Chopping Block Drawer

Hi guys! Well... this isn't a proper DIY guide... it's just a thing I saw and i was impressed by the simplicity and the usefulness of this design!
You can find the original post here, on shelterness.com... it's a really awesome idea:

You can chop your ingredients and trash in the bin below the waste (or you can fix a bowl under the hole)

You can fix the Chopping Block to the drawer with special glues or even nails but in this way it will be more difficult to clean it (and replace it)

My advice:

• You can use magnet strips (it will be easier to remove and clean but it will be, of course, less anchored)
• You can fix the Choppin Block like a puzzle, leaving the corners of the drawer intact (See below)

 

Wine-Glass Lamp

If you're going to have a romantic dinner with "the one" you could achieve a little atmosphere even if your dining room is also your study/kitchen/bedroom/dump...

The trick is the lighting: with the right illumination you'll be able to:

• Hide the dirty dishes you your roommate left in your apartment
• Hide the books you were supposed to study that evening

With a single candle and a wine-glass you can create a simple, cheap, reusable candle-holder

(Just pay attention... Firefighters could seduce the girl of your dreams and/or end your romantic dinner)

You can download the pattern here (You can use paper or vellum...)

I found this on http://www.designsprout.com/ that redirected me to http://www.curbly.com that redirected me to http://www.casasugar.com ... I hope I quoted every site :D

Copperfield's shelves!

We all need some magic in our life, even college students!




With this DIY Hack you'll be able to gain a bookshelf and impress your friends with a simple and immediate trick!









You'll need:

• Book with a solid cover
• Simple Bookends
• Drill
• Screw(s)
• Duct Tape / Patafix

It's actually very simple: If there isn't a hole in the bookend drill two holes (see picture below) and attach it to the wall with the screws (PS: You can also use "no more nails" or something like that but with this method it's safer and more stable)

After that just place your book and fix the cover with tape or patafix (Or even hot glue if you really hate that book)

You just obtained a floating bookshelf made of book... Bookception!!

Number Puzzle Table Hack

Well...
A friend of mine is an Ikea-addicted: her apartment right now is like a picture from Ikea's catalogue.

One of the most simple design you'll find in those blue-boxes is the LACK table.

Personally i love IKEA's forniture: they're cheap, durable and easy to build but sometimes they are too standard.

In this post you'll find a way in order to renew the LACK table, turning it into something cooler and funnier.

Booze Lamp!

Well... after the final exams is a social necessity to burn all of the neurons used preparing the exam

During college years you'll probably throw away a LOT of bottles of booze water
What if you could turn them into a lamp?

You'll find different ways of doing this trick... the top 2 (IMHO) are from instructables.com  and witandwhistle.com





Here's the link for the original designs:

• http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-Vodka-Lamp-or-any-other-booze-bottl/#step1
• http://witandwhistle.com/2009/11/03/diy-wine-bottle-light/

For my little mash-up you'll need:

• Bottle(s)
• Drill
• Christmas Lights
• Sandpaper
• Sand (optional)
• PVC small tube (the diameter should be like the  Drill Bit's one)
• Sewing wire

Well... as you'll see the most frustrating and difficult part will be the Drilling

I suggest to practice with other bottles before trying with the chosen one.

If you're lucky enough to own a 1/2" glass bit you'll achieve the perfect hole in a nanosecond but if you're like me you'll have to go the hard way:

Check before drilling if the diameter of the light and the drill's bit are similar (I learned the hard way)

1. Choose the spot (near the bottom) where you want to drill the bottle
• Define the area with tape
2. Block the bottle in order to fix the spot
3. Start drilling and lean gently the drill
• You'll have to often stop and clean the glass dust

If you can't get any friction you can try to

• Glue/lean sandpaper to the drill's end
• Use sand

The sand method is fastest but risky: you'll have to glue the PVC pipe on the drilling area, and while drilling you'll have to go gently up and down while pouring a little amount of sand in the tube

If you're lucky enough you'll eventually reach the end. Immediately shut down the drill and pull it out.

Remove the PVC pipe (if you used it) and use the sandpaper to refine the hole.

Tie with a knot a small sewing wire to the first Christmas light and (helping yourself with a needle to spot it) pull it out from the bottle's top
(using this trick you'll be able to pull the light nearly to the top of the bottle, making the lamp's light homogeneous)

Carefully feed the strand of lights into the bottle trough the hole

If you want you can fix the hole with a rubber circle with hot glue

In my opinion, wine and Absolut Vodka bottles are the best for this project:
The last image is from the guide you'll find in instructables.com: the effect with Absolute's opaque glass is amazing

Old books/magazines into a table

If you're a student you'll notice how fast the free spaces in your library will be obliterated...
You have too many books and a little space. What can you do?

Well... you could set your old philosophy textbook on fire after the final exam but here's different designs that could solve the problem and also turn them into a great table for the living room:

The first project is "Ratchet Table" by Harry Hasson (The one on the left).
The second one's Vespa" by the Italian designer Giulio Iacchetti

(The images are from http://www.designerblog.it, one of the most interesting blogs about design in the italian language)


There are also some variants, like this one below where you can express your indie/retro/Ilistentobandsthatdonotevenexistyet soul  with vinyls (I believe that this one is also Harry Hasson's work but I'm not 100% sure)

Last but not least if you're a girl (or a guy)  and your room is full of American Cheerleader Magazine issues you could turn them into a nice chair with less effort! Here's the pic (I stumbled upon this picture, if someone knows the designer i would be grateful)

Ideas for a broken ceiling lamp

You just entered for the first time in your new apartment... the rent is really cheap and the scenario is more like a low budget horror movie rather than the cool movie-like loft you see in Hollywood movies. No worries!

Maybe the main ceiling lamp is broken (the ex owner was a Mexican student who broke it with a stick during a pinata-party)...

Crash - by Cezary Borysiuk

What if you could turn this disaster into something like this?

It's impossible to achieve the perfection of the design above (you'll find later the link) but you can try to make your own and get inspired by this design.

You'll need:

• Thin layer of dense glass
• Thin Plywood
• Small mirrors (optional)
• Hot Glue
• Drill
• Light Bulb Holder

The goal is to shape the glass and the Plywood into a hut-like shape (you can choose the size of the lamp but I think that, in this case, smaller is better). There are some good guides how to cut glass but i think that you'll save some time asking directly at your hardware store...

The glass will form the bottom, the front and the back of the house while the Plywood can be used as the roof  and the "lateral walls". You can assemble the parts with the Hot Glue.

The hole for the wire should be made in the precise center (Before gluing the whole thing xD )

The mirrors can be used in order to reflect the light from the "roof" but the illumination power of this lamp (even without the mirrors) is good

Another good modification is to use this lamp in a different way: you can modify the design to use this lamp as a bedside one: with a lightbulb holder you can block the lamp in the middle of the hut and (in this case) make just the back and the bottom with plywood.
(PS: the bedside lamp shaped like that can be used as a bookmark like the Reading Lamp by Jun Yasumoto)

The original design is from http://autumnproducts.com.au/ , an awesome design studio based in Sydney

(You can buy the original "Hut Pendant Light" here )

Hello World!

Hello guys!
This is my first post on this (new) blog...

I'm a college student and I'm moving in a new apartment.
My goal is to try to "make a house a home" and not to be ashamed inviting friends over.

Over the year I collected from various sites some of the best (IMHO) crafting designs, DIY-ideas and stuff that would make an apartment more student-friendly and (of course) cool

Even if the methods and materials can be easily noticed i'll add a brief description of the process...

There are a lot of sites like this blog: i understand that this one will be just another diy-blog but I'm confident that, even if some of the designs and the images can be found in various sites, in this one you'll find just college-oriented projects and beginner stuff...