This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
Trofast Lessons
Jul
2
2012
Some of you may be wondering, as I was last week, “Can I stack Trofast?” or “Can you flip the stair-step storage things from IKEA?”
If you are trying to do what we were trying to do, then the answer is this: you can stack them as long as you do not flip them.
TROFAST is a series of organizational furniture from IKEA. There are tall shelves and wide shelves and shelves that resemble a piece from Tetris:
What we wanted to do was to buy two of these stepped units and flip one over so that it would nest on top of the other and create a large rectangular unit.
Like this:
We asked the worker guy at IKEA if it were possible to stack TROFAST like that. His answer was “We don’t recommend it.” I think he did not understand what we wanted to do, or perhaps he was not trained very well, because it is a bad idea to stack TROFAST like that.
There were two and a half problems with trying to fit the stepped TROFAST together:
- 1. The edges do not align.
The units cannot fit nestled right together, because of the way the ends align:
Those photos are with the flipped unit directly above the normal unit. If you move the flipped unit over by one shelf division, then the left and right edges would not be an issue, but the top and bottom would have the issue instead.
- 2. The holes for the shelves and bins are already drilled.
…which means that they are setup for the unit in the standard configuration and are incorrectly spaced for an upside-down unit. The bottom holes will not be useable, and the top holes will have too much of a gap (possible wasted space) - 2.5 There are support rails on the bottom of the unit.
This is the half of a problem. If you flip Trofast upside-down, the new top looks like this:
The top of the upside-up shelf is smooth. They don’t match, but this is only half of a problem because the bottom is smooth (except for some screws) and the support rails can be considered as guard rails to keep things on the shelf.
Note that the problem of the rails applies to all shelf surfaces, not just the bottom/top.
So we scrapped that plan. Now the plan is to return one of the stepped units and buy some plain wide units instead.
And we will stack them.
Behold, all of you have seen it; Why then do you act foolishly
Job 27:12
This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 6:47 am and has been carefully placed in the Projects category.
July 3rd, 2012 at 2:57 pm
Where are you putting all of this?
July 3rd, 2012 at 10:24 pm
Upstairs, in the play area. The new stuff is replacing the old square thing. Maybe I’ll post before and after photos.
November 20th, 2014 at 9:56 am
Thanks very much for posting this. I was considering doing the same, and your post saved me a lot trouble! Very glad it showed up in google when i searched ‘Trodast Stacked.’ Fyi I live in Singapore, so you’ve helped someone halway around the world. :)
December 4th, 2014 at 10:04 pm
Glad I could be of service.
August 26th, 2015 at 6:18 am
Glad I came accross this, was considering stacking them too, now your blog has saved me from dissapointment. Thanks
November 24th, 2018 at 12:49 pm
Oh gosh! I was wondering why when I Googled “Trofast stacked” I did not see any images of what I originally thought was a brilliant idea. We already have the three level Trofast and just bought a 2nd one last night to do this exact same thing. It’s still in the box so now I’ll have to return it, but glad I didn’t assemble it! Thank you for posting this.
December 31st, 2020 at 2:22 pm
Thank you for posting this with photos- you have helped me very much!!!!
January 8th, 2021 at 8:12 pm
I have the units stacked. They work fine. You do loose some bin space but not enough to make it an issue. I like the rim around the top. Keeps things inside. It seems very stable. But they could be screwed together and fastened to the wall for safety. Works fine here
September 2nd, 2021 at 9:29 pm
Thank you from Sydney Australia. This was the exact information I was looking for.
March 11th, 2024 at 10:20 pm
We’re you able to stack the stepped unit in top of the plain wide one?
March 14th, 2024 at 10:52 am
Yes, no problem there.