Lighted MALM bed: an all-IKEA hack

This is an all-IKEA hack, consisting of sticking one IKEA product on another. It's so straightforward, I even hesitate to call it a true hack. If you're familiar with the MALM bed frame and nightstands, the photo should be self explanatory. You'll need a MALM bed frame and optionally one or two matching MALM nightstands, depending on your bedroom layout. The frame can be full queen, or king, doesn't matter. You'll also need two TRETTIOEN LED lighting strip kits for the bed frame, and another if you want to do the nightstand(s). Other IKEA LED light strips would also work; they update this product area frequently. Don't use halogen or other incandescent lights! You might set your bed on fire! The LED light strips specified are low voltage, low power devices ideal for this sort of nonsense.

Step 1: Attach the LED light strips to the furniture

For the bed frame, simply attach the LED light strips to the underside of the frame rail that sticks out from the side of the bed. Put all four strips in series as per the instructions, hiding the cords, power modules, and switches as you see fit. Finish assembling the bed frame as per the wonderful pictorial instructions IKEA provides. For the nightstands, use one kit, putting one LED light strip under each projecting shelf-thingy and connecting the two strips in parallel using the supplied wiring, again per IKEA instructions. Then finish assembling the nightstands and attach to bed frame. When you're done, switch everything on and your bed should look like mine in the photo. You can see the cords and power supply on the floor. At some point I'd like to hide all that mess, and make up a slick control system with hidden switches on the nightstands and perhaps a dimmer circuit. The numerous excellent LED instructables should make this an easy task.

Comments

[jsmallridge]

I did the same with RGB LED Strips and a RGB LED Controller from eBay it cost me about £15 and it looks awsome.!

[gantsa]

wires right beside your head are causing electromagnetic field that finally will make your brain feel diiizy

[jsmallridge]

Hmm Yes is suppose. Your a bit of a cable freak arn't you.

[lollylan]

Hi
I did pretty much the same thing you did, only with RGB LEDs and a color changer. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzNJM7Djn-c

[dpocius]

Very cool! Now I wish I'd found color-changing LED strips.

[lollylan]

thanks :) I was in IKEA myself looking for the color changing thing but didn't really find anything so I just had a look around eBay ;-)

[stinkie]

I love it! How's life in a dome? I want one too, just have to convince the hubby.....it'd be so easy since we live near Italy, Tx where they have the monolithic dome institute!

[dpocius]

Surprisingly ordinary. Ours is a 20-year old 39' dia. Cathedralite (since gone out of business), a panelized kit. It's fairly well insulated so it's pretty easy to heat and cool in the SoCal desert. The acoustics take a bit of getting used to, with reflected sounds coming from odd places. It's rock-solid in the wind: no creaks or groans. The materials are standard wood-frame, with drywall inside and composition roof outside. Only one leak and we just re-roofed, so that should be history.

[stinkie]

The reflected sound would be an added bonus to me (except for the three year old noise) because hubby lost a good amount of his ability to hear when the first of the Twin Towers came down....almost on his head!

[dpocius]

Wow, that's heavy! You guys deserve a structurally-superior dwelling after all that. The monolithic concrete dome looks like a good way to go. I've seen a couple in Redwood City, CA and Sedona, AZ, and they look interesting.

[Grey_Wolfe]

This so monsters have no place to hide under the bed??? lol. It'd probably look cooler going down the higway at 80, but then how do you explain the ticket to your wife? lol

[dpocius]

I guess they're working. Not one monster under the bed since I installed the lights. I should have thought of this when my daughter was little.

[Grey_Wolfe]

Marvelous. Glad it works, likely the spectrum. MuB's are very picky about lighting. lol It is a good idea for kids, hadn't thought of that, do they happen to have a set that's not quite so bright. Maybe with a timer on it, so it goes off automatically after a bit. This also looks very nice, btw.

[casshan]

Could you get one of those timers that just plug into the wall at Home Depot or Lowes, set it, and then just plug it in? I don't even know how much they are... Just an idea though.

[dpocius]

That should work just fine. I have a follow-on project in the back of my mind whereby I would make a system controller for all the bed lights using a microcontroller (BASIC Stamp, PIC, or the like) together with a nice switchpad on either nightstand to provide any number of control options for the lights: dimming, timer, light controlled, remote control, etc. Seeing as how the LED light strips are relatively simple DC current-driven devices, the output interfacing would be relatively straightforward. Once a computer is put in charge, the sky's the limit, provided you can write code to implement your ideas.

[jcpoo]

hi there, i have a MALM bedframe, wondering if anyone can email me the instructions / directions to how to put it together? the booklet that came with the IKEA bedframe? thanks so much please email me... [e-mail]

[dpocius]

Download IKEA assembly instructions in .PDF format for most products at:
http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/customer_service/assembly_instructions.html

[kunk]

ya done gud...Bucky had balls...kunk

[nemik]

this is awesome! after hiding the lighting power and all it could look even slicker. thanks!