Blog Archives
If IKEA Made Geeky Furniture Part 20: LEGO Desks/Shelves
This puts a new spin on desk drawers or shelves: a small separate reservoir in the front of the drawer that would hold Lego. This adds a colorful decorative touch to your workspace, and provides that satisfying sound of Lego clattering as you open and close the drawer.
Ideal for desks, shelves, and storage organizers. You could use plastic tubs or any drawer that has a window opening in the front. A lid for the reservoir might be helpful too.
Lego would be the best use of these reservoirs, however you could put whatever you want in there: thumb tacs, color markers, gumballs, etc.
For the other IKEA designs click here.
Geeky Chair Mat: NHL ’94
Update: Not to get your hopes up, but I may have found a way to make this chair mat a reality. Please stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks. Original post as follows:
There are really no geeky chair mats available right now (I can’t find any), but if I had my way there would be one based on the star player icon from NHL ’94. This could also apply to other 16-bit sport series made by EA back in the day, like Madden or Bulls Vs. Lakers.
Also pictured: NHL ’94 figurine, another pipe dream from long ago.
UPDATE: A prototype was made, and it looks great! Still trying to sort out the logistics of offering these to people. Everyone would want a different number and position, so that level of customization warrants a lot of effort.
If IKEA Made Geeky Furniture Part 19: Gearhead Bedroom
Not exactly geeky (but could be given the Speed Racer or Megas XLR treatment), these designs are more for the gearheads. The bed frame is based on a car lift; the dresser is based on a tool drawer; and finally a light that is based on the one mechanics use to look underneath cars with (well, it could be the exact same light to be honest).
In my estimation this is probably ideal for bachelors only.
About That WWF Wrestling Bed
A little over a year ago I was doing a series for geeky beds, and one design was a WWF-styled wrestling ring bed. It’s one of my most popular posts and I am emailed frequently by those looking for one. I do not make or sell beds, I’m just a designer. However there are ways to acquire such a bed:
Earlier this year a company in Bahrain actually made a custom bed for a lucky customer:
So if you’re in that neck of the woods, you can ask them to make you one as well. You can find their website here. (UPDATE: Sorry it looks like that company is closed now.)
However you can enlist just about any custom furniture business to craft one for you. The bed would entail: a custom frame, specially-made buckles and ropes, and a custom bed cover. The frame would need some large decals for decoration. It won’t be cheap, I assure you.
Using “off-the-shelf” parts from an actual boxing or wrestling ring is not an option. Those are pretty heavy-duty and too large for your bed frame (even a King size bed). If you want to modify actual parts you can find them here.
For the finished bed seen above it appears to me the turn buckles are pillow-like enclosures wrapped around the ropes. The ropes themselves appear to be similar to “velvet ropes” which are easy to acquire.
Instead of building a whole bed from scratch, you could probably add to an existing bed by building a frame for the ropes to latch onto. All the corner posts would need to be connected to ensure some sort of stability.
And lastly if you do make one, THESE AREN’T SAFE FOR WRESTLING!!! They are just for show. It would be fun to jump into and out of, but that’s it. No “going off the top rope” or trying to execute crazy wrestler moves. I would also design the ropes to easily detach to prevent kids from getting all tangled up. I like how the completed design above has one side without any ropes, great for accessibility.
Hopefully that answers some questions. I know many would prefer a ready-made product they can purchase and assemble themselves, but for now there is no such thing.
UPDATE: You can actually buy an MMA-themed bed here (also just for kids).
If IKEA Made Geeky Furniture Part 18: Jenga Dresser
Is it pretty or clever? Not really. This is just a personal victory for me, as the past few years I tried to think of a geeky dresser design to help round out the Geeky IKEA series. And voila! I found one.
This is a bedroom dresser based on the puzzle game Jenga. Apologies if the theme song from the commercial has infiltrated your brain (“You take a block from the bottom and you put it on top!”), this blog can be cruel at times.
You could have several shelves, but I chose this configuration so each shelf can have a proper handle, in the form of an extruded brick:
Viewed from above this dresser would be square-shaped, so it would be jutting out from the wall more than your typical dresser. However it could be made into a smaller bedside table to retain the square shape. This design could even be applied to filing cabinets, printer trolleys, mini fridges, or end tables for the couch.
Please check out the many other Geeky IKEA designs by clicking here.
Moon And Sun Light Fixture
There are plenty of ‘moon lamps‘ available out there. But what I have in mind is a normal light fixture that has a moon image that will glow-in-the-dark. So when the light is on it looks like the sun, and off looks like the moon.
This was inspired by those neat Dinosaur coins the Canadian Mint is releasing.
This would be great for a kids room or the grownup stargazers among us. Would compliment a ceiling populated with glow-in-the-dark stars nicely.
I’m not entirely sure if this is possible – would the heat from the bulbs damage the glowing properties of the moon image? Can the moon image be opaque enough for the light to pass through? Maybe someone out there smarter than me can provide insight.
If IKEA Made Geeky Furniture Part 17: Star Trek Lamp
This is an item I had trouble narrowing down to one application. The warp core from Star Trek (Next Generation version depicted), can be turned into many things. A floor lamp, desk lamp, lantern, USB hub, power switch, wireless router, and a universal recharger just to name a few. I think it’s really iconic and I’m a bit surprised no one has turned it into a gadget for geeks.
My favorite application would be a combination of a desk lamp and USB hub/universal charger. It would look like your source of power! And much like how it was seen in the show, it works in the background, and is not too distracting.
Here is a desktop version that features a USB Hub:
I added a case so the two conduits at the rear can attach to something. I think it would look cool on the desk.
I wouldn't mind having it encased in glass (left), or on a simple base (right).
My second favorite use would be a floor lamp (depicted top left). You know those tall paper lamps IKEA has? I think this could be done in a similar fashion.
Like this? Check out this Borg charging station, Holosuite wallpaper, Star Trek jewelry, and LCD TV’s with built-in view screen lights.
