ALEX work table with flat files

Materials: 2 VIKA ALEX storage units ($50 each): 601.928.26; 1 ALEX flatfile drawer unit ($120): 401.962.41; 1 tabletop (I used VIKA BLECKET because of the sweet lightbox inlay - $100): 201.036.05; 2 sets CAPITA brackets ($15 each, $30 total): 400.511.96; 1 RATIONELL shelf (30x24, set of 2 for $16): 245.785.10

Description: We finished a basement renovation recently that yielded a small room that I could use for a design/music studio. The room is small (about 10'x10' with a 3' swath of space under stairs) and making the best possible use of the space is key - as is finding furniture that's a little undersized to keep from making the room feel cramped. A goal was also to give my girls a space where they could do art projects and leave them out to dry, or just have the freedom to leave the space a little messier than they could leave the dining room or kitchen counter.

Source: Readmade Magazine, Bauhaus Beauty

I saw an article in a recent issue of ReadyMade (pic, right) about a furniture designer who found a killer Bauhaus-designed house in the hills of St. Paul, MN... anyway, he had built a beautiful work table for his studio. While I lack the skills and time to make the same thing for myself, I was looking through the IKEA catalog and the ALEX components made me think, what the heck, I could probably do something similar.

additional materials/tools:
10 machine screws (pan or truss head) 1/4" x 1-1/2" (mine are #20) with nuts and washers
4, 3" casters (i used two locking ones for the front) with 1/2" wood screws
drill and 1/4" bit, 3/16" bit, philips-head driver bit
handsaw, circular saw or table saw
measuring tape
screwdrivers and crescent wrench

total time: about four hours (not including IKEA run)


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Alex Cooling

Materials: Vika Alex, Revoltec PC-fans, ruler, jigsaw, Codegen 350w PSU

Description:
1. Mod the PSU by short-circuiting it so you don't have to make an on/off-switch. Then cut away all of the cables that you don't need and make it look somewhat more beautiful by using regular electrical tape.

2. Check the fans are working. Check!

3. Cut out some holes for the fans in your Vika Alex, and then install them. Yeah, do that.

4. Put some white electrical tape on the sharp edges, it's actually neater than you might think!

5. Get your stuff in there again, with routers and stuff on the lower floor - and your very expensive MacBook Pro on the upper floor. Now it has very good cooling - and you can hide it away so you don't have to have all of those annoying cables on your desk.

6. Be awesome!

See more of the Alex cooling box.

~ Jesper Karlsson, Sweden

Alex Credenza

Materials: Alex Drawer Unit (40196241) & AVSIKT Roll-front cabinet (#00158439)

Description: I have for a long time wanted to have an old style credenza with modernist influences. I though the Alex file cabinets were very elegant and often overlooked so i wanted to utilize them for this hack. The Alex file cabinets were however, too tall to make a sleek and modernist credenza, so in order to make it work i had to chop off the two bottom drawers and shorten the height of that product all together. Then, once that was done for both cabinets the fun began.

The AVSIKT Roll-front cabinet was perfect for my purposes since it had a beautiful roll front with a metallic finish - the roll front is actually really sturdy so even when i decided to flip the AVSIKT Roll-front cabinet so that the roll front was on the top, it can still actually hold pretty heavy objects (including a flat screen TV if necessary).

With the AVSIKT Roll-front cabinet, however, the depth and "height" was smaller than the Alex cabinets, therefore two pieces of plywood (1/2 in thick) had to be placed on each side. This actually helped strengthen the credenza, however, it did require me to veneer the surface once all the pieces were attached.
Once the pieces were secure to each other using wooden screws, I veneered the plywood pieces with a nice Maple veneer and gave it a couple of light clear coats to preserve the natural color.

The final touches were getting the legs from Home Depot (or your local hardware store, they cost about $2 a piece) and mount them on the bottom and painting them black. I opted for an arrangement of 3 legs in a triangular fashion on each side - I think that works best since the piece is quite heavy (actually, it is really heavy so lift with partner if possible).

I was happy that my vinyl record player fit the compartment in the AVSIKT Roll-front cabinet and i build a little shelf with the spare drawers parts from the Alex cabinet - underneath it is the speaker and wiring, all hidden from sight. I have many pictures of the process but can't supply them all at the same time on the site, if needed please let me know and i'll share them right away!

~ Mark Soares, Connecticut