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.

Step 2: Bonus Hack: Business Card!

Yes, I'm a huge IKEA fan as well as a longtime admirer of R. Buckminster Fuller. So, when I had the opportunity to move into a geodesic dome house last spring, I couldn't resist hacking the IKEA help graphic, found at the end of every IKEA assembly manual, thusly for my new personal card. I'm retired, so I guess it isn't a business card anymore. (Thanks for the graphics help, Randy!)

This concludes my very first instructable. How'd I do?