How to install fabric panels to your Ikea Morliden Glass Doors

You've bought your Morliden Glass Doors to go on your Billy Bookcases. And you've bought the material to add a personal touch.  Now here is a step-by-step tutorial for installing the fabric into the glass doors.

First, remove the black/white panel from the glass door and set the glass door where it will be safe from both smudges and breakage. Set the panel on top of the WRONG side of your fabric.

Determine what part of the fabric to use for your panel and make sure everything is straight.  I did this by lining up the panel one half inch from the selvages.  I measured from both ends.  If your fabric is tricky, or has repeats, you might need to do a lot of figuring for this step.

Double and triple check that everything is straight.

Get out your item you will use to mark your fabric. I am using the Clover Chaco Liner in yellow, which I find to be the most amazing marker ever for woven fabrics.  However, you might use pencil (lightly on the wrong side), disappearing ink marking pen, tailors chalk or possibly, depending on how gutsy you feel, pen.

My main question was should I mark right up against the panel, or add an extra allowance of fabric?  The answer is:  make your mark right up against the panel.

Cut carefully along your chalk lines.  Then set the glass door on the table, with the side which will get the fabric and panel facing up.  Do NOT put your fabric in at this time.  Instead, stretch a scrap of fabric (or some yarn or string) across the glass panel. 

Set the panel into the glass.  Again, there is NO fabric between the panel and the glass except for the scrap/string/yarn.  When you put your panel in, put the side that will be on the inside (that is, against the fabric) facing up.

Use whatever screwdriver you are using to attach the hinges, following the directions.  This was the hardest step for me.  My advice is to make sure the panel is fully seated in the glass area and to get that hinge to "click in" (it will happen and you will see what I mean) before you start turning those screws.

It is important to put the wrong side of the panel facing up in this step because you might make smudges or marks on it as I have.  Happily, no one will ever see those marks.

Use your scrap of fabric/yarn/string to easily remove the panel from the glass door.  If you have neglected to do this, use a butter knife to lever the panel up and away from the glass.

Place your fabric onto the glass door and smooth it, double checking it's sitting exactly as you want it.  When you set the panel in, you have to slide the panel under the hinges while not moving the fabric too much. I found that one end fits in nicely, and then you can hold the fabric on the side opposite the other one while you slide the panel under the hinge.  Be sure to keep a finger under the panel until you are moderately sure everything is even.

Grab your scrap of fabric/yarn/string and lay it across the corner of the panel, before letting the panel seat itself into the glass door.

Stand the door up and double check that everything is as you want it.  Make sure you look all the way around the perimeter and also check to see if wrinkles have somehow made their way into the picture.

If something has gone wrong, use the scrap material in the corner to lift the panel and adjust everything.  Check again and keep adjusting and checking until everything is right.

When everything is as you want it, remove and discard the scrap/yarn/string.  Place the tabs in as shown in the directions.  This was another sweaty part.  My advice is to make sure the panel is fully seated in the glass and apply strong pressure as you turn the screwdriver.

Install your doors following the directions. Sit back and admire your work.

If you have questions or comments, please add a comment to this post.

A little something extra for this stop sign.

"What's on that stop sign?" I asked Matt as we walked through the Fred Meyer parking lot.

"Flying penises," Matt said, as if that was a normal thing to find on stop signs.

I'm impressed with the color matching.

Finished the Morliden doors for the Billy bookshelves

You may recall that I ran out of time with this project.  But today, we will finish.

Here is the full effect.

And here it is as you come through the door.

Unfortunately, I'm not thrilled with the end product.  A lot of time was spent picking the material, but I think our choice ended up being too busy.  I would like to redo them in a more solid color, or a batik, but that will have to wait until an unknown point in the future.  In the meantime, I will be happy that the shelves are closed off behind glass.

Matt runs the Rugged Maniac 2015

What's that speck in the distance?

Growing ever closer.

Oh look, it's Matt!  

He's jogging toward me because the Rugged Manic takes place at Portland International Raceway (PIR), just a hop, skip and a jump from our house.  So we walk. Except he forgot something, so had to run back and get it, then run back to catch up to me.  

Anyway, there's massive road construction going on around PIR.  And here, you can see where they have installed a new asphalt path for pedestrians.  They had to remove part of the PIR wall and shrubbery to do so.   

Matt poses in his Edge shirt.  It's his first race since the extinction of Edge.

Ready to race.  And for the Athletic Supporter to hold that t-shirt he has in his hand.

We had some time before the race started, so we wandered.  We found this platform where you could jump into a poofy air pillow thing.  We both jumped. Matt isn't so fond of heights, but for me it was much like jumping off the high dive at Borah Pool. (The high dive at Borah Pool no longer exists, but it did when I was growing up.) The hardest part was getting off of the poofy pillow.  I found it best to roll.

We also discovered the mechanical bull, which had a very short line of children waiting for it.  I was immediately thrown, which was all kinds of fun.  Matt lasted quite a while.  I said there could be no pictures because I have seen too many 80s videos of mechanical bull riding.

Waiting for the start, I took a picture of this baby hanging out.  He was fine by himself in the shade until he wasn't, and then he cried and his mom came and got him.

Right after the horn blow.  If you know what you are looking for, you can see a tiny bit of Matt in this photo.

And here he is, coming out of the gate strong.

Then I wandered around, scoped some things out, found a place to sit, set a timer for 20 minutes, read Jan's novel.  When the timer went off, I packed up my stuff and got ready to watch for Matt.  To my surprise, he appears suddenly before me.  He is faster than I think!  I had to run to catch these next set of pictures.
Climbing over an obstacle.

And another one.

Coming down on the other side.

Going up over the top.

With an assist.

Climbing the net to the water slide.

Perfect speedy sliding form.

Out of the water and headed for the finish line. (Also one of my favorite photos this year.)

Completed!

Posing.

Close up of the ruggedness.

On our way out, there was a dance contest, which Matt entered.

This guy said I could be the judge until I said that I knew someone.  So a girl picked a winner who wasn't Matt.  Silly girl.

I had fun with the timer function on my camera and made a short movie with no sound.  At various points through the day I set the camera to take photos at regular intervals and then set the camera down next to me, or held it steady (mostly) to see what it would capture. Some fun pictures came of my experimentation.  The last set is the start of the race where you can see Matt run by.

Z-A Games. Monopoly and Magnum Opis

We are still working through the letter M in our quest to play all our board games.  We've reached a favorite of mine and one that Matt hates.  

Having played Monopoly many, many times while a park ranger for the Boston Harbor Islands, I can tell you that if you follow the rules, it's not actually an endless game.  In fact, with two people, it often lasts less than an hour.  So stop putting all the money in Free Parking and enjoy the game that is Monopoly.

I would have enjoyed the game that is Monopoly more if Matt hadn't locked down all the Orange properties, and locked me out of a monopoly of my own.  He then refused to make a deal.  But he's not a gambler.  He'd rather win slowly by small increments while the girlfriend sits grumpily seething.  It worked in my favor when we played poker, but not so much here.  Yes.  It's true.  I lost ANOTHER of my games in this tournament.

After that, we played Magnum Opus, a deck building game. I'm not the biggest fan of deck building games, but this one was okay.  There was at least a concrete goal and a means to get to it.  I lost this too, but not by much, which is good, since it was my first time.