Home & Garden News
News: These Beautiful Chairs Are Grown, Not Made
For anyone who has spent an entire afternoon attempting to assemble a set of IKEA chairs, these wooden masterpieces probably seem pretty appealing.
News: Stone Workers Play Dominoes with Bricks to Create Perfectly-Aligned Wall Cap
Usually, when I see a video that is captioned "wait for it," I'm quick to dismiss what could possibly come at the end of the clip. In this case, however, I was totally wrong and the final result was definitely worth the wait.
News: YouTuber Surprises Biggest Fan with Giant Playhouse Version of 'Rogue One' AT-ACT
The force is strong with this project. Colin Furze is a British YouTuber who is a self-proclaimed "garage inventor and video maker." In a recent collaboration with eBay, Furze created the "ultimate Star Wars project," an 18-feet-tall playhouse version of the AT-ACT from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
News: This High Voltage Furniture Technique Burns Lightning Designs into Wood
Lightning is scary and powerful, yet when harnessed correctly, it can become a beautiful pattern for hand-crafted wooden furniture. Muchd like Zeus in ancient mythology, Canadian Woodworks is harnessing the power and beauty of lightning, but they're doing it for aesthetic purposes.
News: The Slatted, Morphing 'Wave' Cabinet Opens Up Like a Paper Fan
If you're looking to mix up your home décor with something a little bit outside the traditional cabinet box set, check out the amazing Wave cabinet from NYC-based, Chilean designer Sebastian Errazuriz. This revolutionary design will change the way you think about interior decoration and furniture functionality.
News: The Wonder of Plants
Have you seen all the adorable miniature garden ideas? Containers of some sort (wood boxes, planters, drawers, wheel barrows, bird baths…) hold a little scene full of tiny living plants along with little adornments like garden benches, hardscapes and paths. They are absolutely enchanting for all ages and how fun to shop the house and find special little things to decorate your tiny garden whether indoors or out. Not only can you plant real, live tiny plants in your garden. Consider little suc...
News: 7 Tips for Organizing Your Room
Today I'm going to show you 7 easy ways to organize your room. They are really simple and cheap so I hope you find them useful!
News: How to Dry Clothes - Directions for Dummies
This could happen when you trust a guy to hang out wet clothes. Ladies, beware, guys simplify housework simply because they don't care of it's a chore they just don't want. Watch and learn to be creative about the ways you spice your every day chores up. Most of all, laugh your head off.
News: DIY Foldable Table
DIY foldable table for small apartments and workshops. It has unique way of folding. This one is made from old computer desk. It is an easy do-it-yourself project, even for woodworking beginners. See whole tutorial here: Foldable table, recycling of old table.
News: Why I Make Silk Flowers?
I make silk flowers for personal use as of now. My sister suddenly passed away 18 yr ago, & I try to make sure she has a very nice flower arrangement for every season. I dont have alot of money but she deserves to have a nice flower arrangement. She was only 19 when she passed so I have been doing this for 18 yr. I would like to make a business of this , I just dont know how to get started
News: The 'Electri-City' Tables by Ben Yates
I have an interest in using recycled materials in sculptures, particularly circuit boards and other wasted electronic and mechanical components with which I put together sprawling cities lit with fairy lights. These cityscapes can conjure an image of a parallel society built from what we throw away. Utopian or dystopian, the ‘Electri-Cities’ remain a feast for the eyes and the mind. What makes them particularly intriguing is the population of tiny model railway people—they bring a host of nev...
News: Giving Your Fridge a Mind of Its Own with RIFD Tags
What if your fridge knew your food and expiration dates? What if your fridge could tell you which ingredients are missing and where you can get them the cheapest?
News: Fully Functional Gravity-Defying Chair
With severed, angled gaps in three out of four legs, it looks like the work of a chainsaw-wielding maniac. But those gaps are clean cut and without blood, despite the redness of the slices, and definitely not the work of Leatherface.
News: Bat Cave in San Francisco
What do you do when you desperately need to put a parking garage into the bottom floor of your Victorian apartment building, but the city's Department of Planning says "No". The simple and expensive answer: Create an elaborate secret garage door. If you own a pretty building, it is well within the jurisdiction of the Landmark Commission to inform you that even though you own the piece of property, you cannot remodel it any way you want. Seems un-American. But in San Francisco, specifically th...
News: Who Needs Fancy Kitchen Gadgets? Pliers & Hairpins Will Do Just Fine
After stumbling across an interesting article by Hanne Blank—(apparent) hobbyist chef and widely known activist on the issues of weight, bisexuality, and sexuality—I've become even more fascinated by kitchen shortcuts. Former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold's recently released Modernist Cuisine also spurred a similar interest, particularly after reading a WSJ piece in which Myhrvold attests —by law of science, of course— that a ¼-inch-thick sheet of steel is more than adequate in place of an ex...
Creator Spotlight: Matthias Wandel, Prolific Woodworking Machinist
You've seen his explanation of a combination lock's inner workings. You'll never lose another game of Jenga, thanks to his winning wooden pistol. And nearly 4 million YouTube users have marveled at his wooden marble machine sculpture. He's Matthias Wandel, and he's accomplished what most only dream of—turning a hobby into a career. Matthias has been tinkering in woodworking since he was a child, with unrestricted access to his father's workshop, permitted to use power tools unsupervised from ...
Shortcut: The Secret to Reviving a Smelly Kitchen Sponge
Penny pincher? A true believer in "waste not want not"? Then listen up—here's a quick tip that will save you some spare change.
Shortcut: Drill Powered Pencil Sharpener
As someone who keeps an electric drill in the same 5 foot proximity of a manual wall pencil sharpener, here's a clear cut case of "Why didn't they think of this sooner?!"... Introducing, the coolest drill bit ever: Wowee, just watch it go. The C.H. Hanson Pro-Sharp Finishing Pencil Carpenter proclaims itself as the "world’s first chuckable drill powered pencil sharpener”. It promises to produce "a fast, consistent pencil point every time” and universally fits any drill or 1/4" quick change sy...
Shortcut: Fix a Wiggly Wall Outlet
Normally the idea of messing with an electrical outlet makes me squirm, but Apartment Therapy's quick fix for a loose wall outlet means skipping out on a costly electrician bill. Not only is a wiggly wall outlet unsightly, but it can also be a fire hazard. The solution is simple:
News: Bibliophile Dreamland
For most bibliophiles, a bookshelf-lined house as beautiful as the Kazuya Morita Architecture Studio's Shelf Pod house is a dream come true. The interior of the space consists of an endless grid of interlocking laminated pine-boards, which slot together to form latticed shelving units:
Shortcut: Fix a Scratched Window with Toothpaste
ApartmentTherapy reminds us of a fine fix for scratches on glassy surfaces like mirrors and windows—toothpaste!
News: Real or Fake? Impossible Wooden Waterfall
It takes a special kind of mind to look at an M.C. Escher drawing and see a blueprint. And yet, looking at this working 3D model of Escher's Waterfall, one gets the impression that YouTube's mcwolles may have done just that! One thing's clear: like Escher's famous lithograph, the video employs some manner of trickery. But what kind? Good, old-fashioned forced perspective? CGI? Do the shadows provide a clue? Let's hear it in the comments.
News: Build Your Own Civilization with the Global Village Construction Set
If it takes a village to raise a child, you can imagine what it takes to raise a village! In brief: a whole lot! Thanks to the folks behind the Open Source Ecology movement, however, starting your own self-sufficient community has never been easier! Taking free software as a model, the group is working on what they call the Global Village Construction Set—"a fully integrated [and freely reproducible] set of machines for creating a self-sufficient modern life from the resources of a small amou...
Shortcut: Fix a Stripped Screw with a Toothpick
Don't you love those simple little tricks that just make life easier? Like quick solution for a pesky stripped screw? Apartment Therapy says,
Cutting It Close: Amazing High-Speed Bandsaw Work
If you only see one power tool-related YouTube clip this year, make it WoodWorkingInAction's "Bandsaw Magic." We give this one two totally-not-severed thumbs way up! Want to improve your own woodworking chops? Poke around WonderHowTo's ever-expanding collection of furniture and woodworking video tutorials.
News: Sitting On Stephen Colbert's Face
How's this for a DIY project: "Stephen Colbert!!! I’m sitting on your face!
Home Hack: Silence a Leaky Faucet With a String
Yep, it's that easy. From Re-Nest: "To quiet the sound of a leaky faucet, simply tie a string around the neck of the faucet and allow it to catch the drips on the way down.
News: What's More Eco? Fake or Fir?
Think you're more green by going artificial? Think again. The New York Times reports that the most definitive study shows you would have to use your artificial tree for 20 years before it has less impact on the environment than a real tree.
News: Anti-Secret Spy Doorknob
Beautifully designed, this glass globe doorknob bars all potentially private matters of what lie beyond it.
News: Simply Ingenious Snow Plow Hack
Tricycle + simple plow blade = true yankee ingenuity. (Who needs a pricey snow plow vehicle?) Craig Smith recently submitted his custom contraption to MAKE:
News: The New York Times' Top 15 Kill-Proof Houseplants
With the aid of America's top botanical experts, Michael Tortorello of the New York Times has compiled a wonderful list of 15 hard-to-kill houseplants for the green thumb inept.
News: Quick and Clever Drill Hacks
Two easy solutions for avoiding pesky drill dust. You will need: a Post-it and/or a disposable paper cup.
News: Here, Table. Come, Boy!
Gotta get myself one of these walking crab tables. (Now if only it came on command. Life would be complete.) Question is, how does one build something like this? Post ideas below. Previously, Self Healing Chair Picks Itself Up Off the Floor... Literally.
News: Barn as a Balancing Act
Here in Los Angeles, there are a plethora of amazing houses precariously perched on the hillsides of Hollywood, Pacific Palisades and Malibu. Striking to look at, the thought "earthquake" is never far from one's mind, however.
News: Gigantic Carpet of 750,000 Begonias (Assembled in Just 4 Hours!)
Every summer the city of Brussels assembles an enormous carpet of begonias, under the advisement of one hundred experienced gardeners. The project is planned far in advance, with illustrations and scale models based on a chosen theme (previously chosen have been the arms and shield of a town or commemoration of important events). This year's theme features Saint Michael striking down the dragon, the official protective image of the city, founded over 1,000 years ago.
News: Old Fishing Boats Upcycled to Architectural Wonders
The resourceful fisherman of Holy Island (Lindisfarne, Northumberland, UK) are upcycling beautiful old fishing vessels into storage sheds. Flip it upside down, add a door, and the result is striking.
News: Reverse Fountain Mind Screw
What appears to be an impossibly boundless volume of water is really an illusion created with the aid of a largely invisible acrylic cylinder. William Pye's "reverse fountain", entitled Charybdis (referring to the sea monster of Greek myth), was designed for Seaham Hall of Sunderland, England.
News: Would You Live in a Walking Robot House?
If you fancy yourself a nomad, check out Walking House, a mobile and modular dwelling system that is pneumatically powered, all-terrain ready. The vehicle-home crawls along at a snail's pace of 60 meters per hour, which equates to less than 1/2 a mile per hour. Akin in concept to the rolling house-on-the-go (except in the way cooler insect-like robot form), Walking House also boasts some cool eco-friendly features:
Grow While You Go: The Bus-Top Gardens of New York City
If you were to look on the roof of your local city bus, what would you find? A little bit of dirt, most likely, and a whole lot of space. Precisely the stuff you'd find in an empty container garden! Enter NYU graduate student Marco Castro Cosio's Bus Roots, a project which, through installing gardens on the rooftops of New York City buses, seeks to "reclaim forgotten space, increase quality of life and grow the amount of green spaces in the city."
News: Fastest Lawnmower in the World Clocks in at 96 MPH
Lawnmower racing is a yankee sport, gosh darnit, so when British racer Don Wales stole the title for record speed (87.833 mph) back in May, former American champ Bobby Cleveland was challenged to win it back. And that he did.