Clear Glue Makes IKEA's Viral Coffee Table Hack A Breeze To Assemble

Usually found in living rooms and other common spaces, coffee tables are designed to be an easily accessible place to hold drinks, food, and other small items while people relax and socialize. Of course, they serve a decorative purpose as well and can be a stylish point of visual interest in a room. Whether they act as statement pieces or are more complementary, coffee tables are a great way to tie a space together.

While you can simply buy a readymade coffee table from IKEA, it might be cheaper and more fun to assemble one yourself using different materials. There's a TikTok hack for everything, and one popular trend involves fastening the LACK table top to an assembled EKET cube cabinet to get a unique end result. Yet another hack shows how to build a coffee table with an IKEA lampshade, tray, and clear glue to hold it all together. Here's more on this viral hack.

To do this, you will need the BRUNSTA pendant lampshade and the GLATTIS tray from IKEA. You'll also need a measuring tape, a marker, a small and circular piece of chipboard, and strong glue. TikToker @judithjelenadiy used 1.8 mm thick chipboard and opted for liquid adhesive glue so she didn't have to use a drill (via TikTok).

She started by painting the lampshade to better suit the style she wanted, so you can do this yourself if you want the table frame to be a different color. Then, use the measuring tape to find the center point of the back of the tray and mark that point. This is going to be where you fasten the chipboard so the tray sits exactly in the middle. Next, apply the glue to the chipboard to cover one entire flat side because that's where it's going to touch the steel frame of the lampshade. Press it onto the lampshade and cover the other side completely with the glue. Place the tray on top and press it down. There you go!

The glue is the most important part of getting this hack right. You need glue that can hold the tray and lampshade tightly together and won't give way over time. Gorilla wood glue (available on Amazon), Gorilla construction adhesive, and Titebond wood glue are some good options to consider for this project. You can also use a different lampshade frame. The KALLFRONT or LUFTMASSA from Ikea will definitely add some visual interest to the room as the stand of your coffee table.

Some other hacks involve gluing the RÖDEBY bamboo armrest tray around a vase or bin and fastening a SNUDDA rubberwood tray to the top to create a nice wooden coffee table. You can even transform IKEA bread bins into a coffee table that doubles as a storage cupboard by flipping them on their sides and gluing them together, as seen here on TikTok. When your DIY project is complete, don't forget to decorate your coffee table with items like books, plants, scented candles, and decorative baskets.