Make: Online: Furniture Archives

Archive: Furniture

February 8, 2010

Melting table

I'm digging this melting table by woodcarver Rob Smith. Beautiful! [via Dude Craft]

February 7, 2010

Flatpack cardboard high chair

I just can't get enough flatpack.

The Belkiz Feedaway is a cardboard portable feeding chair that can be used for temporary situations or where space is at a premium. It is cardboard, easy to assemble for toddlers up to 20 months of age up to 20kg who are away from home. Ideal for temporary and commercial use, the Belkiz Feedaway is safe, strong, folds up easily and quickly and stores away in a tiny space. Ideal for mobile and modern lifestyles.

What do you think, readers? A silly concept that would never work, or is there a cool idea here? [via Inhabitat]

February 6, 2010

Matt Cottam's talk on Heirloom Electronics at interaction10

Matt Cottam at interaction10

Matt Cottam, founder of Tellart, presented Wooden Logic: In Search of Heirloom Electronics at interaction10 yesterday. Here are my running notes on his discussions of sketching with tangible objects, physical interfaces to the iPhone, and heirloom technology.

February 4, 2010

Pac-Man shelves

I dunno why you'd set it up to be NOM-ing your flatscreen TV, but I do like the look of this, er, "Puck-Man" shelving unit from Italian firm Ginepro Design. Would be an easy remake, too, especially if you've got access to a CNC mill. [via Slippery Brick]

Hip keyrack uses magnets to clasp keys

I'm digging this wooden key rack concept by designer Thomas Bedós Bonaterra. Rather than using a mundane fastener such as a hook or Lego brick, his version relies on a hidden magnet to fasten your keys to the key rack. I wonder if it will support the unwieldy set of keys that I carry around? [via notcot]

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January 26, 2010

CNCed cabin

Freya's Cabin is constructed from CNC-cut plywood layers pressed together, with each layer having a cutout shape like a stage set. The structure is held together with glue and tension rods that fix through pre-drilled holes in every layer. Some of the layers, including the balustrade of the lake-side front, are clear acrylic. This allows light into the middle of the structure and creates a forest-cover-like affect. The structure is raised up off the ground with lots of golden metal "stems" randomly arranged and "planted" into the concrete foundations. Freya's gold tears are made with perforated metal sheets, copper and aluminum alloy. This shiny golden material wraps the cabin's sides, roof, and underside.

[via Dezeen]

January 23, 2010

Cardboard chair process video

This process animation makes it look easy. There should be a zillion variations on the design of a chair like this. It looks like a good way to work with the concepts of compression, tension, torsion and shear, with students, as they design and build their own furniture. Have you used cardboard furniture design/build projects in a classroom setting? Let us know in the comments.

January 22, 2010

LackRack: Ikea server racks for living room datacenters

Need a datacenter rack but don't have one? Never fear, someone figured out that the Ikea "Lack" side tables work perfectly with 19" hardware like Ethernet switches.

The LackRack is the ultimate, low-cost, high shinyness solution for your modular datacenter-in-the-living-room. Featuring the LACK (side table) from Ikea, the LackRack is an easy-to-implement, exact-fit datacenter building block. It's a little known fact that we have seen Google engineers tinker with Lack tables since way back in 2009.

The tongue-in-cheek LackRack website offers a number of tips and hints, some of which are (seem?) serious.

January 21, 2010

Flat-pack cubicle

I have no idea what need there is for a folding workstation, especially one that looks profoundly uncomfortable. Still, it's a fun idea that might spawn an idea or two.

Design firm Kapteinbolt explains:

We like to introduce FLKS (flex), a flexible workplace. Just open the panels unfold the table and the chair and put the plug in for light. The legs from the table and the chair are provided with special designed joints, pull and turn 90°.

The dimensions of the panels are a combination of sizes according to the Modulor of Le Corbusier in combination with the functional human sizes of today. This design is characterized by simplicity, clarity, freedom and space. Freedom in using and in arranging this workplace.

The dialogue between the space and furniture, but also the spaciousness of the furniture itself is an important fact. By bringing furniture back to the essence you can create space. The FLKS provides a definition of space. By giving cover to the back and to one of the sides, the FLKS creates a private and comfortable workplace.

[via dezeen]

January 20, 2010

Making furniture with sawdust

Here's a good way to put some of those scrap wood shavings to good use. Designer Yoav Avinoam built this coffee table and a pair of stools by casting sawdust and resin in a form. I particularly like the way that the legs are attached by embedding them into the surface. [via inhabitat]

DIY kitchen computer

Enjoy cooking recipes from the web, but don't want to waste valuable counter space on a monitor and keyboard? Well, then you might be interested in The iPhone Inspired DIY Kitchen Touch Screen Project by Ryan of JUDD Studio Engineering. To complete the project, he mounted a touch-screen monitor into the wall, hid a computer in a cupboard, and developed a touchscreen GUI to make it easy to interact with. In addition to showing recipes, the system can also check the weather, manage grocery lists with a barcode scanner, run kitchen timers, and, when not in use, acts as a digital photo frame. [via hacked gadgets]

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January 15, 2010

Japanese wooden humidifier has no moving parts

I have no idea how well it works, but I'm loving the minimalist zen-garden aesthetics of this Mast Humidifier from Masuza. The wood, supposedly, is naturally rot-resistant and imparts a lemony smell to the air. [via Gizmodo]

Table that transforms into a playhouse

And you don't even need a blanket. Ingrid Brandth's Daily Shelter transforms into a small playhouse.

Feeling safe is not necessarily being safe. We feel protected and secure in surroundings that are familiar to us, where we can control the space around us - physically or psychologically.

The Daily Shelter is a table inspired by my grandfather Sigvald Andreas Brandth. He was an inventive designer who based many of his ideas on excitement, humor and secrets. And just like his many designs, this table has a hidden story.

At first glance it looks like an ordinary table. But for the one who knows its secret, it can be transformed into a shelter where one can hide from scary sounds, ghosts or family members. Just like a snail feels safe in its house.

[via inhabitots]

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January 14, 2010

Ikea camera dolly hack

I love this DIY camera dolly track, built from a $15 "Ivar" Ikea shelving "side unit."

A few days ago, I found out that the Ivar "wooden ladder" was perfect to use it as rails for my cinema dolly! I can now make some nice sequence shots with this 18€ (USD$15) accessory from Ikea.

[Thanks, Tim Tate!]

Ivar loves Dolly

January 13, 2010

Chandelier from recycled eyeglasses

From designer Stuart Haygarth, these beautiful chandeliers made from recycled eyeglasses and/or eyeglass lenses. [via Dude Craft]

January 8, 2010

Nixie tube clock in voltmeter case

MAKE Flickr pool member shklaw found an old voltmeter in the trash and made it into this awesome Nixie tube clock.

These Nixie tubes are NL-5440A's. The banana sockets were replaced with switches to set the hours and minutes. When the rotary switch on the left is set to OP, the clock is off, when it it's set to AC, the clock is on (but can't be set) and when the switch is set to DC, the clock it still on and you can set the time using the push buttons. The ohms adjust dial on the right controls the brightness of the blue up-lighting (fully off to quite bright!). I used the schematic and PIC code from this site.

[via HackedGadgets]

4 digit multimeter Nixie clock

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Complete Nixie tube coverage on Make: Online

January 6, 2010

How-To: Make your own Lindsey Adelman chandelier

Brooklyn-based lighting designer Lindsey Adelman has published a great tutorial on the construction of this cool spidery brass light fixture from various commercial bits 'n' pieces. [via Readymade]

December 29, 2009

Human-shaped bed

Humanbed
A maker sent me a photo of this amazing human-shaped bed (art) -- anyone know more about it?

Lamp turns on with floaty magnet

I'm digging the way you turn on this fiat lux lamp by designers Constance Guisset and Grégory Cid. In place of the standard light switch, you place an orb under the lamp, which then (presumably) uses a magnetic field to hold it in place. When you are done, you simply pull it away and the light goes out.

I think it would be awesome to make this into a timer for the light- the lamp could have a control system that slowly lowers the orb, until it gets far enough away that it drops to the floor and shuts off the light. Anyone want to try it? [via notcot]

Cool CNC-friendly desk lamp design

Pedro Mealha was inspired by those 3D plywood dinosaur kits when he designed this lamp, called rhizome, the armature of which is a great example of the emerging "router aesthetics" Bruce Sterling wrote about back in MAKE Volume 11. I also like the wooden race and exposed ball-bearings that let it pivot at the base. Now if we can just persuade him to post the DXF files on Thingiverse... [via Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories]