Materials: RAST chest
We purchased two RAST dressers to convert to bedside tables. My husband added trim to the drawer fronts, added a beefier top to them, and trimmed a more substantial base at the bottom. We stained the tops, painted the rest, and added LANSA hardware in place of the knobs they come with.
You can see more of the hack at www.lifeinyellow.com.
Materials: GULLIVER crib
We needed a laundry rack without a foot print because our attic is small and our laundry was growing with one kid and one underway. Racks suspended from bannisters are very common here but as a kid I always hated having to walk the stairs with wet laundry touching my face. Ugh!
I had seen some pictures of a rack with pulley system which would make perfect use of the height under the roof. My boyfriend (the builder) thought that was a bit too complicated and came up with this version. We’ve had it in use for almost two years now and I am still very happy with it!
We used a Gulliver crib (picked up at a thrift store for €12,50), but any crib with round bars will work.
Additional materials needed from the hardware store:
- 4 big flat brackets (about 30cm by 3cm)
- 2 heavy duty hinges
- pulley (doesn’t have to be big, but make sure it can carry the weight)
- rope
- cleat hook
- screws (appropriate for your type of wall)
1. Determine how big your laundry rack can be. This is dependent on how much height you have available to you and how much space to lower it. Ours is about 1.8m.
2. One side was trimmed and then affixed to the other side of the crib with the 4 flat brackets, two on each side, bottom and top.
3. Attach the rack to the wall using the hinges. Make sure it is at the right working height.
4. Fix the pulley to the wall, a little below where the top of the rack would touch the wall.
5. Fix the hook to the wall, somewhere where you can easily access it.
6. Tie the rope to the end of the rack and thread it through the pulley, loop it on the hook. When the rack is completely lowered, cut of any excess rope.
You don’t want to make it much bigger than this, with this design. With a full load it bends a bit where the two sides are attached to each other plus it is heavy to pull up. (I am really not a strong person at all and can manage, just.) If you want it bigger strengthen the attachment of the sides of the crib and use more than one pulley to distribute the weight.
Material: SAMLA box
This is a shower base created with Ikea’s plastic box, SAMLA.
As I did not find a regular shower base that could fit in the space I had for it, I had to create it with Ikea’s box. For this, I made a wooden platform in order to elevate the box and be able to connect the water pipe. It works perfectly and better than a regular shower base. As the box is high, the water never comes out.
Note: For safety, you may want to place an anti-slip mat inside the base. ~ Jules
