Ikea Expedit reworked.

So I set out to create a great floating display of my childrens art and some great quotes in their play room today.  I quickly taped up a few sheets of blank paper to see what arrangement would work best and ran into a road block.  With the window opening in this wall of the playroom I could not get the hide-a-bed and picture arrangement to balance at all to my liking.  The opening in the wall was created so the kids would feel like they were still in the area we are yet still be a little seperate so we could have quiet conversation.

The other wall in their playroom is filled with this large expedit Ikea shelf.  It is the only wall in the playroom that this shelf will fit along.  I have been cursing the huge size of this unit for a while so I decided to do something about it.

I taped off on my window wall how the shelf would fit if I downsized it one row.

I decided this arrangement would work better for me so I got to work.

First I disassembled the unit removing the top and bottom frame as these would be the ones I would have to cut down.  The other middle shelves could easily be removed as they are all individual.

I then used my heat gun (an iron or hot blow dryer would work as well) to remove the veneer on one end of each the top and bottom frame.

 Off to visit my mom and dad I went to use their table saw to cut these parts of the frame down 13 3/4".  At this point I forgot my camera. 

Here we are back at home with our cut down frame and the veneer glued back on ready to assemble again.

 And here is the trimmed down shelf in its new location.

Now I can continue with my kids art display.  I have some other great ideas for cushions for this couch and display above the shelf that I will hopefully get to soon.  You can also see on the very right side of this photo the entry to a toy storage closet that we converted into an indoor playroom.  More to come on that soon.