Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Mod of the Day
I swear I spend half my life modifying IKEA stuff to do things it is *almost* perfect for. I think they should make me a designer there so I can invent the stuff to do what I need it to straight away. Anyway, todays' mod: Turn a Kvadrant curtain panel and hanging rails into shoji-style screens for two glass panel doors.
It all started with these two fabulous antique maple and glass doors I got on the cheap and that were the perfect fit for the guest room and bathroom. That they were clear glass wasn't an issue because I knew I could obscure them in some way "later on".
"Later on" number one involved screwing around with the IKEA frost window film and getting really pissed off. The stuff stretches, you see, so if you cut it to the size you need or even a hair less and then try to put it on the glass all perfect-like and without cat hair under it, you will FAIL, because it ends up being too big and it's impossible to trim neatly once it's up because, like I said, it stretches. And of course I didn't figure this out until wasted about three rolls of the crap and by that time I was SO over the stuff that is was time for plan B.
The subsequent "later on" number two was a non-start. I had grabbed two sets of the Kvadrant hanging rails and a roll of the panel material quite a while ago thinking I could figure out a way to use it on these doors. I must have been cranky or impatient the day I evaluated the workability of the stuff after I got it home, however, because the hanging rails ended up in the "return to IKEA" pile in my pantry and the roll of fabric ended up up in my studio. Apparently I figured I could still use it somehow but of course I forgot any potential details of that somehow a long time ago.
Fast forward to "later on" number three, my avoidance of housekeeping chores, and rediscovery of the roll of panel fabric that leads me to retrieve the Kvadrant rails from the pantry pile and discover that, yes, I can make the stuff work. So I cut some parts off of some of the tiny parts and took off some other, tinier parts and viola....privacy for potty:
I especially like that IKEA sells all manner of interesting panel material that I can swap out with this plain stuff as the mood strikes me. Because the mood WILL strike me...
And one final note: DO NOT, under any circumstances, be so foolish as to think that when the IKEA package says the fabric inside it is 118", that this is so, and definitely DO NOT cut off 59" and think that you will have another 59" piece left, because you won't, and door screen #2 for your guest room will end up a couple of inches shorter causing you to swear. Mmmmkay?
It all started with these two fabulous antique maple and glass doors I got on the cheap and that were the perfect fit for the guest room and bathroom. That they were clear glass wasn't an issue because I knew I could obscure them in some way "later on".
"Later on" number one involved screwing around with the IKEA frost window film and getting really pissed off. The stuff stretches, you see, so if you cut it to the size you need or even a hair less and then try to put it on the glass all perfect-like and without cat hair under it, you will FAIL, because it ends up being too big and it's impossible to trim neatly once it's up because, like I said, it stretches. And of course I didn't figure this out until wasted about three rolls of the crap and by that time I was SO over the stuff that is was time for plan B.
The subsequent "later on" number two was a non-start. I had grabbed two sets of the Kvadrant hanging rails and a roll of the panel material quite a while ago thinking I could figure out a way to use it on these doors. I must have been cranky or impatient the day I evaluated the workability of the stuff after I got it home, however, because the hanging rails ended up in the "return to IKEA" pile in my pantry and the roll of fabric ended up up in my studio. Apparently I figured I could still use it somehow but of course I forgot any potential details of that somehow a long time ago.
Fast forward to "later on" number three, my avoidance of housekeeping chores, and rediscovery of the roll of panel fabric that leads me to retrieve the Kvadrant rails from the pantry pile and discover that, yes, I can make the stuff work. So I cut some parts off of some of the tiny parts and took off some other, tinier parts and viola....privacy for potty:
I especially like that IKEA sells all manner of interesting panel material that I can swap out with this plain stuff as the mood strikes me. Because the mood WILL strike me...
And one final note: DO NOT, under any circumstances, be so foolish as to think that when the IKEA package says the fabric inside it is 118", that this is so, and definitely DO NOT cut off 59" and think that you will have another 59" piece left, because you won't, and door screen #2 for your guest room will end up a couple of inches shorter causing you to swear. Mmmmkay?
