Tag Archives: ikea hack

With nothing else to paint, I painted the kitchen table

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It’s been one of those weeks where it seems like every day is just bleeding into the last, a cycle of streetcar/desk/streetcar/couch/streetcar/desk/streetcar/couch that has been just wearing me out. In fact, it seems like life has been so large and so small all at the same time lately, and so I decided to get out of my head and just paint. The design is based upon a popular Kathie Winkle pattern, kind of interpreted in a folk/Concentric-circles-Kandinsky style, all freehand.

I think for the next step I’ll add more thick line patterns around each side and up and down the legs. Afterwards I think I’ll add white in the unpainted sections, as a sort of “negative” paint, which should dry pretty transparently and show the wood grain too.

The table is just an old IKEA table I’ve had for a while that I’ve always been meaning to stain a nice dark brown… looks like it won’t be matching my custom Horse fabric chairs anymore! Unless I maybe paint those white… nah.

Ikea hack: My Castor Canadensis inspired recycled tube lamp

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Recycled tube lamp

Because of my small apartment, and lack of yard/balcony/tool shed, my projects are mostly limited to simple projects, and easy builds… Sure, I’ve done some heavy sanding in the bathtub, but overall I try to keep things pretty basic.

With that said, I’m pretty proud of my first full-on ikea “hack,” in which I’ve taken some discarded tubular light bulbs found in the trash behind my apartment building, some duct tape, some empty duct tape rolls and an old Ikea STORM floor lamp and turned them into a Castor Canadensis inspired “recycled tube lamp.”

I’ve always admired the design work by the Canadian company, especially their amazing recycled tube lamps/sculptures. They’re the perfect blend of industrial and warm, and the perfect example of how recycled goods can be sexy. With that said, there’s no way I can afford any of their designs in the near future… I’ll have to be satisfied for now on gazing at the real thing at Oddfellows.

So after spotting around 6 tubes in the garbage out back (yes, I usually find lots of cool things in the trash), I knew I had to see if I could give this design a try.

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I did this pretty quickly, and the hardest part was tearing down the lamp, removing all the lamp parts, so that it was basically a stick with a light on the end. (I’ve never wired anything before either, except for stereo systems, but with my blue electrical tape on hand, I’m confident that I did just fine). The STORM also has a nice foot/floor switch, which is perfect for a project like this.

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After giving the tubes and thorough and gentle cleaning, I used duct tape to attach the tubes to an empty roll… I didn’t have enough tubes to go all the way around, so I filled in the back using cardboard from an old pizza box. (It will be a corner light for now). Like I said, I did this pretty fast, so I didn’t measure anything and if I did it again, I would use more care laying down the tape… I think I’ll grab a nice roll of gaffer tape to finish the whole thing off, and maybe cap off the pointy ends of the lamp.

Overall, the lamp gives off a very nice, very gentle warm glow, and will make for a great accent in our soon-to-be-redesigned bedroom, which will have a mix of post-industrial inspired furnishings. I’d recommend this simple project to anyone, but just be very, very careful with the tubes.

And yes Andrew, you will always be the IKEA HACK master, and your G&M story is still cut out and stuck to my fridge.