Spin it with some colour

A dash of colour adds some zing to the Expedit. Steve's Expedit vinyl station is definitely looking hot.



He says, "I've put this together over the last few weeks. It's an Expedit bookshelf that's modified for use as my turntable listening station. I ordered fire engine red contact vinyl from Ebay and covered the inner shelves (my skills from years of gripping skateboards came in handy). The lights are Ikea Dioders (I still have to clean up the wiring) and those are 6" Capita legs on the bottom. I'm pretty happy with it.



The only thing I'd do differently the next time around is to use automotive grade vinyl rather than contact paper vinyl. The heavy automotive vinyl is a little more difficult to cut but it'll hold up better over time and is available in many different colors.







See more of Steve's vinyl station on flickr.



Related hack:

- Hack a DJ console

***

Totally unrelated to Ikeahacking but I've just started a mini site where I post up things I find interesting, intriguing or catches my eye. It could be an item from a designer friend, stuff I pick up on my travels or at my local flea market. I won't be posting there regularly, only when I find something interesting that I offer to Ikeahacker readers at a good price. I'm very happy to post this first item which is a wall decal from a designer friend, whom I really want to support. Hop over for a peek.

Hacked Hol

Eleanor shows her spiffy apartment. Love the clean lines, but wait, what's that mess of wires? No worries. A hacked Hol to the rescue.



She says, "I have a small loft which serves as kitchen, lounge, dining room and study. I carefully planned the space and I use my iMac as a TV/DVD player, the bit that let the whole space down was my printer sitting in a mess of wires.

the mess

Most of the charging stations on Ikeahacker were too small to hide my big fat printer, so I thought I'd need a larger storage area. Bearing in mind all the concerns voiced about ventilation on charging stations I thought the Hol box/table would alow plenty of air flow. In order to access the printer and because of the slope of the roof, a top opening wasn't practical, so I hacked it:



- I sawed the feet off one of the long edge pieces.



- I sawed holes in the other long piece to allow plugs to feed through one end and wires out the other.



- The base board needed to be trimmed so that it sits flush with the side pieces



- A piece of wood on the bottom of the board to act as reinforcement and receive the hinges.



- L brackets fix the base to the sides hinges allow the front to drop down (I was going to add sliding supports to the side, but the door drops flat to the floor so it didn't seem necessary).







- Magnetic closures at the top keep the door closed.



- The top sits in place without additional fixing (I wanted to allow as much access as possible), but you could always fix it with extra L brackets.



- Electrical ties hold in place:

1. A surge protected gang for the computer equipment

2. An individually switched gang for chargers so that I can leave them plugged in without wasting electricity

3. USB hub

4. WiFi modem



There's room for the printer and my two external hard drives. The square Hol would be a smaller alternative for smaller printers.

Get over those easy eco-mistakes!

It's easy being Green, well that is what they say! Kermit the frog would say otherwise. How do we know we are doing the right thing? With simples changes as shown in this link below we can make a positive impact, we may not save the world but we are one step closer at least.
http://www.greenlivingonline.com/slideshow/get-over-those-easy-eco-mistakes?page=2

Understanding eco-logos "From fish to forests to fair trade, use this guide to improve your label literacy." http://www.greenlivingonline.com/slideshow/understanding-eco-logos
"This guide will help you decipher some of the many eco-logos in the marketplace."

The little things you do today creates a better tomorrow!

Until next time
w&c designer girl!

Quick and easy cat litter box

Stacy hacks a quick one for her cat.



I live in Europe, and the rooms here are quite small, and without a second bathroom - so we had real trouble figuring out a place to put our cat litter box. We loved the litter box hacks that we saw on the Ikeahacker blog, but at the end of the day, we didn't want a litterbox in our living room or bedroom. All the covered boxes we bought had huge domed lids which didn't fit under our Euro sink, and our big American 14lb. cat could barely even fit inside them anyway! My husband had the idea of using a lidded storage box, and we found the perfect item in the Ikea Snalis storage box. We cut out an entrance with a utility knife, and we originally had a plastic mat as a door -- which our cat hated, so now we just leave it open. There is plenty of room for our big boy inside, and its flat lid fits under the sink perfectly. It's a tiny little hack, but it works great!"

Tissue paper lampshade

Susan has seen a few good lantern lampshades around and wanted to make her own. This seems really simple to do but the effect is quite something. Love the glowing coral look.



She says, "I used the basic Ikea Regolit lampshade (just the paper globe) in the medium size ($5), and a package of tissue paper from Target ($1.99).Starting at the bottom, I cut strips of tissue paper into a fringe and just glued around and around till I got to the top! It looks pretty outer-spacey or deep sea. Connecting it to the ceiling fixture in my room was a little challenging, but involved 3 binder clips and some wire - I wanted to make sure it was far enough from the bulb to not catch fire.

A Shade of Green from the Government!

The Canadian Government is increasing Canadian economy by adding a number of programmes and incentives "to promote "green" projects and the development of clean technologies and renewable energy." The only thing is, HOW MUCH PAPER DO WE NEED TO DO TO GET THEM???? Apparently "on an individual level, the budget contains measures designed to promote energy efficiency and conservation through a retrofit program intended to provide home and property owners with grants of up to $5,000 to offset the costs of making energy-efficiency improvements. The budget states that grants will apply to a variety of measures that reduce energy consumption, from increasing insulation to upgrading a furnace. The budget pledges $300 million over two years to this program to support an estimated 200,000 home retrofits." Lets make sure we take full advantage of this, this could really be a great start to an eco-friendly home, and what a better way to start a movement then within your own home!! For more information check out: http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=73622
If anyone has more information regarding this program, I am all ears!

Until next time,
w&c designer girl!

Ram frames wall art

Israa uses Ram photo frames to create wall art, instead of framing art, with surprising results.

She says, "My hack is a modern wall art made out of Ikea Ram frames: I have always loved the look of sophisticated looking modern art pieces and I have to say that this project did it. For me, to make this look, I used 12 Ram frames in the following sizes:

3 50x70cm (approx 19.5"x27")
3 30x40cm (approx 12"x16")
3 21x30 (approx 8"x12")
3 10x15 (approx 4"x6")

I used a strong double sided stick foam tape to mount the frames, which worked great as the frames are very light weight. The biggest frame was mounted first. The other 3 frames are actually glued one on top of the other and set inside the big frame, which gives it kind of a 3D look. I used spray colour to paint the frames with black, silver, and purple. I have to say the picture does not do the art much justice as it looks more sophisticated in real life. I think it's the lighting. But you can see my cat Mimi enjoying it."