Ikea Rast Cabinet Hack Project

Image: Patent Pending Projects

Most of us know that IKEA is a great place for furniture that is easy to assemble, it's affordable and it can fit a lot of shapes and spaces but there is a community of people who take it one step further.  IKEA hackers use incredibly simple ideas to modify, repurpose and customize IKEA furniture and give it a personal twist to turn a mass produced item into something that's one of a kind.

Faux Folksy Chair Project

Image: The Inadvertent Farmer

There is a old wooden chair, comfortable tucked between two wardrobes, in a spare bedroom in my home.  I love that chair very much but - if one out of a hundred people, who enter my home, ever lay their eyes on it, they will be amongst a pocket sized group of very close friends and immediate family.

As sturdy and solid as it is, it will never be a part of our day to day lives but it has attended and participated in significant moments throughout my life.

Lamp Shade Project #3

Image: Under The Sycamore Tree

Lets look at the rule of 3.

Good things come in 3's - as do the bad. Films, books and plays have a 3 act structure. You could be 3 sheets to the wind or as phony as a 3 dollar bill. It is always: Ready, Steady, Go and after 3 strikes, you're out. Art and photography use the rule of 3rds and any novice interior designer will gabble profusely on the benefits of grouping in 3's. Goldilocks offended and annoyed 3 bears and there were 3 blind mice, 3 wise men and 3 little pigs.

In short, 3 is the magic number. 

(Tangle Free) String Wrapped Earphone Project

Images: Pinterest

Most of us are familiar with the story of the king and the poisoned well.

Everybody in a town, except the ruling king, drink from a poisoned well which was the only water supply. They all go mad and think the king is acting strange and unfit to rule. As they begin a rebellion, the king drinks the water and joins them in their madness. The people rejoice, for their king has regained his reason.

There have been a number of times that I've tried my best to avoid 'drinking from the well' but sadly, certain situations dictate that I must at least dip my toes in it from time to time.

Weathered Wood Project

My obsession with making things from pallets continued this week when I made these vintage style crates and display trays for the Honest2Goodness market, which takes place every Saturday and Wednesday in Glasnevin.

Vintage Crates

Image: Patent Pending Projects

 Display Trays

Image: Patent Pending Projects

The 'vintage style' element of the crates was pretty easy to achieve as the the wood used was fairly weathered already. However, what if you are using relatively new wood and need to create that old worn look?

Stencilled Table Project

So it's time to get a new dinner table. Or is it?

Unless your table is on it's last legs, literally and figuratively, then I urge you to consider all possibilities before posting it on Free Trade, abandon it in a skip, or in my case, reclaiming any wood worth saving.

There are lots of tutorials and how-to's when it comes to restoring furniture but this idea is one of the simplest and more effective ways to help revive an old piece of furniture, saving you the need to replace it.

Stencilled Table

Image: Design*Sponge

Here's what you'll need:

DIY Vintage Tin Project

Image: Tortoise and the Hare

I'm always searching for new ways to recycle old things but every so often I come across an old way to revamp a new thing.

Here's simple way to put a vintage spin on a plain tin.

Image: Tortoise and the Hare

 

Step 1: Spray paint your tin whatever color you like.
(O'Sullivans Art supplies on Camden Street have great offers at the moment on spray cans)

Step 2: Choose an image and resize it to fit your tin.
There's a great selection here where you can find images just like these.

Image: pilllpat

Image: pilllpat

Image: pilllpat

Image: pilllpat

Step 3: Print the image onto adhesive paper or you can print on plain paper and use craft glue to stick the image to the tin. Once attached - use a sealer like Mod Podge to waterproof the label. You should be able to pick some up in any art or crafts shop.

If all of this sounds like a great idea but you are faced with one small problem and that's having any tins to spruce up, fear not, IKEA have a set of 3 tins, seen below, for a tidy sum of €3.59.

Image: IKEA

So now you have 3 good reasons to get organized and make your own vintage style tins.

Breakfast Tray Project

When life gives you lemons - you make lemonade. Right?

Image: Family Chic

This thought has been rattling around in my head every since my last post about re-purposed wood crates.

The issue I raised at the time in that post was the quality of the wood crates here in Ireland.
It's not really a case of easily picking up 'rustic wood crates salvaged from apple orchards in France' but a bit more of a 'scavenging in the bins behind Tesco' sort of deal.

Shabby Chic indeed!

But as the saying goes, when life gives you lemons - you make lemonade.
So, get yourself down to the famous Moore Street Dublin's oldest open air fruit and vegetable market.

Image: Marek Ślusarczyk

Where I'm sure you'll be able to pick up some better class of fruit crates and try out this project for a breakfast tray that I found over on Family Chic

Image: Family Chic

On the site Camilla Fabbri has come up with the best way to reuse these type of wood crates. All you need is some blackboard paint, some sanding paper and chalk and a few hours of paint drying.

Image: Family Chic

Lightly sand the crate and then paint the outside with blackboard paint. You can add a little message to the side of the tray with a little chalk.



Camilla has also come up with no less than 5 different ideas to reuse these crates.

1. The breakfast tray (above)
2. A garden planter

Image: Family Chic

3. Place names for the dinner table

Image: Family Chic

Camilla goes on to show a 'how-to' with a series of photos and instructions.

Image: Family Chic

Use a set of pliers to remove any staples from the box.

Image: Family Chic

Sand down the edges and paint the largest edge of the triangular post with blackboard paint.
Let it dry and write the name with chalk.

Image: Family Chic

4. Gift tag

Image: Family Chic

Image: Family Chic

Cut an end panel in half, sand the edges and paint a few coats of blackboard paint.




Next, Drill 2 small holes in the top corners and thread some twine or string through it.J





And finally,
5. A fun puzzle for the kids

Image: Family Chic

Cut up the left over panels, cover with a few coats of blackboard paint and scribble a sentence over different pieces and get the kids to arrange them in order.

I love the fact that nothing has been wasted in the recycling of this crate.

If you do find yourself scourging the stalls of Moore Street asking for discarded crates - keep your eye open for The Paris Bakery the 1st French Bakery in Dublin.

Image: Paris Baker and Pastry Ltd

Image: Paris Baker and Pastry Ltd

Pop in - get some croissants or some Italian sourdough and think about giving that special someone a surprise breakfast in bed.

You see, even at the weekend, in our house, it's not very often that you get to hit the snooze button a couple of times before gradually getting up and leisurely making breakfast as you gently ease into the day.

No, that's not our house.

Unfortunately there is no snooze button on a child who wants breakfast.

Wood Crate Project

I've spent the last couple of days painting shelves in my house. Why am I writing about this?
Well, I'll tell you.

Nearly every single one of the shelves or bookcases in my house have been made from reclaimed wood, disassembled wardrobes, chopped up tables or any bit of straight edged wood I could get my hands on. I haven't taken any pictures of the shelves to post up here, well, because...life's too short to be posting pictures of my shelves made from reclaimed wood, disassembled wardrobes, chopped up tables or any bit of straight edged wood I could get my hands on.

But the fact of the matter is clear. We all need shelves.
(or am I on some kind of crusade to lift everything in the World at least 2 feet off the ground?) 

For some, a plain old plank of wood with a couple of brackets and you're done.
For others it can only mean the finest quality, limited edition, Baltic birch plywood shelves, hand carved by 8th generation craftsmen of some South American village.

I like to think somewhere in between is you and me.

Unless you're first choice is to get the IKEA catalogue out and you've got a little time to think about what you want, maybe it's time to try something different.

How about some old vintage wood crates.

Image: Living Room Interior Design

Image: baileys home and garden

I've always loved the look of this and I'm not sure I have the confidence to persuade my wife to allow me to stick a bunch of old wine crates on our wall...saying that... I have one issue if anyone is willing to try to achieve this 'look'.

And it's a pretty major issue.

These are the sort of wood crates you get in Ireland!

Image: William Murphy

Not exactly the same thing is it?

You could go shopping on eBay for Old Wine Crates but apart from the glaringly obvious 'it's vintage that's why it's expensive' price tag I find it increasingly more annoying that anything I type into eBay and set the search for IRELAND ONLY always comes back with 0 results.

Do we not sell anything on eBay??  Do we throw everything away??
Actually that's not accurate. We don't throw everything away. We do sell stamps and Des Bishop DVDs.

So, sometimes you have to make do with what you've got.

As nice an idea as these are,

Image: poetic home

Image: DiMeo Blueberry Farms

There's always the option of outdoor storage.

Image: GAP Photos

And if sturdy enough (with added support from screws) and with the right kind of paint why not try a simple storage unit for the kids room.

Image: ohhdeedoh (click link for how-to)

Another idea is you can always hide the quality of the crates by loading them up with everything you have in your house. (an idea I'm quite partial to if you were to ask my wife)

Image: theselby

Nothing like a bit of misdirection to hide the joints and cracks in your book shelf.

Which brings me back to the paint and why I've spent the last few days painting every square inch of reclaimed wood, disassembled wardrobe, chopped up table and every bit of straight edged wood that I now lovingly call our 'bookcase'.

Upcycling Project

Over the next few weeks I'm going to try and concentrate more on larger upcycling projects.

Upcycling is a phrase coined by Cradle to Cradle authors William McDonough and Michael Braungart and involves the process of taking one material (sometimes at the end of it's life) and turning it into something of similar or greater value, in its second life.

Recently I've found some really great sites that have inspired me to get working and try to be a bit more creative.

Sarah Wandering had this great project for turning old drawers into a funky looking side cabinet.

All she did was add some Ikea Capita legs to the back panel of each drawer and then each drawer received a coat of a blue-grey paint. One drawer is placed open end facing the living room, the other drawer faces the wall and conceals her stereo speakers. She drilled 1/2" holes where the speakers are located so the sound isn't muffled.

I think it's a great idea - and there are tons of great ideas on upcycling out there.

Over the coming months I'll try and highlight the ones I like. The rest of the time I'll be keeping busy with new projects. I've bought a couple of old pieces of furniture and this weekend I plan on rolling my sleeves up and seeing what I can do.

As with previous projects I'll document the process. Hopefully showing you how easy it is and if it turns out well, how worthwhile it is.

Sometimes it's not just about taking old furniture and turning it into something new. Here's another project from Sarah that involves some 3 dollar rugs from IKEA.

She took 3 rugs, stitched them together, and filled with some wadding that she had left over from a previous project.

A custom dog bed that is rugged and durable and washable.

After this weekend I'll start posting pictures from my first big project.

Fingers crossed..........

Vintage Suitcase Project

I've seen a couple of really great ideas for Upcycled Vintage Suitcases.



From Vanity Case









to Side Table.











From Bachelor Pad
to Duplex.







BUT THIS ONE IS THE BEST.




You know, they say Headphones are getting bigger. Like, the 1980's BIGGER!
Well, try strutting down the street with one of these puppies plugged into your ipod.
See how long you'll be swingin' and swayin' with records playin' while dancing in the street...

Check out the site @ www.theboomcase.wordpress.com