win a customized bemz slipcover

so you have an old ikea sofa or armchair looking like some thing the cat dragged in? you're in luck then! cause you're about to get to give your sofa/armchair a second chance.

i am very happy to announce a brand new contest from ikeahacker and bemz, the company that sells removable, washable slipcovers for sofas, armchairs and cushions, tailor made for the ikea range.

want to know what you can win?

$500 to spend at bemz!

now that i've got you excited, here are the easy steps to take part:

1. take a photo/video of your tatty old ikea sofa/armchair. ideally, your photo should highlight the condition of its current slipcover, with particular focus on rips, tears, stains or other signs of its eventful existence on planet earth.

example: if you have a klippan, take a photo of its current condition.

2. go to bemz.com and pick a new slipcover for your ikea sofa/armchair. save a photo of your selection by clicking on “zoom in” and then right-clicking (mac users should control-click) to save the image to your computer.

example: the gustavian flowers black for klippan

3. write or tell us your heartfelt reasons why you deserve a new bemz slipcover.

4. finally, email your photos, the image you downloaded from bemz.com, and your reasons why your sofa or armchair needs a new bemz slipcover to ikeahacker [at] gmail [dot] com. please write "second chance contest" on the subject line.

all submissions will be posted on ikeahacker. readers can vote for their favourites. votes do carry some weight but the final winner will be decided by our judges - bemz’ in-house designer, katarina wiklund, susan martin of ikeafans and of course, moi.

so, bowl us over with your reasons and we may just give your sofa/armchair a second chance. send your photos/videos in by 5pm PDT on friday, october 5, 2007. the winning entry will be announced on october 10, 2007.

click for more information about bemz.

contest terms
the prize, up to a value of USD500, is only redeemable for bemz products and shipping costs at www.bemz.com, and is not exchangeable for cash. should the prize winner’s total order invoice exceed USD500, any additional costs over USD500 will be borne by the winner. no cash will be awarded should the prize winner’s total order invoice be less than USD500. only one prize can be won.

$20 customizable laptop stand

i've featured a few laptop desk and stands before. haymon adds this neat idea to the list.

"i bought slinga brackets for $9 each, a wooden bar for $2 and screwed them together as a stand for my macbook.

the big advantage is that you can customize it exactly to the size of your laptop."

Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater

The only good thing about your family having a house in the middle of nowhere is that it's only an hour away from one of the most famous houses in America, Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, also in the middle of nowhere. I first visited the site over 20 years ago so I thought it was about time for a second look, which is what I did this past weekend. Although, wearing Christian Louboutin flats on the tour probably wasn't the brightest idea I've ever had so if you plan to visit, I suggest taking along a pair of sneakers since a lot of the tour is outside.

"Fallingwater is recognized as one of Wright's most acclaimed works, and in a 1991 poll of members of the American Institute of Architects, it was voted "the best all-time work of American architecture." It is a supreme example of Frank Lloyd Wright's concept of organic architecture, which promotes harmony between man and nature through design so well integrated with its site that buildings, furnishings, and surroundings become part of a unified, interrelated composition."

Fallingwater was designed in 1935 for the Edgar J. Kaufmann family of Pittsburgh, who owned the famous Kaufmann's department store and vacationed in the Mill Run area of Pennsylvania. The family asked Wright to build a home near the Bear Run waterfall that they loved. What they didn't expect was for Wright to design the house over the waterfall but they agreed to the plan and it was built almost exactly as it was planned. The interesting part of the story was that it was the Kaufmann's son, Edgar Kaufmann, jr. who brought about the collaboration with Wright, who's career was in a bit of a slump at the time.

"After having read Frank Lloyd Wright’s An Autobiography (1932) on the advice of a friend, he was inspired to join the Taliesin Fellowship, which Wright and his wife, Olgivanna, had recently founded as an institute for artistic growth. In September, Edgar jr. traveled to Wisconsin for an interview with Wright, and a month later he was officially inscribed as a member of the fellowship. His stay at Taliesin only lasted six months, however, and he returned to Pittsburgh in 1935 to take his long deferred place in the family store. Over the next seven years, he played a pivotal role in integrating the family’s interest in progressive design, in Wright’s work, and business." He later went on to work for the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the family's story is so interesting that it's definitely worth reading online.

One of the things that almost all visitors notice upon arrival to Fallingwater is how modern and contemporary it looks for a design that was finished in 1939. It is also the only great Wright house open to the public with its setting, original furnishings, and art work intact. Almost all of the original Wright-designed furnishings are still in place. Fine art, textiles, objets d'art, books, and furnishings collected by the Kaufmann family from the 1930's through the 1960's are on view, and represent the eclectic tastes of a sophisticated, world-traveled family. Included in the collections are works by Audubon, Tiffany, Diego Rivera, Picasso, Jacques Lipchitz, Richmond Barthe, and woodblock prints by Japanese artists Hiroshige and Hokusai - gifts from Frank Lloyd Wright to the Kaufmanns.

"There in a beautiful forest was a solid, high rock ledge rising beside a waterfall, and the natural thing seemed to be to cantilever the house from that rock bank over the falling water....Then came (of course) Mr. Kaufmann's love for the beautiful site. He loved the site where the house was built and liked to listen to the waterfall. So that was a prime motive in the design. I think that you can hear the waterfall when you look at the design. At least it is there, and he lives intimately with the thing he loves." -- Frank Lloyd Wright in an interview with Hugh Downs, 1954

"Given the contour of the land, Wright located a house anchored in the rock next to the falls, jutting over the stream and counterweighted by massing at the back. Wright oriented the house to the southeast as he preferred, extending floors in horizontal bands which echoed rock ledges. The house would hover serenely over the water. Just uphill in a quarry on the property, native Pottsville sandstone was available to compliment the reinforced concrete Wright had in mind for the cantilevered floors. With these materials he needed glass, framed to give pattern and rhythm to the outlook; finally, the chosen trio of materials called for bright, warm coloring to offset the deep grays of the stone and visually inert concrete."

A few of my favorite aspects of Fallingwater is how the house follows the contours of the landscape and nature as seen in the beam that is curved to allow for the trunk of the tree above and how the boundaries of inside and out are blurred. The stair below start in the house and go directly down to the water above the waterfall below.

Building Fallingwater was a complicated and detailed operation, yet the resulting house seems to belong quietly in its setting. It fits into the hillside and extends out over the falls as if it has always belonged there. Within it, the areas for social life, privacy, and service are clearly separated but conveniently linked. Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece continues to unite human life, architectural form, and nature.

Even though it is in the middle of nowhere, it is definitely worth making a pilgrimage to Fallingwater to see one of the finest examples of architecture ever created. Just make sure you wear proper footwear!

Jail House Rock

I visited a very historic place this past weekend, but until I get my act together and download my photos, I thought I would tell you about a fun new hotel in Boston. I used to live in the Beacon Hill neighborhood for many years but for some reason, I don't remember the Charles Street jail. It's not a place I walked by everyday but I'm certainly taking note of it now that it's been turned into the fabulously chic Liberty Hotel.


There will be iron bars on the first two floors of the building, including the ballroom. The prison guard catwalks, which once flanked the cell blocks, now overlook the lobby and were described by the new owner as a great place for people watching...although now they probably won't have guns pointed at you this time.

Completed in 1851 by the architect Gridley James Fox Bryant on a site at the foot of Beacon Hill, the Charles Street Jail is a national, state and city landmark. The designation obligated the developers to keep such details as the bars, shown above, on the first and second floors. The sleeping arrangements will be a bit more hospitable than previously as well. There will be 18 guestrooms in the old building shown below and 300 more rooms available in a new tower adjoining the old jail building.

While the rooms in the old jail have exposed brick and bars, the rooms in the new tower are not reflective of the jail except for references in interior design, as in the imprints of jail bars on the custom draperies below. Let's just hope they updated the bathrooms too!

Photos by Erik Jacobs

sofa table from salvaged ikea table legs

erika chapin, editor of cribcandy and popgloss sends me this gorgeous sofa table made from bamboo plywood and salvaged imfors legs. love love love the simple sleek lines.

"my husband and i found 2 imfors tables at a yard sale last month for $15.00 each. he took a 3/4 inch 4x10 sheet of amber bamboo plywood and cut it straight down the middle, lightly sanded and finished with a clear coat. he then used all six of the legs from the imfors table to create this perfect sofa table for our low leather sofa."

shelf and brackets make a cool coffee table

if you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll may have noticed that i shiny stuff. so i'm loving the look of this stainless steel coffee table. adriano tells me that it's his first attempt at hacking ikea too. not bad at all.

"i made a coffee table out of a mossby stainless steel shelf and, since i couldn't find any table legs i liked that were the size i needed, i ended up getting bjarnum shelf brackets and screwing them to the bottom of the shelf to use as the legs."

see more of adriano's stainless steel coffee table on flickr.

james' minimalist desk - get the how to!

after the rave reviews on his minimalist work and music station, james created a how-to pdf for us diy hungry folks. thanks james! we are eternally grateful.

i've uploaded it to scribd and embedded the file below (scroll down to view entire pdf and move the slider to zoom in) or go to this link to view and download a copy.

enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!