fabulous nudie postage stamp lamp

one of the best things about running this site is that i get mail from some really nice people. zieak, whose cam creature i featured some time ago, sent me a precious list of hacks trawled from the amazing craftster site. saved me hours of searching. big hugs, zieak.

the first from the list is this fantastic nudie postage stamp lamp by martine. i just love it. naughty and nice at the same time.

the prim and proper ikea gusle paper lantern

the important thing is to remove the bamboo sticks from inside the ikea gusle lamp to avoid shadows on the stamps. keep the top ones to retain the shape. stick on the stamps, flip the switch and voila!

martine's nudie postage stamp lamp

now, if only i can get my hands on some vintage nudie stamps. link.

long stemmed utensils finally get their place in the kitchen

christina tipped me on this hack from notmartha. the very crafty megan turned an offending wall into an ultra useful and totally lovely utensil wall. if i ever do spend enough time in the kitchen, i'd love to have some thing like this too.

the middle row features grundtal bars and solid non-ikea canisters

she writes: "the one thing i knew i wanted for sure was a way to store utensils - spatulas, spoons and kitchen scissors - right there for me to grab. ... i considered using the grundtal cutlery caddies from ikea for this, but they are just too shallow to hold long-handled utensils, they would have just tipped and fallen out."

finally, she opted for solid stainless canisters from storables and found a way to attach them to the bars with wire cables and ferrules. neat.

click here to see it in flickr with notes

go here for notmartha's fail-proof step-by-step instructions on how to measure and attach the cables with just the right touch of tension to keep them in place and slack to let them slide across the bar.

ding3000 pimps the billy bookcase

got billy?

i think almost everyone i know has one or two units of ikea's billy bookcases. so it is no surprise that ding3000 decides to pimp up the world's no. 1 shelving unit. 35 million units of this ubiquitous furniture is already sold worldwide and counting.

the billy wilder shelf is meant to be a playful interim storage place for unsorted books, magazines and newspapers. the haphazardly growing shelves supposedly makes billy 'wilder'. i must say i like it a lot. sure beats ikea's boring square shelf inserts and almost makes billy "designer-ish". heh.

the other pimp is the billy heidenreich - a rack with a lectern. if my memory serves me right, ikea used to offer something similar, no?

to purchase these billy add-ons, go here.
thanks erika, for the lead.

coke bottle lamp

hi! am back from my break. which flew by just too quickly. don't holidays always feel that way?

anyways, here's a new one from klaus. i like the retro/vintage feel of this coke bottle lamp and it would look great mounted in the kitchen or bar area.

basically, what you need is an ikea rationell pot lid rack, a long filament tubular incandescent bulb (ie. linestra lights. klaus found his at a hardware store, complete with mounting, for about $10) and 12 small contour coke bottles.

how to:

1. cut the horizontal bits out of the lid holder
2. bend it until the sides are parallel. click for steps.
3. mount lamp on wall, mount holder around it
4. bend the spokes to point almost straight up, and stick the bottles in.

experiment with bottles of different colours and shapes and you may get even more surprising results.

and so i'm off for some sun

hello peeps
i'm on vacation from today till next weds. will be basking and sipping margaritas on a lazy stretch of tropical beach. i promised myself no blogging no hacking, at least, for a bit.

back on thurs, with a nice tan and spanking new hacks.

in the mean time here are some previous hacks which deserve a rerun:
> the ikea bag hack
> home made cinema screen
> cheap yet chic stair lighting
> post-it lamp shade
> dressed up billy bookcase

image courtesy of leylop

a basketful of light

want a touch of tropicana in your home? these ikea basket lamps from riddim may just do the trick.

riddim tells you how: "you take a basket, drill two holes, cover them with hot glue (to prevent the basket from falling apart), put a special threaded pipe through the holes, put a cable thru the pipe. attach a hook for hanging, then the bulb sockets and finally attach the connectors to the end of the wire."

can't find the link to the basket riddim used but i think the alkov would make a great lamp shade too. also check out riddim's lamp made from a washing machine barrel. way cool.

click to see more photos.

freshly papered back for your ikea bookshelf

kelly bought an ikea markor bookcase from craigslist but it came without a back. but never fear, craftiness to the cure. and kelly is spot on - adding color and pattern to the back of bookshelves, closets and wardrobes are all the rage now.

"i had been wanting [a bookcase] for awhile, as it's much prettier than the stack of milk crates we've had in the office for the past year holding my crap. at any rate, the bookcase was in good condition, but it didn't have a back. so i took the opportunity to get crafty and i glued some paper from paper-source (of course) to some posterboard i had.

ikea markor with papered back and close up of paper pattern

i did learn a little crafty lesson on this one: pva glue is a bit heavy for gluing paper to posterboard. alas, i should have used the ever-brilliant this to that for gluing advice. for 'an absolutely wrinkle free result', i should have used 'yamato sticking paste'. i also could have used 3M 77 spray adhesive, but i have had spray adhesive disasters in the past (don't ask), so i probably would not have done that. i had pva, so i used it. the whole thing got really wrinkly.

fortunately for me, it was one of those all-too-rare crafty projects where, even though it's just about the sloppiest thing i could have possibly done, it didn't make a damned bit of difference... because you can't. even. tell. i LOVE that!

also, i think i would recommend using a slightly stronger back - perhaps a thicker cardboard. i had posterboard on hand, so that's what i used. oh, and i used a staple gun to attach the back, but those little ikea nails would do too." link.