Very hacky in Berlin - 10m² full of storage

Materials: Mandal bed, Capita legs 11 & 21 cm, Galant extention & shelf, two 2x4-Expedit, two 1x5-Expedit, two Vika Kaj, 100cm Linnmon Tabletop, Expedit desk mounting

Description: Last year I moved to Berlin to start my masters degree. I found a wonderful flat mate that I totally wanted to live with. Only weak point: the room for rent was only ~10m². After 3 month of planning, searching hacks and forums, I came up with a plan to get most of my stuff from my previous 20m² to the new tiny room.


1) Mandal bed mounted on 1x5-Expedit

I love the Mandal bed frame since I first saw the black edition at my local Ikea years ago. On IKEAHackers I found tons of DIY-bedframes made from Expedit shelves, which gives you lots of space for storage - in the shelves and underneath the bed.

So the idea was to mount my favorite bedframe on two narrow Expedit. It is pretty simple. You put together the bedframe as described by the manual BUT you do not attach the white bars, that come with it as a base. The 1x5-Expedits are assembled like the manual says. Put them down on their long sides and place the bedframe on top. You can fix the bed by putting long screws (~8cm?) trough the holes where the base is normally screwed on. Voila, bed with lots of storage :)

2) 2x4-Expedit meets Linnmon (Amon in Germany)

Next I needed a desk with storage for books, folders etc. My first choice would have been the Expedit desk combination but there is not enough space for a 80cm deep table. So I got a 2x4-Expedit and the mounting for the desk (from the IKEA service counter) but not the desk itself.

Instead I bought the smallest Linnmon tabletop and the adjustable Vika Kaj legs. I put together the Expedit but left the vertical part in the second row from top out. This is where I connected the Linnmon Tabletop. To mount my monitor I attached 11cm Capita legs to the small half round Galant extention, like I had seen in my local Ikea.

3) Mounted TV

Yeah, not exactly new...but it belongs to my room. Since my bed is 90cm high I needed to mount my TV to see more than just the upper part of the picture, while sitting on the bed. So I bought the Galant shelv and screwed Capita 21cm to it. It has the perfect width for my TV and there is space under it for DVD-player and photos.

So, that's my room, basically. There are also two Grundtal drying racks, mounted high on the wall but that is not exactly a hack. Just using the ~3m of wall :)

And just if you wonder about the red and grey blankets - thats sleeping places the cats choose. If we miss one of the kittys, just look under my bed ;)

~ Bianca, Berlin, Germany

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