It’s been a while since the last installment of this column. Sadly I cannot report that I had simply been too busy redecorating my entire apartment and building snazzy new furniture from timbers I cut myself somewhere in Oregon.
In any event, this week I wanted to share a couple of fun and useful resources for creative DIY furniture projects.
Ikea Hacking
This is a perfect example of how the Internets can be very useful. Given that Ikea is pretty much everywhere, and their furniture comes in pieces… people are figuring out other ways to put those pieces together (combine, substitute, replace, etc.). Like when you were a kid, it was always more fun to build your own things out of Legos than to follow the directions.
A great resource to get started with Ikea Hacking is, of all places, the Ikeahacker blog. This site showcases all kinds of projects, from re-purposed shelving to dismantled sofas. Here are a few hacks that caught my eye and are pretty clever:
For those of you with cats… here’s a pretty awesome hack. I’m pretty sure my cat would never figure out that the litter box was in here.
Optional accessories for this hack include a motion sensing light (like a refrigerator) and perhaps a small air purifier. I’m just waiting for Tidy Cat by Darryl Carter.
I’d imagine that the window AC units are more common than this motel style box, but this project was clever and had amazingly awesome results. I’m going to do another write up soon that will tackle the window units.
In any case, that’s the “before” photo, and here’s the after:
Pretty slick. Check out the article for more details and photos.
This one is probably the most useful of the three I’m featuring, it’s a modified kitchen cart. Great for people with small kitchens and not a lot of counter space.
I find this to be a pretty slick hack. I could go for something like this, as it always seems I live in an apartment with absolutely no counter space. The instructions are well done and explain all the steps for this modification.
Workspace Modifications
Are you a freelancer or have a home office? Of course you do! Check out the Lifehacker Workspace Show and Tell pool on flickr. Here you’ll find all sorts of clever DIY office setups, the best of which get featured on the Lifehacker blog.
This is not an example of good design, more an example of just “what the hell?” At least he has toilet paper in his bunker/command center. Apparently he’s a day trader (!?). 2005 called, it wants the excess back.
The AC concealment idea is brilliant. God bless IkeaHacker.
May 15, 2009 at 3:23 pm