Studio Product: IKEA Råskog Kitchen Trolley

IKEA is proving to be a very useful place for providing equipment suitable for artists' needs.  My latest find is a Trolley called the Råskog Kitchen Trolley

One of the challenges of drawing with coloured pencils is getting my kit organised.  First I got my pencils into white painting tubs.  Then I got an IKEA Lazy Susan so that I can access them easily - however it would be nice to have all my other drawing equipment as easily accessible and in one place.  I've been thinking of getting a trolley - and spotted this one in the new IKEA catalogue.

IKEA Råskog Trolley

Specification

Materials: It's made of steel with an epoxy power coating.  These are the assembly instructions

Dimensions: The dimensions when assembled are

• Width: 35 cm (13.8 inches)
• Depth: 45 cm (17.7 inches)
• Height: 78 cm (30.7 inches) - that's the equivalent of desk height

Price: It's priced in the UK at £50 - in the USA it's $49.99.  I'm guessing VAT accounts for the rather wonky currency conversion.

Looking at it online, here are the pros and cons from my perspective

Pros

• I love the turquoise colour! (who needs grey?)
• the shelves have edges meaning that "stuff" does not fall off and everything is held securely within the space
• ease of access to shelving - no need to pull out a shelf
• tubs of pencils can be swopped around between the shelves depending on what is in use
• the castors mean it can be moved easily
• the website indicates that the middle shelf is adjustable - however I think they mean it's optional
• Steel means it's robust and can be cleaned easily (helpful for those wanting to use it for paint)
• its dimensions means it doesn't swamp the area when you have it out and it can fit in small spaces when you want to put it away

Cons

• the castors also mean it can move inadvertently - there's no obvious locking device to keep it one place
• the base of the shelves is meshed steel which I'm feeling a little ambivalent about.  Good for veggies and ideal for losing small items? (Probably need to use cartons within the shelves for small items/ things which roll)

I'd be interested to hear from anybody who has bought one and/or anything similar which they'd like to recommend.

More about IKEA for the studio

Previous IKEA items - reviewed on this blog - relate to:

• How to create a Lazy Susan Coloured Pencil Holder
• Hemnes Bookcase x 4 for "The Art Library" #1
• Hemnes Bookcase x 4 for "The Art Library" #2 - RESULT!
• Hemnes Bookcases - after the carpentry!
• Review: IKEA Alex Drawer Unit for paper storage
• Studio Product: IKEA ALEX Drawer unit with 9 drawers

Hemnes Bookcases - after the carpentry!

Three IKEA Hemnes Bookcases - after the carpentry and bolting to the wall
my two pastel Artbins are demonstrating they can now stack/fit underneath!

This is the third in my saga about developing the ultimate solution for "The Art Library".  I decided in the end to have three of IKEA's Hemnes 90cm wide bookcase  on a different wall and one in another room.  The above is a picture of the three after a day's carpentry.  This was required because:

• there is no way you should fill these bookcases full of books without fastening them to the wall.  As recommended by IKEA, they need to fastened securely to the wall.
• my home was built in 1848 and has walls and floors which lean and lacks right angles which are 90 degrees

In the end we fixed on having a batten fixed to the studs in the lathe and plaster wall and then fixing the bookcases to the batten.  Sounds easy but the nature of the wall meant it wasn't quite so simple

Anthea, my carpenter, then also had to make the adjustments for the floor.  Over the years the joists have sagged which means that the right hand edge of the bookcase sits on the carpet while the left hand edge sits on a 3/4" block of wood - with the two uprights in the middle on gradated wood blocks inbetween.  It's still useful to have the adjustable feet for when I move - and they were very simple to operate even if we didn't put them to the ultimate test in the end!

The good news is that after all the adjustments, the three Hemnes bookcases all fitted together perfectly with no gaps.

The extra height on the left between the carpet and bookcase has also provided an ideal space for my two pastel artbin boxes which are an awkward size and shape for normal storage!

They are also completely rigid and there's no chance of them toppling when pulling out a heavy art book from amongst lots of other heavy books.  These IKEA bookcases still feel very solid and reliable for containing all my heavy art books.  Each shelf can take a load of up to a maximum of 30 kg of books.

Below is a photo taken about half way through the massive exercise of bringing all the art books back.  I'm still finishing the organisation of the third bookcase and will take another 'annotated' photo when done.

Three IKEA Hemnes Bookcases - half full of the Art Library

Bonus #1 - depending on how you look at it - is that my cat Cosmo can now jump from his usual perch on top of the door to a brand new high level run from where he can observe everything that's going on.  It also provides a launch pad for jumping down on our heads if we sit on the sofa now placed up against the bookcases!

Bonus #2 is I think I managed to lose two pounds while hefting heavy art books around the room three times!

The first two posts in this series about my quest for the ultimate solution for 'The Art Library' are:

• Hemnes Bookcase x 4 for "The Art Library" #1
• Hemnes Bookcase x 4 for "The Art Library" #2 - RESULT!

Hemnes Bookcase x 4 for "The Art Library" #2 - RESULT!

This is my review of the Hemnes 90cm wide bookcase by IKEA - bought for my ever increasing library of art books.  In this review, I'm focusing on:

• quality of the bookcase, 
• ease of construction
• whether the art books fit!

This post follows on from Hemnes Bookcase x 4 for "The Art Library" #1 which shows you what the bookcase looks like without any books.

Below you can see the top half of the first of my four new Hemnes Bookcases from IKEA. Three are still in their cardboard packaging and will be erected one at a time over the course of the next week.

IKEA Hemnes Bookcase loaded with art books and sketchbooks
Three more to construct - was it easy?  Yes!
click the image to see a larger image

Summary recommendation

If you've got an extensive library of art books like me, then you also need bookcases.  If you're planning to move and/or prefer non-built in bookcases, I highly recommend the IKEA Hemnes Bookcase on the basis of my experience to date.

For the reasons why see below.

Hemnes Bookcase x 4 for "The Art Library" #1

I've lost count of how many art books I have.  I just know I ran out of bookcase space a very long time ago.  I've also now run out of stacking space on every spare bit of floor and flat space.

The thing is stacks fall over.  Plus I always want the book at the bottom of the stack.  It gets very tedious.

So the stacks have to go and so this week I invested in four new bookcases.  I'm hoping it will be  enough!

The bookcases I've bought are the Hemnes 90cm wide bookcase by IKEA.

Hemnes Bookcase - white
(Width: 90 cm; Depth: 37 cm; Height: 197 cm
Max. load/shelf: 30 kg

I had originally toyed with building a giant bookcase right across one wall - but this seemed a bit pointless given the plan is to move.

The idea is that these painted pine bookcases will give me the most flexible options for the future - and with adjustable legs they give me the best option re 170 year old floorboards right now!

This is the pre-assembly blog post.  I'm calm - I have a plan of action - and "he who must not be bored while I sketch" is going to help me put them together.

If it all goes to plan we should have two assembled, in the right place (after quite a lot of furniture manoeuvring) and full of books by the end of tomorrow.  Then it's on to the next two - after a short breather while I write a review of how easy they were to assemble.

[UPDATE:  See Hemnes Bookcase x 4 for "The Art Library" #2 - RESULT! for what happened next ]

PS  I also bought an Alex storage drawer unit for my art paper.  Just trying to work out at the moment whether I've bought the one on castors as intended!