Another Ikea Hack with Brothers Make

If there’s one thing we love more than Ikea hacks, it’s a tool wall. So to be able to make one that ticks both boxes in collaboration with one of our favourite content creators, Brothers Make was always going to be a bit special. So time for another Shadow Foam road trip as we fire up the EV to head for Bournemouth. Here’s more about this very special project.

Introducing Brothers Make

If you don’t already know them, Brothers Make are Matt and Jonny Browning. And they are actual brothers, who, you guessed it, make stuff. But not just any old stuff, they make innovative products from waste material. Giving a new lease of life to what otherwise could essentially end up in landfill. They design and make projects and innovative products out of a huge range of materials. And very much aligned with our own sustainability values, they always have a positive ecological, environmentally-sound focus to their videos. Whether that be using recycled plastic, repurposing materials or through clever design.

When the brothers were growing up, they spent all of their time in the woods building dens or crafting bows and arrows. They grew up with a natural love of making and love that they’re now able to continue this as adults.

In 2018 they started making things together again as an excuse to hang out with one another more often. This quickly developed into photographing their work for their Instagram page, and eventually filming projects for YouTube.

Brothers Make, whilst a hugely successful channel, is a part-time gig for the brothers. Outside of all this, Matt is a design & technology secondary school teacher. And Jonny works as a senior account manager at a marketing firm.

The new Matt and Jonny?

When our very own Jonathan and film maker Matt went to visit, Jonny was out at work. But they were well looked after by Matt who was working on a project making axes from recycled bottles and bottletops.

Their workshops already so well equipped, it was hard to see where we’d be able to put a tool wall! The plan was to house their measuring tools as they were pretty much the only items left without a home in this impeccable workspace.

The brothers had already used our product a while back. They used our old, now discontinued, Shadow Foam Original to make wall storage for their lathe tools. So now it was time to compliment that with some matching but improved Shadow Foam wall storage. This time, made using our newer grade of foam. Of course we went for Orange to keep the project en brand. This sits perfectly with their Triton tools collection, as they are ambassadors for the brand.

The Ikea Hacks Challenge.

Of course, there had to be a challenge element to the build. Jonathan was going to plan and cut one of the panels for the tool wall, leaving Matt to do the other. But who would win both in terms of speed and performance!? Considering it was Matts first time using the new Shadow Foam he did a brilliant job, every bit as good as ours. Which goes to show that this is something that could easily be replicated by anyone looking for space-saving tool storage Ikea hacks.

If you saw our French Cleat tool wall project a while back, you’ll see that we used the same Ikea Sannahed frames for that, just in different sizes. But what we discovered with those, whilst the frame was the perfect size to contain a 50mm sheet of foam, the back needed some reinforcement. So as with that original project, we replaced the backs of the frames with some 9mm mdf to make them tougher.

As always, we spent time planning the layout before we began the process of cutting the tools into the foam. If you need more tips on how to get the best results when cutting and peeling Shadow Foam we have lots of tools and resources for you to help. Our Youtube channel is a great starting point for lots of other great makes like this and inspiring ideas.

So, what do you think of the finished article? Be great to hear from anyone else who’s tried any of our Ikea Hacks or tool walls, and do hit us with any ideas of projects we can work on in the future too.