Guest Post: DIY Charging Station using IKEA’s Fintorp System

Hello to all The VSpot readers!

I’m Maggie and I blog over at Polka Dots in the Country. My fiancé, Corey, and I moved into our first home together just over two years ago and one of the reasons I started this little blog of mine is to document the progress we make along the way.

I am so excited to be guest posting for Vivienne and today I’ll be sharing how I avoid phone/electronic charger clutter in our kitchen.

This may sound a bit anal but I can not stand cell phones and cell phone charges all up on the kitchen counter. While Corey is well aware of my hatred towards kitchen counter clutter (try saying that five times fast) our guests are not, so whenever they’re over they tend to charge their phones in the kitchen.

Since our guests seem to prefer the outlets in the kitchen over any other room in the house and I happen to hate having their stuff all over my counter I decided to figure out a way that both parties can be happy.

I also really needed wanted to go to Ikea.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Ikea Fintorp Flatware Caddy
• Ikea Fintorp Hook
• Ikea Fintorp Wire Basket w/Handle
• Ikea Fejka Artificial potted plant (optional)
• screws
• vinyl decal (optional)

Step 1:

Determine where you want your charging station. This area in the kitchen is perfect because it won’t be in the way of anything and there’s a handy dandy plug right there.

In case you’re wondering I had stuff for a taco chicken bowl in the crockpot… Mexican food is my weakness.

Moving on…

Step 2:

I forgot to get a picture of just the outlet before we assembled the Fintorp system, but as you can see the first thing I wanted to do was replace our ugly almond colored outlet with a shiny new white one.

Step 3:

After we replaced the outlet Corey and I assembled the Fintorp system.

Luckily we’re pretty smart because our kitten Ms. Kay decided to tear apart the already hard-to-decipher Ikea instructions.

Step 3:

So people could know this was a charging station I used my Silhouette to cut some vinyl to label the basket.

Using my Silhouette design studio and LW friendly font I made this “Charge Me” vinyl decal.

Step 4:

I took the metal tray out of the basket so it would be easier to transfer the vinyl.

After you’ve applied your vinyl and removed the backing step back and admire your sweet Ikea assembling skills.

Disclaimer:

We haven’t replaced the kitchen counters yet and we’re working on the floors in the coming weeks so just squint your left eye and tilt your head to the right so the counters look a little better.

K? Thanks.

What I love about this system is that it’s easily customizable. I decided to go with the basket in the middle because some of our friends and family bring their iPads over and this basket is big enough to hold iPads. If I get tired of the fake plants I can just take those out and store other stuff in the caddies or I can remove the wire basket and use another caddy for the phones.

You can do whatever butters your biscuit.