what to do when you no longer love orange

so kim got sick of neon orange, which was all the rage a couple of years back. thankfully, it's nothing a little mod podge can't fix. here's how she saved neon orange kaxas dvd shelf.

"i had 3 of these ugly neon orange kaxas (i believe that is their name, i don't think they sell them anymore) dvd shelves and i just wasn't feeling the neon anymore. so, with 2 rolls of martha stewart crafts wrapping paper in endive flourish and a small jar of mod podge i decoupaged them into these beauties!

i had to take them apart to get the doors off, but it was relatively easy and the doors still open and close just fine."

make a light tent for small object photography

when mike g sent me a link from a site called evil mad scientist, i was sufficiently intrigued. alas, no ikea-world-domination-scheme in sight but a clever hack.

lenore created a photography light tent out of an ikea lamp shade. shooting a small object inside the light tent minimizes reflections, shadows and backgrounds. brilliant!

all you need is a skimra lamp shade with a hole on its side for your camera lens to peep through. the lampshade is already a diffuser and the curved surface provides the seamless background. it gets pretty good shots too (see samples below).

see more of the evil mad scientist's lampshade light tent.

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ikeahacker on nyt!
much thanks to penelope for the wonderful feature on ikea hacking and this blog. i am absolutely thrilled to read their stories and 'see' some of the hackers! click here to read the article and view slideshow. yes, there's a bit about the real me too. :)

win a customized bemz slipcover

so you have an old ikea sofa or armchair looking like some thing the cat dragged in? you're in luck then! cause you're about to get to give your sofa/armchair a second chance.

i am very happy to announce a brand new contest from ikeahacker and bemz, the company that sells removable, washable slipcovers for sofas, armchairs and cushions, tailor made for the ikea range.

want to know what you can win?

$500 to spend at bemz!

now that i've got you excited, here are the easy steps to take part:

1. take a photo/video of your tatty old ikea sofa/armchair. ideally, your photo should highlight the condition of its current slipcover, with particular focus on rips, tears, stains or other signs of its eventful existence on planet earth.

example: if you have a klippan, take a photo of its current condition.

2. go to bemz.com and pick a new slipcover for your ikea sofa/armchair. save a photo of your selection by clicking on �zoom in� and then right-clicking (mac users should control-click) to save the image to your computer.

example: the gustavian flowers black for klippan

3. write or tell us your heartfelt reasons why you deserve a new bemz slipcover.

4. finally, email your photos, the image you downloaded from bemz.com, and your reasons why your sofa or armchair needs a new bemz slipcover to ikeahacker [at] gmail [dot] com. please write "second chance contest" on the subject line.

all submissions will be posted on ikeahacker. readers can vote for their favourites. votes do carry some weight but the final winner will be decided by our judges - bemz� in-house designer, katarina wiklund, susan martin of ikeafans and of course, moi.

so, bowl us over with your reasons and we may just give your sofa/armchair a second chance. send your photos/videos in by 5pm PDT on friday, october 5, 2007. the winning entry will be announced on october 10, 2007.

click for more information about bemz.

contest terms
the prize, up to a value of USD500, is only redeemable for bemz products and shipping costs at www.bemz.com, and is not exchangeable for cash. should the prize winner�s total order invoice exceed USD500, any additional costs over USD500 will be borne by the winner. no cash will be awarded should the prize winner�s total order invoice be less than USD500. only one prize can be won.

$20 customizable laptop stand

i've featured a few laptop desk and stands before. haymon adds this neat idea to the list.

"i bought slinga brackets for $9 each, a wooden bar for $2 and screwed them together as a stand for my macbook.

the big advantage is that you can customize it exactly to the size of your laptop."

sofa table from salvaged ikea table legs

erika chapin, editor of cribcandy and popgloss sends me this gorgeous sofa table made from bamboo plywood and salvaged imfors legs. love love love the simple sleek lines.

"my husband and i found 2 imfors tables at a yard sale last month for $15.00 each. he took a 3/4 inch 4x10 sheet of amber bamboo plywood and cut it straight down the middle, lightly sanded and finished with a clear coat. he then used all six of the legs from the imfors table to create this perfect sofa table for our low leather sofa."

shelf and brackets make a cool coffee table

if you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll may have noticed that i shiny stuff. so i'm loving the look of this stainless steel coffee table. adriano tells me that it's his first attempt at hacking ikea too. not bad at all.

"i made a coffee table out of a mossby stainless steel shelf and, since i couldn't find any table legs i liked that were the size i needed, i ended up getting bjarnum shelf brackets and screwing them to the bottom of the shelf to use as the legs."

see more of adriano's stainless steel coffee table on flickr.

james' minimalist desk - get the how to!

after the rave reviews on his minimalist work and music station, james created a how-to pdf for us diy hungry folks. thanks james! we are eternally grateful.

i've uploaded it to scribd and embedded the file below (scroll down to view entire pdf and move the slider to zoom in) or go to this link to view and download a copy.

enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!