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Star Wars Wall Mural

June 01, 2010 By: Home Category: Home Humor, Interior Design

star wars wall mural

At 9 feet high, and 15 feet wide, it just may need to be stretched across two walls as shown above.  At that size, you could park your car on it quite comfortably.  It’s 250 bucks from Urban Collector – Link, and who knows, maybe if they release the original trilogy in giant wall decals, you could potentially wallpaper your entire living/great room.  Your friends/spouses/loved ones may never let you live it down, but that’s the price you pay for awesomeness I suppose. ..at least it’s not star trek.



Child size Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman

June 01, 2010 By: Home Category: Interior Design, Kids, Products

mini-e children eames lounge

At First, I was ready to chalk this up to the most ridiculous item of the day.  The Eames Lounge chair, with accompanying ottoman…. for kids!?!  Kids won’t get it, they won’t understand that this piece of furniture is one of modern design’s greatest of all time.  Little Nest offers this up along with a fine assortment of children’s modern furniture.  This pint size re-creation sells for $900 – Link.

That’s crazy, right?  900 bucks for a kid’s chair?  They’ll likely spend more time building a fort out of the box it ships in.

Depends…  I don’t have any clue of what furniture I want to be surrounded by for the rest of my days.  I do know however, I would like the Eames Lounge chair to be in there somewhere.  Nowadays, a full size replica plus ottoman goes for about $3900 from Design Within Reach in an assortment of colors and finishes – Link.

When my budget allows for it, it’ll become part of the family.  Also, the most carefully wrapped piece of furniture I’ll ever move I suppose.  That is, unless the miniature Eames Lounge isn’t sufficiently bubble wrapped.

miniature eames lounge
Ahh, yes, more desktop ornament than functional setpiece, the MoMA store has it for $670 – Link.  At six inches tall, it might be the most expensive cellphone stand you ever buy…

But back to the kids.

The good thing is, for a considerable price, their formative years can be spent coloring while sitting in their favorite chair.

little nest children modern furniture

The bad news is… each of the chairs shown above only come in white, so your children will also be coloring ON the chairs.



Lawn stripes, grass patterns like the pros

May 31, 2010 By: Home Category: Landscaping/Yards

With memorial day come and gone, the prime season for lawn pride is in full swing.  The topic came about recently regarding the patterns that professional greenskeepers create on professional baseball fields.  How did they do it?  Did they lay down different types of grass in patterns that would grow in differing shades of green?  Perhaps some do, but the process of striping lawns is usually much more simple.

  • A heavy roller is just attached to the lawnmower.
  • As the grass is cut, the roller ‘bends’ the blades of grass in the direction of the mowing path
  • Alternate mowing path against the previous path, and voila!

Lawn striping

The above image was found at the website of the manufacturer of the Lawn Stryper, found here -  patternyourlawn.com

Of course, there’s other DIY alternatives to be found on instructables.com, as well as other roller-type striping attachments available, but for the price, I think I’ll just order the Lawn Stryper attachment from Amazon or Overstock, seems that it can be found in the mid-5o dollar range.

A cheaper alternative, given enough space would be to drive your car across the lawn a few times, your mileage will (literally) vary on this one.

Cheaper alternative yet?  Do like this lawn stylist…

cheap lawn striping



Re-use of Entertainment centers as play kitchens

January 27, 2010 By: Home Category: How-To's/DIY, Kids

Get a new flat screen TV lately?  Chances are, it’s mounted on the wall, or on a table or stand.  If you had a basic entertainment center before the high def upgrade, it no doubt held your old boxy low-def television, and its wiry mess of A/V equipment.  After the upgrade however, that 42 inch plus HD monster, either wouldn’t fit, or just didn’t look right, and if you haven’t tossed your old particle board based entertainment center, and if you have potential rugrat chefs in the making around, you may want to re-purpose this sturdy piece of furniture as a play kitchen, as these good folks did.

From Giggleberry Creations:

From this…

entertainment center play kitchen

To this…

entertainment center play kitchen

Visit their site for more of the how-to and in-progress pics.

Also,

the repurposed entertainment center from Sutton Grace.

From start…

entertainment center play kitchen

To finish…

entertainment center play kitchen

More pics and how-to at their site.  Sutton Grace

However, maybe you’ve got just enough ingenuity to make that flat screen work in your present setup…

flat screen tv entertainment center

- via Thereifixedit.com



Fold-out Window Balcony by Bloomframe®

September 05, 2009 By: Home Category: Apartments

I’d seen the earlier version of this product in its development (below) where the lower portion of the window frame that became the balcony floor was a solid piece of structure, and only allowed a high ribbon window above.

bloomframe window balcony

And now, in this recent mock-up of the Bloomframe window product, it seems that they’ve replaced that structural piece with structural glazing, presenting the window frame as a near full-height window system.  The video below is a great demonstration of what could be next great advance in hardtop convertible balconies.

(Turn the volume down/off if you value your sanity…)

This is a product that spurs the imagination of what could open up a small, cramped, apartment to the elements.  No way your landlord would likely allow you to install one.  But perhaps, maybe a forward-thinking builder might bring these to an entire housing project, and showcase a constantly changing facade.

The structural glazing however, might be a bit too fear-inducing to anyone above the second floor, as I liken it to the Sears Tower Skydeck.

Sears tower skydeck

Oh, and the neighbors below would most likely look up your wife’s skirt.

The Bloomframe® window balcony seems to still be in development, but I can’t wait to see one of these in person.



Pet Murphy Bed

August 18, 2009 By: Home Category: Beds / Bedding, Pets

For the pet lover who doesn’t like unsightly pet beds lying around the house.  That is, unless you have an affinity for giant shedded-hair coated pillows.

pet murphy bed

If this looks like the ideal pet bed for you, it can be picked up at Midnight Pass.

Unfortunately, even thought the operation seems fairly simple, there are a few finer points you might want to keep in mind.

  • Probably best not being placed between your bed and the 2 a.m. nocturnal stumble to the bathroom.
  • When finding that the latch will not close entirely in the upright position, please unfold, remove dog/cat, repeat closing operation.
  • If you have out of town guests that haven’t seen your Pet Murphy Bed, it’s very entertaining to present it as… “And here’s where you’ll be bunking down for the night!” and then laugh in gest if you’re about to reveal their actual accomodations…or try and hold a straight face if you’d prefer they find a local hotel.