The Home Crowd

Unsightly speaker wires are just expected for those in apartments but it’s understood as it’s a temporary home. But FlatWire has another option for those tenants/homeowners looking to clean up the mess of wires without punch holes in your walls. And perhaps even that’s not an option sometimes. Perhaps you have shared walls between condo units you don’t wanna pierce, wall cavities full of spray foam insulation, or as in the case of many high rise apartments, a concrete wall.

(During Installation)

(After FlatWire is applied to walls, finished, and repainted over)

But what about folding the wires 90 degrees, just fold it upon itself. My big concern about this would be the heat generated by electrical cables as it is, but it seems to be directed at speakers, and low-voltage lighting, not providing the juice to that 500 watt home theater receiver, so I can’t imagine the paint or wallpaper bubbling itself off the wall. Seems like this may be useful for some of us, but just make sure you remember where you ran the FlatWire, so you don’t go and drive a nail through it years later while hanging a painting.

You can order it off their site, but it’s a little steep. 37$ for 25 feet of the speaker wire, or a home theater package for 250, plus their special adhesive, tape, labor (mudding, sanding, repainting or wallpapering if you choose)

Or you could just just run a wire, and paint over that. Sounds terrible, but you know you’ve seen it done before…

FlatWire (via Lifehacker)

Lifehacker also has a great post of “10 ways to get cables under control”, a how-to guide to keeping those cables under control and out of sight.

DB Fletcher Design out of the UK, has this table which I saw for the first time a couple of years ago, but I still find it impressive with its circular expanding action, for which I can’t even comprehend the machinery within the table itself.

Its intended uses are for the home and the deck of a yacht. I don’t have a yacht, so I’m not even getting into that discussion, but I could imagine how great it’d be to have one of these at home. How? Well, you’re definitely volunteering to host thanksgiving dinner upon delivery for one. Difference is, you likely won’t set up the table until after all the guests have arrived. And as soon as all the oohs die down, you can bust out the ol’ centerpiece. The kid’s table, would be of course, your previous dining table.

Here’s a video of the Fletcher Capstan Table

At their site they have 3 videos available, but I found that one to be the best, as it is the only one with sound. And for good reason, that thing’s loud! I’ve heard quieter pin-setters at a bowling alley.

Anyhow, interested? It’ll set you back about 50-70K according to their website. And it only comes in circle-shaped. Seems like a square shaped table would be great also, so long as it could shape-shift on a 90 degree turn so as to still keep you squared off in whatever dining space you place it in.

DB Fletcher - Link.

Thinkgeek has the best April fool’s gag I’ve seen this year. They usually have very obscure and brilliant gadgets and gifts, and these April fool’s day specials are no exceptions. I thought the Betamax to HD-DVD was a great deal for $29.99, until you realize of course that both are very dead formats. And also, it doesn’t really exist.

Here’s the page. The production value is great, looks like a real product you can buy with and “in-use” video clip and everything. Not until you try to “Add to cart” will you be notified of the April fool’s shenanigans.

Other great (Fake) products incclude a USB pregnancy test, which I can’t guess as to how well your office may appreciate having that plugged into the company hardware… And caffeinated breakfast cereal (for those really on the go). Come to think about it, I think my mornings could benefit from caffeinated cereal.

But my personal favorite of the bunch is the Super Pii Pii Brothers Wii game. Basically a party game/urination simulator along the lines of whack a mole. The toilet humor ends here, but yet another great false page with a hilarious video to boot.

Congratulations to everyone at Thinkgeek for putting together a great April fools day prank.

-Link to Products Page.

Anyone wanna cut down the time spent waiting to get a spot in the household primping line, and you don’t have the counter space for a multi-user primp-fest? Seems like a quick gift idea when you get stumped but need something for that well groomed wife, daughter, emo-punk son, or just a husband eager to check how well his bald spot is spreading.

360 Degree Mirror - Available at Amazon

Bonbon uk has a great collection of “Compact Living” beds. The assortment of Wall beds (what we here know of as ‘murphy beds’) and convertible sofa beds is quite imaginative. Where might these beds be useful in your home? Well, possibly for kids rooms or just those who live in townhomes, lofts, live/work spaces or just small homes where your space is precious and your space needs may change on a daily cycle. Or maybe you just wanna stuff out-of-town visitors in the den, and see how long they struggle with trying to ‘transform’ the couch below into a bunk bed, before, ultimately giving up and allowing the resident 8-year old to assemble it in about 12 seconds flat while they stand idly by in astonishment.

Not sure when we may be seeing these in the U.S., but this is definitely the type of product I wouldn’t be surprised to see on the showrooms of Design Within Reach or at least your local IKEA super-maze…

Link: DOC Sofa Bed