IKEA hack: a headboard for the MALM bed

As we were preparing to move from Greece to Belgium in the summer of 2018, we decided it was time to get a new bed.

For some reason, most houses and apartments in Belgium come with no wardrobes or closets, so we decided to get a bed with plenty of storage space (we did also get a couple of PAX wardrobes but we needed more space). After some research, we decided on a MALM “ottoman” bed (the one where the whole mattress lifts up and the space underneath can be used for storage).

The “problem” with the MALM bed is was that it comes with a rather simple headboard and I wanted something with more storage.

I did some search on both the IKEA and the ikeahackers sites and I came up with a rather simple, cheap and elegant solution.

Materials

• One IKEA GNEDBY CD/DVD storage cabinet sawn in half
• Three IKEA 65cm x 25cm wall selves
• Four IKEA EKBY STÖDIS brackets
• Some screws and a couple of metal corner brackets

First, I took the side pieces for the GNEDBY cabinet and cut them in half. Then I assembled the – now – two parts of KNEDBY and screw them on the back of the bed headboard, at the edges, with the selves pointing outwards.

After that, I also screwed the 4 EKBY STÖDIS brackets on the top back of the headboard.

Finally, I fixed the 3 IKEA selves on top of the headboard, to create a full-width self.

On the sides of the cabinets, I fixed two IKEA KOPPLA powerstrips, held in place with 3D-printed brackets:

So here it is:

A nice headboard with a bit of storage on the sides for books, phones & chargers and a nice long self on top, for lights, (more) books, picture frames etc.