IKEA’s Latest Assembly Instructions Help You Upcycle Their Most Popular Products

The flat-pack furniture giant is encouraging people to repurpose old purchases—think birdhouses from salad bowls, and hanging gardens from shopping bags.

IKEA’s Latest Assembly Instructions Help You Upcycle Their Most Popular Products

The flat-pack furniture giant is encouraging people to repurpose old purchases—think birdhouses from salad bowls, and hanging gardens from shopping bags.

The Repurposeful Instructions are playfully designed to mirror IKEA's famous—and sometimes much maligned—assembly instructions for their flat-pack furniture.

Chances are you’ve spent a weekend following IKEA’s assembly instructions to put together a Billy Bookcase or a Malm Bed. Or, perhaps you’ve "hacked" a piece of IKEA furniture, a trend that finds DIY-enthusiasts adding their own personal touch to the mass produced pieces. Recently, IKEA launched the Repurposeful campaign: a collection of manuals detailing its own hacks that give a new life to furnishings that would otherwise be thrown out.

Some of the Repurposeful Instructions projects include a terrarium, a beehive, a birdhouse, and a hanging garden.

Some of the Repurposeful Instructions projects include a terrarium, a beehive, a birdhouse, and a hanging garden.

Photo courtesy of IKEA

So far, there are twelve manuals available for free download on the IKEA website, and each is printed in the style of the brand’s famous assembly instructions: with simple black-and-white diagrams and minimal text.

The projects are split into three levels of difficulty, depending on your level of DIY expertise. At the easy end of the scale, you can transform a VARIERA plastic bag dispenser into a cleaning caddy, turn HEAT trivets into cork wall organizers, and fill a FABRIKÖR glass-door cabinet with plants to create a terrarium.

The Repurposeful Instructions are playfully designed to mirror IKEA's famous—and sometimes much maligned—assembly instructions for their flat-pack furniture.

The Repurposeful Instructions are playfully designed to mirror IKEA's famous—and sometimes much maligned—assembly instructions for their flat-pack furniture.

Photo courtesy IKEA

The HEAT pot stands can be repurposed as wall organisers or cork boards. The Repurposeful Instruction manual demonstrates how to cut the cork pot stands to create a decorative assembly.

The HEAT trivet can be repurposed as wall organizers or cork boards. The Repurposeful instruction manual demonstrates how to cut the cork pot stands to create a decorative assembly.

Photo courtesy IKEA

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