Ikea kitchen Expedit shelf / shorten

Hello everyone,

in my kitchen there is a 1.50m long countertop, which is screwed on one side only to the wall on a "roof batten." To get a bit more support and storage space, I would like to place a large Expedit shelf horizontally, 1.49m, under the countertop. Unfortunately, the outermost cabinet door would no longer open.

Therefore, here are my questions:

1) Is it possible to shorten the Expedit shelf in height (in my case width) by about 25 cm? I imagine it like this:

- Have the side panels and the middle insert neatly cut at the hardware store
- Pre-drill the bottom panel instead of the supplied "fastening things" (now missing fittings due to cutting)
- Screw the bottom panel to the shortened side panels with appropriately long screws
- Done.

The only disadvantage should be that the visual symmetry is somewhat disturbed, as one compartment is now smaller than the others.

2) Are there feet available afterward that you can screw on to raise the Expedit shelf by about 3cm? The background is that the countertop (see above) is 82cm high, but the Expedit is only 79cm. The Besta storage bench has something like that. However, maybe you have other ideas.

Thank you very much for your help,

Christoph

There are these Pax feet. You would need the bracket that you hammer into the Expedit and the plastic foot. Take the threaded rod and go to the hardware store with it to get one in the required length or saw through the Ikea threaded rods with a metal saw. Alternative: casters, which come in various designs at the hardware store, from very small to very large. Then screw the Expedit to the worktop from above with a hole punch, so it won’t roll away. Square timber underneath so it is not visible from the front or clad accordingly with the bottom panel. That’s how to raise it. Cutting off the length, i.e., shortening, should only be possible to a very limited extent, as with the Lack shelves. I once shortened a wall shelf, and lo and behold, the shelf consists of about 3mm thick chipboard covered with veneer. The inside is large cardboard waves. You can’t attach anything to it, a screw just swims in it like a soup spoon. I think the outside parts of the Expedit are made the same way, hollow inside (which also explains the light weight!). The heavy parts of the Expedit are only the inner shelves! With my Lack shelf, it wasn’t a problem because it sat flush with a second one in a niche, and the edge between the two was practically invisible. It looked like one single shelf. The Lack wall shelves have about 5 cm on each narrow side that are “solid,” the rest is hollow corrugated cardboard. I see it the same way with the Expedit I have. At the points where the side panels are screwed in, it will be solid enough for the screw length, behind that, air. But by now, there is the even smaller Expedit in cube form, i.e., 79x79 (four compartments). Wouldn’t that fit for you? It doesn’t provide storage for the entire room but at least four compartments… The little cube doesn’t cost the earth. Or what speaks against cut-to-size white shelves that you store on square timbers on the right and left… You can clad those so the supports are not visible at the front. Or an 80 cm wide Faktum cabinet and a side panel unit attached. Or a 120 cm wide corner base cabinet for those pot carousels also exists, and the small gap at the front end can simply be covered with a sawed-off and fitted front panel and the baseboard, of course, accordingly. There are many possibilities. The 1.20m long corner base cabinets (which are straight and not the typical corner cabinets) can be modified inside so that you install a vertical middle shelf and shelves on the right and left so they are not too long and sag. Two 60 cm doors on, done. IKEA – Discover the possibilities