love Upstate created a Lack shelf configuration somewhat similar to mine, made of the birch veneered shelves.

My library is 13’x15' with 8' high ceilings. The room has a nearly wall length 4' high window on one 13' wall and a wall length closet and room entrance on the opposite wall. That left only the two 15' walls as candidates for the location of the primary shelving. The system I designed encompasses 16 shelves, 10 on the main wall and three each on the adjacent walls. When planning out a shelving system made of Lack shelves, it's important to layout your shelving configuration ideas both on paper and on the walls with tape as Lack shelves come in two lengths, 74 3/4" and 43 1/4". Thoroughly consider the items you will be storing since their height will determine the shelf to shelf heights of your system and ultimately the number of shelves that may be hung on your wall. Plus once they’re hung, adjusting their height is a huge undertaking since changing the height of one shelf can throw off the design. The main library wall has five continuous shelf runs beginning 15" from the floor and ending 20" or so from the ceiling. Since the dimensions of my room did not permit a full corner to corner run of the shelves on one of the 15' walls, I centered the shelves on the wall. The shelving runs terminate about 20" from the corners.

If you wish to make long runs of the shelves, learning the art of careful alignment of the hanging brackets and shimming is important. Depending on the state of your walls, shimming of both the brackets and shelves themselves may be required. When done well, the individual shelves together will look like one continuous board. Creating a library of Lack shelves is challenging, but given the giant cost savings over buying units, and the clean modern style, it’s well worth the work.

Although the amount of weight that they hold is restricted....the basic lack floating shelf is one of the best designed items at Ikea. I have used them in every apartment that I have had over the past 15 years.

Wiglet can you post a pic of your vanity or indicate the name of the ikea products that you used?

Love it!

get a metal drill bit and make extra holes in the lack brackets if holes don't line up with studs.