An Ikea hack for 6 euros saves my minis from the Tupperware, gives them a nice home

MeinMMO editor Caro has finally found a place to showcase her tabletop miniatures for Dungeons & Dragons. And thanks to a tip, it didn’t even cost much money or a complicated acquisition, but only a trip to Ikea.

In my one and a half years of painting miniatures, I have already accumulated a large number of painted (as well as a slightly smaller number of actually decent) figures. To prevent them from being too scattered around the apartment, they had to live in a Tupperware between the times they were used.

A rather unspectacular and sad existence for the heroines and heroes of our D&D campaign. And I wanted to change that.

I came across a video that promised me I could build a functional and above all inexpensive shelf for miniatures with just a small amount of money and a picture frame from Ikea. It only costs 5.99 euros.

So far, I haven’t had much experience with any hacks from TikTok or Instagram, but in this case, I felt too drawn to it not to test it. And I can tell you: My minis and I are very satisfied with the result.

A small shelf for small personalities at a small price

This is the frame named SANNAHED, which is 25 × 25 cm large and – what makes it so ideal – 6 cm deep. Since it is a picture frame, you can either hang the shelf or simply place it thanks to its rather generous area.

The “assembly” (if you can call it that) is quite simple. You take the … let’s call it the “inner frame” (not to be confused with the mat), which consists of 4 wooden planks. These are the 3 shelves for the shelf as well as a kind of support plank that you attach sideways to create the correct distance. 

The planks for the shelves have the ideal length to simply tension them in the frame without needing glue. Unfortunately, in my case, it only caused the frame to bend a little. Therefore, I shortened the planks by 2 to 3 mm with a cutter and then used wood glue to fix them.

This is what the finished result looks like:

If my explanation was unclear – you can see the video tutorial by onetrickmodels on Instagram, which I also followed.

Further enhancements are possible and being planned

Even though the shelf is done, I have some ideas on how to make the shelf even prettier and more practical:

• Light: My D&D friends and my MeinMMO colleagues shouted: LEDs! I have never worked with LED strips before, but I can imagine that the figures would stand out even more with better lighting.
• Magnets: So that I can transport the shelf to the adventure location on D&D Sundays better without knocking over all the miniatures, I want to attach them with magnets to the base of the figure and the shelf.
• Background: The back panel of the picture frame, to which the shelf will eventually be hung, currently shines in a wonderfully chic … brown. Not so nice. I am considering whether I should paint the back panel myself or print a kind of dungeon wall as a background to give the frame more D&D vibes.

Is the Ikea hack enough as a shelf alternative?

I can clearly answer that with a “It depends.” For me personally, the DIY shelf has been the perfect tip, as I do not have to accommodate entire Warhammer armies and also have relatively few figures that I want to feature. Whoever wants to display 30, 40, or hundreds of painted miniatures won’t get very far with the picture frame.

I also really like the small size of the shelf, allowing me to place or hang it anywhere without it taking up too much space. I find large display cases full of figures really nice, only unfortunately, only 50% of the human tenants of the apartment feel that way. The small shelf is therefore a great compromise between a display case and a Tupperware box.

For those who are not keen on going to Ikea or simply are not fans of crafting, there are also other possibilities for storing and transporting miniatures available online or in some tabletop shops. For me, the picture frame was mainly the spontaneously right solution due to its low price and a random visit with friends to Ikea, with which I am very happy.

Do you also have a shelf for your miniatures? Or are they still locked up in a box like mine? After one and a half years, I initially thought that I hadn’t made any visible progress in painting. Before I could get too annoyed about it, I dared to try a self-test that proved otherwise: Self-test after 6 months of hard work: I repaint the same miniature, what progress is visible?