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A stripped down, links-only HouseHacker.com.

HouseHacker is sort of dedicated to bringing you the goods on home improvement, household gadgetry, DIY, cool furniture, yada, yada...

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Brilliant UFO abduction lamp.

Your blood puddle pillows are in.

Clean your dishwasher with Lemonade Kool-Aid.

Clever light bulb design.

Days Ago digital day counters are small gadgets that attach to your food containers via suction and magnets to keep a running count of how many days ago you put your leftovers in the fridge.

Scrabble furniture.

Handy way to skip all the intro crap on DVDs that is usually forced on you when you throw a disc in your player. Apparently the chapters on DVDs that you can't skip (FBI warnings, copyright stuff, etc.) are flagged, on the disc, as UOP, or User Operation Prohibited. This site lists some of the techniques you can try to skip the ennui.

This colour coordinated bookshelf looks cool, but you might have a hard time finding a particular title.

For chewie edge lovers or corner brownie fans - it's the Edge Brownie Pan. All edges, all the time. Via BoingBoing

Puzzle carpet.

This to That is a handy site that will tell you what adhesive to use when attempting to glue various objects together.

Super creative bathroom tiles.

Skinny house in Brazil.

Apparently there are many LED lightbulbs available already. Via TreeHugger

WiiRoomba. YouTube of a guy controlling his Roomba with a Wii remote.

Hardcore Lost fans have a party and repackage the snacks and beer as Dharma Initiative rations. Make your own with the PDFs that they've so generously shared.

Here's a nice set of home improvement videos with the energetic and snappy Eric Stromer.

Faucet Fountain turns your regular faucet into a drinking fountain.

Kids and the Home Office. Here's a list of tips for the parent that works from home.

Save the Internet.







Househacker/tags/design

Thorough Home Theatre Construction Howto

Here's an in depth article on turning an average basement into a slick home theatre room. The author illustrates his plans with CAD drawings while detailing many, many issues to consider, including the differences between LCD and DLP projectors, mounting and image keystoning issues and the secrets of progressive scan DVDs.

One of the more interesting things in this piece is how the author used the hard paper columns that builders use to pour concrete along with some marble paint to create some faux marble columns for $20.

Unusual Wall Treatment

Wallter is the name of this unique wall decoration that adds depth, shadow and interesting light play to what may be an otherwise empty wall. The applications come in circles, rectangles (which can serve as photo frames), teardrop, starburst and 60s retro slats.

From the site:

This design can be applied to just one wall and can completely alter the focus of the room. In just a few hours Wallter adds life to walls. The effect can either be stunning or subtle, you decide. For easy, no fuss installation these lightweight pieces have a peel-away 3M adhesive backing. The applications can be applied to almost any interior wall or door.

Via Constructiondeal.com
       



Huge Gallery of Home Decorating Ideas

Sunset magazine has a lot of cool stuff on their site, not the least of which being this huge home decorating idea gallery, viewable by room type (within kitchens, for example, there are small kitchens, eat in kitchens, etc) or style (contemporary, retro, exotic, etc). There must be thousands of beautiful room images online to serve as inspiration for those of us that tend to know what we like when we see it, but can't come up with much from scratch - or perhaps the gallery is most useful for those just suffering from some sort of temporary design block.

The site also has this 25 item smart home piece, as well as an interesting before and after gallery.

Definitely lots to explore.

Link: Sunset Design Assistant

Wired Article on the Coolest Rooms on Earth

Wired has a nice article up on the coolest, most gadget-filled, automated rooms on the planet, including a home that Michael Douglas had a hand in designing in the 1980s. Apparently people with money dig LCDs rising from bed foot boards quite a bit - and it's hard to blame them, really.


Good List of Bathroom Design Tips

If you plan on redesigning a bathroom, or are lucky enough to be able to design and build one from scratch, here are some tips on making the most out of the space you have available to you, including things like where to place the toilet, amount of space required for sinks, showers and baths, as well as storage and safety ideas.

Space Saving Sofa Converts to Bunk Bed

If you're tight for space and find yourself in need of some extra beds for guests, this unique item from BonBon Trading might be just what you're looking for. The clever design allows the sofa to 'effortlessly' convert to a bunk bed. From the site:

Doc XL a convertible sofa-bunk bed solution with rotating mechanism. Doc is a comfortable divan with slipcovers, which requires a simple gesture and no physical strain to become a practical bunk bed with a safe ladder that is both a support element and a protective barrier. To use the item only as a bed, it is sufficient to remove the back cushions. The item can be converted from bed to furniture piece without having to remove the sheets and blankets, thus offering the possibility to always dispose of a ready to use bed.

Roundup of Online Paint Selector Apps

A small and obviously not exhaustive list of some online flash-based paint selector apps, for your reading pleasure.

  • Behr's ColorSmart
    Probably the best paint selector. Paint simulation looks the most realistic. Behr allows searches by paint name or number and automatically coordinates colors to match. Program enables users to paint individual walls. Includes a nice 'Inspiration library'.

  • Benjamin Moore's Personal Color Viewer
    Benjamin Moore's app presents the user with multiple rooms to choose from, as well as the unique selectable specialty finishes. Has a standard color slider selector, and is pre-loaded with some color combinations. Not bad, but not great.

  • Sherwin-Williams
    Chose between interior and exterior paint jobs. Multiple room or home types to chose from. The automatic coordinating of color types is nice. Some drag and drop action.

  • Sico Not that dynamic. Allows the change of one entire wall (only) and trim. Gives a good idea of how a room's feel is altered with different paint colors, but could be more functional.

  • Debbie Travis
    Multiple rooms to chose from, but clicking a color changes the one and only dynamic wall in the picture (i.e. user is not able to select individual walls). Very straightforward and too basic.


  • Useful Flash Room Planner

    If you have an empty room to fill or even just grown tired of your furniture status quo, then this slick flash app will help you hack out a new layout. Start with either a prebuilt room or design your own room from scratch. Once you've settled on a room design, you're able to play around with different arrangements to your heart's content - no lifting belt required.

    Great Ask Mefi Home Design Thread

    The finishing touches were being put on the HouseHacker website* when this post on Ask Mefi caught my eye. Seems like an appropriate enough way to launch the site, no? Lots of great ideas, including:

  • The oft-recommended Hidden Door to a secret room - which would of course necessitate the obligatory Shakespeare Bust switch.

  • These soon (?) to be released Temperature Sensitive and LED enhanced faucets by German based Hansa.

    * Beta, or something.

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