Help save my Lierskogen!

December 12, 2023 4:51 PM

Help me crafty/DIY-inclined hive mind. My Ikea Lierskogen valet (no longer sold, but like the one in this article) is slowly losing its mirror... any ideas about how to remove it from the foam adhesive and reglue it?

I love this Lierskogen valet but over time the mirror is slowly slipping - about 1" so far, but I'm starting to worry about it failing overtop of my concrete bathroom floor! I want to safely remove it and reattach with better adhesive, but have no idea where to start.

It appears to be secured with 3-4 strips of 1/8" foam that are about 1" x 4-5" wide. Hard to tell. They appear to have double-backed adhesive. I guess the foam is stretching or the adhesive is failing?

It seems unsafe to pry the mirror off (I could accidentally bend it too far and crack it) but I'm not sure what I could use to dissolve or weaken the adhesive without damaging the mirror finish...

Help me please, any ideas are welcome. I'd love to salvage this piece.

posted by dazedandconfused to Home & Garden (5 answers total)

Best answer: I'm not certain it will work, but it'd be worth trying the dental floss trick that's often recommended for command hooks that have lost their pull tab.

Basically, use a long enough piece of dental floss and slide it behind the mirror. Of course, you'd either want to have it laying down flat, or have a second/third pair of hands.

It works pretty well to unstick command hooks and things I've used double-sided sticky tape on. I've also gotten stick-on velcro off with it.

Using a hair dryer to heat up the adhesive, if you can get to it, might make it loosen up even more?

Very carefully applied Goo Gone might do the trick... but I'd probably save it for a last resort.
posted by stormyteal at 5:17 PM on December 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Humidity in the bathroom may be degrading the foam? Take the valet somewhere else, lay it down on its side, bolster with the mirror with pillows. Continue to loosen the foam adhesive with the help of a hairdryer, remove all existing adhesives, wipe down with alcohol & re-attach with 3m strips or something suitable for the mirror's weight.
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:19 PM on December 12, 2023

Best answer: I think stormyteal has the right idea - use the floss (fishing line also works) to cut through the foam by 'sawing' it back and forth between the mirror and whatever it's attached to. You probably don't need to worry about completely removing the existing adhesive and most things that will dissolve the adhesive risk damaging the mirror surface. Just use some good-quality (3M is good) foam double-sided tape in different places to the existing tape and stick it back on. Use more tape than has been applied by the manufacturer and it should be good to go.
posted by dg at 5:29 PM on December 12, 2023

Response by poster: Thank you!!! Never even thought of floss or fishing line.
posted by dazedandconfused at 5:43 PM on December 12, 2023

Oh! I should have specified, WAXED floss. In my experience, it doesn't so much as get the adhesive off the wall, usually, so much as it detaches or slides between the adhesive and the hook or other item. (dg is probably right that it would cut through the foam, but that's ok, because what you want is the two pieces separated so that you can safely remove the remainder of the adhesive without risk of breaking the mirror.)
posted by stormyteal at 11:44 AM on December 15, 2023