The IKEA TV console hack

For my first attempt and building a standing desk, I wanted to do something easy to to make, adjustable, and cheap.

Materials

IKEA LACK TV unit. ($50)

IKEA GALANT adjustable A-frame desk legs ($15 each) and base frame ($30).

6 bolts, 6 washers, and 6 nuts (approx. $5)

Tools

Drill

Total Cost: $140

Cubby inspiration

One feature that I really wanted in a standing desk is some cubbie space so that I could keep the desktop clear. The INSEKT bureau +WORK from Buisjes En Beugels in Rotterdam is a gorgeous shape, and has tons of space inside the desktop.

IKEA hunting

I went to IKEA with a tape measure and started looking around at furniture, keeping an open mind to what could be used as a desktop. A lot of the TV consoles seemed like possible desktops, if they could have very long legs underneath.

I chose a TV unit - the LACK.

I measured my elbo height at 45”. Without its legs, the LACK TV unit was 10” tall, leaving me with a difference of 35” to make up for in leg height.

In the desk and office furniture section, I found this adjustable A-Frame leg set, called GALANT.

The GALANT A-leg can reach a height of 35-5/8” when fully extended.

IKEA funtimes

I lugged the two items back to my office, to do some construction.

Attaching top to bottom

The tricky bit was attaching the desktop to the leg frame!

Tricky, because if you’ve ever been poor, you know that IKEA wood is not actually wood - inside the birch veneer is a cavity filled with with glue and sawdust. It’s not something that a wood screw could go into and stay put.

So instead, I got six, 3” long, 1/4” bolts, to pierce from the toop surface all the way through the holes in the frame.

Prep

I marked where to drill the holes for the bolts by flipping the frame over.

After centereing the frame, I marked the holes with a pen.

Black hole

When it became time to drill, just how vacuous the surface the inside of IKEA furniture is. As soon as the bit breaks through the hard top veneer, it goes into a land of mush. This mush clogged the drill bit quickly, so I had to back out a few times for each hole.

After the six holes were drilled, I set up the desk, lined it up with the frame, and dropped in each of the bolts. I put a fat washer on top of each bolt, since I wanted to make as much contact with the surface (the hard part) as possible.

Here’s what the final setup looks like!