Hultet Clock Hack: In Honor of DST

The government is taking away that hour of sleep they gave you in November (though we do get back an hour of daylight; no more getting dark at 5:30 pm, yay!), so don't forget to change your clocks!

In honor of this day, I thought I'd share a recent Ikea hack of mine involving an 18" Hultet dish and a discontinued Ikea clock. This hack was featured on one of my favorite blogs, Ikea Hacker.

The Premise: I needed a nice clock for my bamboo-themed bathroom, but nothing seemed quite grand enough. Boyfriend happened to have an old round wall clock he had purchased from Ikea a few years ago (I forget the name of it now, it has since been discontinued). As fate would have it, I had also recently purchased a few bamboo Hultet dishes to hang in the bathroom as decoration. I got the idea to frame the too-small clock with one of the 18" dishes when I was storing the clock IN the dish during Boyfriend's move. It looked good...real good. But how to attach the two while still being able to access the battery on the back of the clock (or the knob to change the clock for DST)?

1. I figured out where to drill my holes based on where the hanger was on the back of the clock and where it aligned with my dish.

2. I flipped the dish over and drilled two holes from the back. I positioned the holes an inch or two higher than the location of the clock hanger so that gravity would pull the clock center with the dish.

My Makita drill is awesome!

3. I used a malleable wire (like frame-hanging wire) and strung it through the clock hanger. I threaded the two ends of the wire through the two holes I just drilled.

4. I used a leftover Ikea dowel (they sent me about 100 when I just needed 16 for my Pax wardrobe) to tie the wire to the dowel and used it to tighten the wire until the clock hung in the center of the dish.

5. I drilled another hole in the "lip" of the back of the dish based on where 12 o'clock was pointing.

6. I threaded a loop of hanging wire through this hole in order to hang it on a nail. I used another dowel to tighten this wire as well.

Here's the final product all hung 'n' stuff. I also used a bit of 3M velcro for picture hanging to secure it to the wall in case of an earthquake.

The cool thing about this hack is that if I need to change the time or batteries, I simply unwind the wire in the back and take off the clock! I guess I should go take care of that today at some point...

My First Ikea Hack

So my apartment has come a long way since those empty photos you saw in this post (things happen when you live in a place for 6 months). So the next several posts are going to be a somewhat chronological presentation of projects I've um...managed since moving here.

I have a love/hate thing with Ikea products. I love how cheap and modern-looking they are, but I also hate how cheaply made and COMMON they are! Seriously, everyone has an Expedit shelf or a Lack table somewhere. Speaking of which....*blush*...so I bought a Lack TV console/table thingy. Here's what it looks like in the catalog:

Looks like a Lack. But it had clean lines and I was desperate to get my TV out of a box on the floor. I decided to try to pump up the sophistication level by replacing the legs with the ever-popular Capita legs from Ikea.

It was pretty simple from here. Instead of attaching the Lack legs, I simple marked where I wanted these guys to go and screwed them in.

Using the original leg as a measuring unit.

I chose to bring the legs in toward the middle more for a hint of mid-century retroness (that's what they're calling it these days, right?). And here's the final product:

Not bad, not bad. The wood still looks fake as all fakiness, and it's quite a bit deeper than I wanted, but it works. Here's what the area looked like before Boyfriend moved in:

I do believe almost everything in this photo is from Ikea (bad Stephanie, BAD!!). I'm working on it. I also still have to do something about those wall-warts on top...yuck.

Post-Boyfriend, the TV is now huge (though it works), the plants have died, and just yesterday two ENORMOUS black speakers moved in, courtesy of Boyfriend's parents. They are just...so big and SO black. I cried a little when I saw them in place...literally (I'm not joking). Pictures to follow. I've been Googling non-stop for ideas on how to hide monster speakers without cutting holes in the wall and stashing them in there. So if you have any, please. Help me.