Our Ikea Hack

I love Ikea and am always dreaming about putting new ikea things in our house, which Rocky has never liked until now. I showed him the Besta range and how versatile it is and what you can do with it. We wanted a built in buffet/wine/bar area in our dining room. The besta product was the best option but it was a bit short at one end. I was happy to leave a gap but no Rocky said it would look dicky. So I was ready to walk away downhearted as my dream of having an awesome piece of ikea furniture in the house slipping away. Then Rocky had a light bulb moment. He came up with the idea of building a wine rack at the end to fill the gap. 

I was hesitant as I was worried about how much it was going to cost and what if it didn't turn out or didn't fit or just looked plain ridiculous and the worst amateurish!!! But I trust him so I said ok do it. As a little bit of a sign that it needed to be done sooner rather than later. Ikea put the whole Besta range on sale at 20% off for a week. I was sooo excited not only was I getting my ikea furniture I was getting it on sale.

So here are the progress photos with a bit of a description of how he did it aswell.

We used a Besta Shelf Unit 60x40x192 and extra shelves we had left over from the other parts of the besta products we had brought but didn’t need. He cut each shelf in half and cut out a slot in the middle of each half. 

He left one of the side pieces in tact (that is the piece that is up against the wall.) The other side piece he cut slots into at the back so that the shelves slotted into each one evenly spaced. He then cut the backing board to fit against the back of the shelves and nailed each side twice for extra stability. He then cut the top and bottom of the besta to fit the width we needed and drilled the screws into that to hold it together. 

Once it was ready to fit into the gap we pulled out the original Besta Shelf Unit and drilled holes into the top and bottom corners and did the same on the wine rack side. Then placed wooden dowels into the holes on one and pushed the two together. Then screwed it together in top, middle and bottom for extra stability. We then pushed the whole thing into the gap and secured the original Besta Shelf Unit to the wall so there is no chance of it falling over. We ended up with 32 spots for wine now all we need to do is fill it up.

Close Up

The Finished Product!!!

I am super happy with it and don't think it looks at all ridiculous let alone amateurish.

Liam 10-11 Months Old

Liam aged 10 - 11 months (I kinda forgot about doing the 10 month old post. Whoops!)

He is getting so big and changing all the time. He crawls everywhere and then he climbs to stand up as soon as he gets to where ever he wants to be. He walks around furniture and in a walker, he is a bit of a hoon going flat out around the house. Liam has 8 teeth 4 top and bottom. He is starting to eat a bit more variety of food but it is hard to get him to eat some things. 

He still talks heaps saying the same words over and over and getting louder and louder. 

Liam also is now big enough to be facing forward in the car seat now. It felt like it took him forever to get to be big enough to face the front but now he is and he loves it. I do too cause I can see him all the time and he tries to look out the window as well.

We started him at swimming lessons in the beginning of February. He isn't a fan at all. As soon as you walk into the pool he gets all antsy and doesn't like it. Once he is in the pool he is ok but sometimes I think he scares himself and it upsets him a bit. Today Rocky said they put his face in the water and he was ok with it, only did a little cough after it.

These photos were taken last night before we went out for dinner. I've had these shoes since before he was born so have been waiting along time to put them on and now they finally fit. They are so cute.