Make: Online: Furniture Archives

Archive: Furniture

October 26, 2009

Crafting a 'SuperFoam' Chair

I'm digging Rich Gilbert's SuperFoam chair, especially the construction video. I've always wondered how you could form bubbles in silicone, and now I know: balloons! Any other ideas about what you could make using this construction method? What if you wanted the bubbles to be some other shape instead of spheres? [via core77]

October 23, 2009

LED lighting hype

Boing Boing's Maggie Koerth-Baker writes:

Trouble is, they're being oversold, like whoa. For about two-and-a-half years, I've been reporting on LED lighting for a trade magazine called Architectural SSL*. During that time, I've watched mainstream press and enviro blogs tout LEDs as the green energy miracle light. Often, with a level of enthusiasm seldom seen outside rooms full of puppies. Don't get me wrong. LEDs are pretty cool. There are places where they're useful now, and places they probably will be soon. But if you're just hearing about the awesome, you aren't getting the full story. And, as more LED products start showing up on store shelves, that really starts to matter.
Join me, won't you, as we put on our Sober Assessment Goggles and take a peek at the current state of light bulb of the tomorrow...

LEDs: Throwing Some Light on the Hype

October 20, 2009

Giant hammock lets you relax over your garden

Ever wish you could climb over your chrysanthemums, or roll over your roses? Well, now you can with this giant hammock, designed by Jane Hutton and Adrian Blackwell for an installation at the Jardins de Métis.

Anyone else build a climber over your garden? It seems like a great way to make efficient use of a small backyard space. The only issues I can think of would be the light that the structure blocks, and making sure that there is enough space underneath the structure to actually tend to the garden. As an extra benefit of this arrangement, if your vegetable garden is extra prolific, you could enjoy a nice snack and a nap without getting up. Just watch out for the thorns! [via inhabitat]

October 17, 2009

Touch-sensitive faucet

Does grabbing onto a grimy faucet to turn on the water to rinse your hands strike you as an odd contradiction in sanitation? Then a touch-sensitive faucet might just be the solution for you! Rather then turning a handle to start a flow of clean, refreshing water, you simply swipe your arm or back of your hand across the spigot.

This seems like kind of a neat idea, however I'm not sure if it is better than the distance sensor ones that grace most public bathrooms nowadays. It would be really neat if you could adjust the water temperature by swiping your hand across it, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Anyone have a better solution for this? [via core77]

October 16, 2009

Energy-harvesting rocking chair

Rochus Jacob designed this energy-harvesting rocking chair. It works by storing energy while you rock during the day, then lights up the attached OLED lamp at night. It is a neat concept, however there is no reason to wait for future technologies to build one. Just start with this human-powered fan design, add a small generator and a standard LED, grab your whittling project, and you should be set to go. [via gizmodo]

October 15, 2009

Ken Wallich's Rok-Bak chair

MAKE reader Ken Wallich built a couple of versions (one shown above) of Larry Cotton's Rok-Bak chair project from MAKE, Volume 19 and shared them with us. The Rok-Bak is an amazingly comfortable chair that's easy to make and is built from a single sheet of plywood. Here's what Ken had to say about the project:

This was a great novice project. Simple tools, simple build. In fact, painting the chair is more time consuming than building it! Wanted some deck chairs we could just leave out over the winter, and these were perfect, and economical to boot. Plus, they're really easy to break down and store if we want to. Pics from my build: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallich/sets/72157622502418914

Below are images of the other variation Ken built, a nice action shot from Ken, and the version with cushions from the pages of MAKE, Volume 19.

From MAKE magazine:
make volume 19 cover.gif
In MAKE, Volume 19: Robots, Rovers, and Drones, learn how to make a model plane with an autopilot and a built-in robot brain. We'll also show you how to make a comfortable chair and footstool out of a single sheet of plywood, a bicyclist's vest that shows how fast you're going, and projects that introduce you to servomotors. All this, and lots more, in MAKE, Volume 19! Subscribe here. Buy the issue in the Maker Shed.

October 14, 2009

Coiled extension cord lamp

I love this lamp made from its own coiled extension cord by Craighton Berman. He'll sell you one ready-made with a cord, or just the laser-cut acrylic frame and lamp guts so you can roll your own.

Physical easter eggs: hidden drawer cabinetry

MAKE subscriber Tyler writes in to share this über-complicated hidden drawer, by carpenter Brian Grabski. To get the hidden compartment to open, one first has to open each of the other drawers, which then release a pin that is pressed to open the hidden drawer. Nice work! I think it would be the perfect place to stash some trick puzzles.

October 12, 2009

Lightfader floor remembers where you were

While we're on the topic of low-tech visualizers, here is another neat one. This Lightfader floor has a (presumably slow moving) fluid in it, that gets displaced when you step on it, and then slowly returns to it's original state. This produces a footprint path that slowly fades away, without any electronics. It is a few years old, however I just became aware of it.

It kind of reminds me of what happens to your footprints when you walk down a beach, and then the waves wash them away. I'm guessing it is made of a thin layer of very viscous, tinted liquid. Think that would work, or does it have to be something more complicated? Perhaps some sort of liquid crystal-based polarizer, to improve the contrast? [via transmaterial]

October 9, 2009

Balcony? What balcony? I don't see a balcony...

We don't see many transforming-house mods around here, and its a shame. Anyone ever try making something like this? It would be perfect for places that have seasons (who needs a balcony in the winter?), or for playing tricks on your would-be Romeo. [via core77]

October 7, 2009

Thats no rock! It's a cardboard stone.

I'm digging the rocks supporting this 'Agua Table' by designer Domingos Tótora. Though they look totally real, they are actually made of recycled paper and glue. His website is made of unlinkable flash, however Contemporist has a nice set of photos showing how they are made.

The table is pretty nice, but I think I would want to make a giant boulder and roll it towards my anthropologist friends. What would you make out of fake rock? [via curbly]

October 5, 2009

Dexter-themed interior decor

Bloody good post (sorry) over on Mental Floss collecting some delightful home furnishings from the Lady MacBeth collection. Just don't think you can get away with leaving them out past Halloween. The world's not ready yet. [via Neatorama]

October 4, 2009

Hinged square-to-triangle dissection table

Those of you who appreciated my earlier post about Dudeney's dissection will likely enjoy this table, commissioned by Joop Van Der Vaart from craftsman Jan de Koning, at Professor Greg N. Frederickson's page at Purdue.

September 29, 2009

Don't have a chair? Grow your own.

Almost 100 years ago, John Krubsack made this amazing chair by growing a bunch of box elder trees together. What makes this extra special is that he figured out how to graft the trees together as they were growing, so that they naturally formed all of the joints to hold it together. The whole thing took about 11 years to grow. In this age of rapid prototyping, I can hardly imagine spending that long on a project. It just might be possible, however, to make a miniature version for a mouse out of some brassica rapa plants.

Oh, and if you are looking to raise your own furniture, treehugger has some plans to grow
a three-legged stool.

[via neatorama]

How-To: Polished concrete desk

Instructables user hivoltage shows us how to pour and polish a concrete desk top, even with some embedded fiber optic cables. Looks great!

Fancy colored plywood

I like these integral-color plywood materials from Brookside Veneers. Pricey but neat looking.

September 27, 2009

How-To: Turn shelf fungi into actual shelves

Natalie at the CRAFT blog just posted Paul Baxendale's cool mushroom-shelf-making tutorial and I think it belongs over here, too.

September 23, 2009

How-To: Skate box

If you skate park is too crowded or you don't have one at all, try following Instructables user nonoodlez's guide to making a light, easy skate box.

September 14, 2009

Cooler hacking challenge winner!

So everyone, thanks for coming out to camp! Our lucky winner is Eric, who made the nice patio cooler mod featured above. He turned an ordinary plastic cooler into a piece of patio furniture by building a frame for it out of cypress wood and spare sheet metal roofing. For his winning entry, he will receive a $100 gift certificate to the Maker Shed. Congratulations!

Want another chance to win great prizes? Check out the Halloween contest!

Eee PC kitchen cabinet mod

Maker Sidekickx91 disassembled an Eee PC 4G 701 netbook, added a 7" USB touchscreen, some extra RAM, and mounted it in a custom-built cabinet enclosure to create this very functional and attractive case mod.

[via jkkmobile]