Croatian designer Robert Matysiak has made a delightful array of these "robolamps" by kit-bashing from plumbing supplies and variously colored light bulbs. They are, alas, not presently for sale.

From designer Jung Hwa Jin, the "Polaroid Flower Vase:"

...a small planter that recalls the nostalgic form of polaroid, with the plant becoming the focus of the "picture." The planter is suspended with a clothespin on the end of a cord, with a small embedded lamp illuminating its subject.

[Thanks, Ellie!]

A throne fit for a retro gamer! Nintendo cartridges comprise this seven foot chair.

I just discovered the Replica Prop Forum, and it has me on a bit of a Star Wars kick. This replica holochess table from Star Wars Episode IV was built by Philip Wise of Dallas, Texas:

Here's a video showing the basic demo mode, which is the audio and light pattern from the 50 seconds the game has in the first movie. The table is playing music from an internal flash drive and you can start the demo mode by pressing one of the 7 functional knobs. During the mode the audio plays and the lights repeat the pattern from the movie. After the demo, it goes back to the light pattern it was running, one of many, and returns to playing music.

From Tom Spina Designs.

The scrub together table and lazy stool furniture pieces by designer Jason Taylor are pretty neat looking, but is anyone else thinking what I'm thinking? Thats right, they are just a motor away from becoming giant bristlebots! The bristles look like they might need to be bent over a bit first, though. [via dude craft]

I have a chandelier in my dining room which is always in the way at parties when we move the dining room table against the wall. Here's a way to remedy that, putting the fixture on a track that slides the light out of the way. Not the most attractive look on the ceiling, but still an interesting solution.

The Lampslide

I'm digging this sled coffee table and rug, built by design firm Duffy London. The concept of suggesting a narrative through simple things such as a rug cut to look like snow with tracks in it seems really compelling to me. What would be an appropriate geeky version? A mars rover table with tracks in a red carpet? A siege engine with a flat top, tiny soldiers pushing it and tons of little footprints? The possibilities must be endless! [via curbly]

From Russian designer Vadim Kibardin. It's pricey, of course, but I think all you'd need for a remake is a bunch of closet rod, a miter saw, some wood glue, and vast patience. [via Neatorama]

Although I'll admit to some cognitive dissonance at the notion of an expensive custom-made object intended to evoke homelessness, there's no denying the purely aesthetic qualities of this fireplace by John Briscella. I'd really like to see what it looks like with a fire burning inside, and, while I'm at it, maybe some video of the 5-axis laser cutting out all those little pieces... [via Dude Craft]

One problem with making lots of neat projects is that you need a place to display them. And, where could be better than on a table that you built yourself? A nice place to start might be this tutorial on building a folding table, by the folks at HandymanWire. I like their design because it can be made from a single piece of wood, and because it can be folded for storage or easy transportation. [via curbly]

I can't seem to find a way to describe these "link mugs" without venturing into uncomfortable sexual metaphors, so I'll just let the photos speak for themselves. So you can, you know, carry a bunch of them at once. [via Slippery Brick]

I love this. Instructables user wholman has gathered together a bunch of scrap wood from "dumpsters, back alleys, vacant lots, abandoned buildings, recycling yards, and architectural salvage centers" and laminated it together using all-thread. Then he's very carefully smoothed and polished only one side of the finished block, leaving the underside rough to show off the process. Beautiful.

Kiwi businessman Wayne Eyre dropped a pretty penny on this fantasy home theater build, but the results are impressive. Many have suggested that it's supposed to be Captain Nemo's Nautilus, but there's no mention of deliberate Verne overtones in the original article. The last photograph above, for instance, shows leaking "plutonium torpedoes" in part of the installation, but plutonium wasn't even discovered until 50 years after 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was published. [via Dude Craft]

Randy Sarafan writes:

The nice thing about IKEA furniture is that it is cheap and easy to hack. In other words, lets say that you were to buy two cheap $30 Gorm shelving units and assembled them to discover them that one was crooked. Well then, it would be really easy to spend an afternoon converting the crooked one into a solid, stylish and symmetric bookshelf bench. As you probably just guessed, this Instructable will show you how to convert a Gorm shelving unit into a bookshelf bench. With a few extra peices of hardware and a couple of basic power tools, you could be on your way to relaxation and organization all at the same time.

Here's a neat idea from designers razy2. Instead of casting a chair out of foam or silicone, they decided to build one up layer by layer out of what looks like a giant Post-It pad. Because the paper is only attached on one side, you can scribble on the top layer and then just pull it off to clean up, or stick things between the layers. Sounds fun, but I would be pretty scared that I would spill something on it. [via core77]

There are vises, and there are vises. And there are those of us for whom vises are also vices. For we few obsessives cognoscenti, the price of this beautifully-designed chain-drive shoulder vise package may not be unreasonable. For the mechanically inclined, a remake would be totally do-able, and Lie-Nielsen is to be credited for not keeping any secrets about how it all goes together. The installation instructions (.pdf) contain all you'd need to know to cobble together one of your own.

Restrictive homeowners' association preventing you from building your entire house out of LEGO? To help convince them of the importance of the brick, why not start by building a LEGO kitchen, like this one from designers Simon Pillard and Philippe Rosett. While not made entirely of lego (there is a fiberboard counter underneath the brick), it should be sure to earn you the respect of your neighbors. [via inhabitat]

More:

• LEGO Kitchen crafts
• Toilet paper folder & dispenser prototype

Scott Jarvie made this Clutch Chair using more than 10,000 drinking straws. This one is apparently a non-functional art piece, however it seems like one should be able to make a usable chair with the same materials.

Anyone know how to form a curved surface using only straight segments of straw? My best guess is that you could use half-length straws as a wedge to form the curves. [via neatorama]

I got jealous of Matt's recent "SuperFoam" chair post and had to find one of my own. This design is from a Taiwanese student named Yu-Wing Wu. The voids are non-random, being carefully designed to collapse into the shape of an armchair when you sit on the thing, which in its resting state looks more like a giant block of tofu than a chair. No word on how it was manufactured. [via Neatorama]

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]

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

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]

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]

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]

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:

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.

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.

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.

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]

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]