Harold's Renovation Blog: 7 ways to hack the Ikea Bodo wardrobe

Monday, April 24, 2017

7 ways to hack the Ikea Bodo wardrobe

After falling in love with the open plan Bodo range, I decided to expand its range myself!

I started off with one Ikea Bodo wardrobe after Ikea withdrew them from sale in the UK, and slowly gathered more wardrobes for each room in my house, along with the side table cupboards. By accident (and on purpose due to the cost of buying pine from new!) I ended up with a glut of wardrobes far more than I needed, and so decided to repurpose these wardrobes into matching furniture and create bedroom sets.

Photo: IKEA.com

#1 Bodo Bird Feeder

After reusing the slats for wall storage solutions, I was left with a number of spare frames. These legs became a stand for my bird feeder to promote wildlife in the garden.

#2 Bodo Mini Wardrobe

After cutting the Bodo shelves in two for the initial desk idea, which was later scrapped after some use, I rebuilt the remaining part of the slats and reattached the frame, creating a mini wardrobe to complement the original design.

#3 Bodo Coat Hanger

This was the result of the first desk plan, which while effective was quite top heavy and threatened to break when moved. I redesigned the desk, and used the sides as a wall storage solution instead.

#4 Bodo TV Unit

This was one of the more difficult hacks as it involved manipulating the metal frame to end in a new point. After much cutting, drilling and plier-ing of the frame, this was the result. The remaining slats were then used as wall storage.

#5 Bodo Wall Storage

This wall storage solution was full length…

#6 Bodo Bedroom Set

A picture of the whole room, each room in the house matches! Behind me out of camera view is a Bodo wardrobe.

#7 Bodo Desk V2

Bodo foldable desk version 2. This one can be folded down and unlike version 1, is not top heavy. Surprisingly, having slats on a work surface does not impact on its use when used with a computer or book. Just in case however, I kept the surfaces from the foldup desks the legs were made from. The foldup legs are from foldaway desks from B&M @ £12 each.

Sadly, I didn’t keep any photos of V1, which used slats cut 2/3rds off as vertical legs, and 2×4 wood lengths as a top. Whilst stationary, it was a strong solution, but the design was top heavy, and threatened to collapse the vertical sides when being moved. Version 2 saw a complete redesign from the top down!