Office Space Part II: Sittin' Pretty

After FI and I put together our work station, I went to work putting together my office chair.

After scooting around the IKEA show floor in several different office chairs, I picked the Stefano - it wasn't too expensive, pretty comfortable, and adjustable, like a real work chair.

Here it is all in the flat packing box.

All of the pieces laid out before assembly.

A close-up of the wheels and adjustable legs.

I attach the wheels to the base and tighten the adjustable leg. I had a little trouble following IKEA's picture-only instructions and couldn't quite figure out how to put both pieces in so the height could adjust, but I figured it out finally.

I had to attach the seat back to the frame. Here it lays in FI's old computer table.

Then I put the seat on the table and attach the other end of the frame to the seat. You can see the back now hanging off the table.
Yay! It's complete. IKEA really does have renowned packaging skills. A chair, one of the most 3-D pieces of furniture, and a work chair (most complicated version of a chair) none the less, was all packed into a pretty flat squre box.

Now I just need to adjust it so it's the right height and angle for me.
Our completed workspace! We've got stuff on the bookshelf, filing cabinets underneath the table, and laptops up and running!

Office Space (not the movie) Part I: Long and Narrow

To continue on our IKEA adventure...

FI and I decided the best way to maximize the space between the bookshelf and the tv stand was to create a work station for both of us. So we set out at IKEA to find a long table that we could both use as our computer table.

We decided on the Vika Amon table top and 5 Vika Curry table legs.

Here are the table legs all laid out.
The table top on its top. Those are FI's feet.

We first screwed in the leg tops to the table. This was easy but repetitive (5 legs with 5 screws each).

FI and I had a little assembly line going. He would first use the electric drill to mostly tighten the screws. Then I'd come around and hand-tighten them completely. This way, if we ever need to remove the screws using only a regular screwdriver, we'd be able to.

Then we screwed in each leg and added the rubber stop bottom to each.

Then with some teamwork, we managed to flip the long table (6.5 feet!) over and position it against the window. Here's the start of our workstation. Plants, printer, our laptops, and a lot of cords.
Yay, a place to blog!

An IKEA Adventure: Our Bookshelf

After the finishing of our kitchen, FI and I started working on the rest of the apartment. We made a Sunday afternoon trip to IKEA. We headed out to the Brooklyn IKEA in Red Hook, which took just a speedy 20 minutes. We did a lot of shopping and bought some fun stuff (which I'll reveal in further posts).

One of the items we wanted to get was a tall bookshelf. It would go in the corner of the studio between our windows. The bookshelf could only be so wide (to fit between the windows) and only so deep (since we were going to put a long table as our workspace between the bookshelf and the tv), so we measured and had the numbers with us when we went shopping.

Our original choice was the Billy bookcase. We liked the simple and clean style and the price wasn't bad. However when we went down to the first floor to pick up one, it was pretty heavy, so we decided to pick a lighter one. We decided to go with IVAR shelf system, bought it, got it all the way home, started building it, and realized... it didn't fit! The measurements given by IKEA only measures the shelf space for storage, not the full width of the shelf. So we turned around and went right back to IKEA (thank goodness it was only 20 minutes away) and checked out some other bookcases.

We finally settled on the KILBY bookcase. Not only was it sturdier than the IVAR and lighter than the BILLY, it was cheaper than both by a lot. We doublechecked the measurements and took it home. Then we started assembling it...

First thing, we moved all of the stuff that was in the corner and moved it... well, basically anywhere else in the apartment. And then cleaned the floor. And then stacked the bookcase box in the corner.

Here's all our stuff from the corner. You can see the little bookcase in the foreground and my plants (on top of my craft boxes) in the background.
Now to start assembling!

Here's the unpacking...

We've laid out all of the pieces.

We sorted all of the attachments and make sure we have the right number of each. I always like laying the little pieces out just like the diagram so I know which ones to grab.

We first attach each shelf to one sideboard with wooden pegs. Here's FI hold the shelves while I take a picture.

Then we stuck the bottom cover piece on.

We put pegs on the other side of the shelves.

Then we attached the other sideboard. We had some old allen wrenches (from previous IKEA pieces) so we were both able to put in bolts at the same time.
Then we flipped the bookshelf on its back and put the backboard on. We then had to hammer in nails around the sides and across the middle. I wanted to go all Mr. Miyagi and try and hammer them in all at once, but having tried that before with my dresser, I knew that wasn't a good idea.

Here's some of my handiwork.
We then stood the bookcase up and moved it to the corner. It fits!

The KILBY is a very light bookcase and we didn't want it to tumble over onto anyone, so we attached the safety strap as well.

Then we put in little metal rods on the insides of the sideboards and laid the other shelves in. FI said, just stick them in anywhere, but I was like, no, we must count and equally allot the holes so the shelves are the same size.

Yay! Our finished bookcase! Now it's ready to be filled with our stuff!
I'll post about our complete workspace soon!

Our first piece of furniture...

So I'm in the process of moving in with FI. As we're trying to figure out how to make all the stuff in 2 studio apts fit into one, we are also getting a few pieces of storage to put all of my stuff.

Our first piece was a cupboard for the bathroom. We bought a super inexpensive one from Target for $30! Which I can't seem to find online... the only one I could find is $120, which is way more than we paid for it.

We spent one evening putting it together. I wish I had taken pictures of our construction. We were super organized. We laid out all of the pieces in order and worked through each step carefully. The pieces were all pressboard so it was superlight and didn't seem very sturdy at all. We had to put part of it together directly in the bathroom since it goes around the toilet.

We had a bit of a mishap because I put 2 of the screws in the wrong way, but FI managed to pull the top off and reattach everything and we finished!

Here's the final product in the bathroom. Looks pretty good right? Definitely worth the $30.

We were worried however that it was so light and not super stable that it might tumble over onto some unsuspecting person sitting on the toilet so we decided to add a support. Using hanging wire (for mirrors and frames), we drilled 2 holes and hammered some hooks and looped the wire through and tied some super tight knots. Kind of ghetto, but it's secure.

Look at the nice doors!

We are impressed with our handiwork!