There’s nothing quite as comfy to plunk down on as a soft cushion. Unfortunately they get dirty, they absorb spills like a sponge, and they get misshapen in no time. But is there a better alternative than hideous wicker? Yep, the layers of thin bamboo veneer that make up Min Chen’s Hangzhou stool. More »
One thing that’s great about IKEA furniture is that it’s so cheap that you can feel comfortable hacking it into other forms without fear of damaging your grandma’s prized antique Chippendale. Take, for example, this epic IKEA hack, which transformed a couple of ordinary stools into a functional kid’s bicycle.
With the help of FabShop, Samuel Bernier and Andreas Bhend took parts from a couple of $15 FROSTA birch plywood stools, along with a handful of 3D printed parts, and fabricated a bicycle out of them. While using some 3D printed parts might be looked at as “cheating” by some, I think it just gave their design a minor boost, and the bike still captures the spirit of the original furniture upon which it’s based.
Bernier and Bhend get bonus points for creating a fake IKEA instruction manual to go with their design too. They called the bike the “Draisienne“, named after an antique bicycle, but I would have gone with more of an IKEA friendly name like “BIKKLO” or “KICKLA.”
If you’re interested in building your own IKEA bike, head on over to Instructables for the build details.
[via FastCo Design via Cheezburger]
Now this is a marriage proposal that will resonate with Harry Potter fans. Rachel was ready to propose to her girlfriend Jaquie, so she enlisted the help of CustomMade, which some people have described as a cross between Etsy and Match.com. It’s basically a site that lets people find artisans who can turn their projects into a reality.
I think it’s safe to assume that Harry Potter played a major role in their relationship, because Rachel had her proposal fashioned after the most popular game in the wizarding world: Quidditch.
The Quidditch proposal set that Rachel commissioned included two Bludgers, one Quaffle, a bat, and of course, the Golden Snitch. All it needs is a charm spell to make everything come alive… Rachel hid the ring in the Snitch (where else?) and presented the set to Jacqui. She said “yes,” Voldemort is still dead, and all is well in the world.
If you want a custom Quidditch set of your own, then you can get one made by artist Anthony Albano for somewhere between $800 and $1,200 (USD).
There’s something really meditative about these slotted lamps. They’re made out of wood from California cypress trees and the light inside is a constant current LED, but the sculptural elements come through more than the utility as a lamp. More »
For a long time, most sunglasses have made of the same basic materials – plastic or metal. Recently, I’ve seen wooden sunglasses and even shades made from recycled skateboards pop up. These sunglasses fuse wood with stone to make them look quite rugged.
The Shwood Stone Collection includes two models, the Canby Stone and White Slate. Both versions fuse genuine slate with premium birch wood. The inlays are hand-poured as well, giving the sunglasses a natural, refined look. Each pair of sunglasses comes with a custom felt pouch with an embroidered leather patch.
The sunglasses are limited to 200 pairs and ship in 2 to 4 weeks. They cost between $295 and $325 (USD). Act fast if you like the style.
[via Uncrate]
Etsy seller and fan of our sister site The Awesomer, Gerald Von Bargen recently pointed us to one of his wares. It’s a wooden cutting board engraved with the periodic table of the elements! I’m not sure if the table will come in handy while you’re preparing a meal, as I am sure that you shouldn’t be eating half of what’s listed on there.
The cutting board is available in maple, white oak, beech and walnut. You can also customize the board and have your name and initials take the spot of the 118th element Ununoctium.
As you can see in the gallery Gerard can also make a personalized cutting board by using symbols of the elements to form a word of your choice. You can order any of these cutting boards from his Etsy store Elysium Woodworks for $45 (USD) each.
Christmas may be more than 9 months away, but that doesn’t mean you can’t start preparing early, right? Actually, who says nutcrackers are only good for the holidays anyhow – especially when they look like this?
Yep, that’s an Optimus Prime nutcracker. It was handmade by Bart Sandel of Art by Bart, and I can think of no better way to crack into your nuts but with an Autobot. Though Soundwave might be able to smash through them just using the sounds from his mighty tape deck. Optimus Nutcracker stands 15.5 inches-tall, and 10.5 inches-wide, which should be plenty big enough to crack even the toughest of nuts.
The Optimus Prime nutcracker is for sale over on Etsy for $400(USD), which could also buy you about 75 pounds of already shelled nuts and an Optimus Prime action figure.
Personally, the idea of letting space aliens into my home makes me nervous. I’m not sure if they’d want to do some sort of invasive probing, or just cut my brain open to see what’s inside. Either way, I’d rather keep the invaders out. But if you feel at home with the idea of visitors from another planet hanging out in your space, then you might want to let them in through the air ducts.
These fun Space Invaders wall vent covers feature cutouts of the entire Space Invaders game field, and are laser cut from plywood by Little Big Laser Design Studio. Though you might need to move your cannon quickly, since it appears you have no defenses left. That could only mean one thing – alien dust bunnies will be coming out of your vents soon!
If you happen to live in a part of the world where wall vents are small squares, like in the UK, you’re in luck. Here in the good old U.S. of A., air registers look completely different. Though even if you don’t use this to cover up your air vents, you could always screw it to the wall and just admire it on its artistic merits. You can find one over on Etsy for £14.99 (~$23 USD) each.
Believe it or not, artist and wood-savant Paul Grundbacher doesn’t draw up a rough schematic or do any kind of planning before he starts building his amazing marble machines. He just dives right in, crafting the components he needs out of maple, ash, and linden wood. That approach also means he spends a lot of time re-building mechanisms when they don’t quite work, but the end results don’t disappoint. More »
A wooden wallet sounds like just about the most uncomfortable thing you could slip into your pocket. But Slim Timber uses thin pieces of zebra and walnut woods as accents for its leather wallets, so they’ve still got some flex and bend to them. More »
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