apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

You know the ones I am talking about? The little plastic chairs with the chrome frame and a writing surface built into it? The Tempo chair designed by Andrea Ruggiero reminds us of that but with flexibility in seating positions and more style of course.

Picture a bunch of these all over a cork board above your desk. While the design really just makes the common push pin more effective (dual prong so that papers don't spin around), we like the idea of getting strange glances from people wondering why there are outlets haphazardly scattered around the wall.

Here is another use for the Ikea Vika Inge legs...if you are in need of speaker stands. A few days ago, Peter showed us how to use these legs to build a desk and now David Kan changes the scale for some pretty nice looking speakers stands over at Ikea Hacker.

If you can't beat 'em, join em. Or maybe 'if you've got it flaunt it' is a more appropriate phrase. While we tend to spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to hide our TV's, an easier, and probably cheaper option is to try and blend it into the room.

If you haven't given up on the wall decal thing, over at Geeksugar, they have a nice example of blending a wall mount TV with surrounding and matching black wall decals.

What do you think? Anyone else out there doing something similar and want to share? In the mean time, here are some other examples of decorating with your TV.

-via Geeksugar

When Apple recently announced their super slim aluminum keyboard there was a lot of love for the new design. On the flip side, there were also some who thought the low profile keys would be difficult to use and yearned for a more retro style keyboard with 'you are damn sure you hit the key because you can hear it across the room' type feedback.

Are manufacturers finally tiring of black TV frames? Sony has the colorful, albeit small Bravia KLV-20s400 and now Samsung has their 'touch of color' LCD's.

I have a network hard drive attached to my Aiport Extreme and both of them sit on a shelf amongst books and other various objects. While the hard drive doesn't really look that bad, (it is a black anodized Guardian Maximus from OWC) it still looks like a hard drive. If your space dictates that you have a hard drive sitting out in your main living area, you may want to avoid having to constantly see and more importantly hear a spinning hard drive.

Naoto Fukasawa comes through with another beauty. A self contained landing strip, the 'light with a dish' encompasses a daily ritual in a small and simple package. What do you usually do when you walk into your place?

Now that you have spent all that time ripping your entire cd collection, what to do with the leftover discs? Of course you can recycle them, or even use them as coasters, but if you still have turntables kicking around there is another interesting option.

Image from Etsy seller haworth

We rarely ever read the newspaper. Since we sit in front of a computer for most of the day, all the news we could want is at our fingertips. What we do miss though is the feeling of flipping through pages and pulling out articles to come back and read at a later time.

I'm on a bit of a wood thing today. Furni design, the Montral makers of the Alba clock have a new one coming up, the Knox.

For whatever reason I am always misplacing the charger for my cell phone. Partly because I don't like having it laying out looking messy when it is not being used and partly because I unplug it to avoid using unnecessary electricity. Why I can't just put it away in the same place every time is beyond me. To solve my organizational shortcomings when it comes to my chargers, Kangaroom has the ideal solution.

Would you want to know what radio station your friend is listening to right now? Neither would I, but it seems the BBC thinks so. The Olinda concept is intended to bring social networking to hardware other than your computer.

Just when you thought that there could not be another iPod dock, another iPod dock shows up. Well, technically since the X-light washbasin can connect to any MP3 player, it is not strictly an iPod dock, but it sure is one unique way to get tunes in the bathroom.

Forget those plastic or metal mesh desk organizers. Walnut and felt is where it's at. While the materials are definitely notable, it is the modularity and adjustability that make this the ideal desktop organizer.

When I was shopping for a laptop sleeve I wanted a case that provided protection but was still light and minimal. I ended up going with a neoprene sleeve. After using that for a while, I realized that is wasn't as practical as I originally thought.

We have seen a home office hidden in a Pax wardrobe before but it is always good to see other interpretations of an idea.

Keeping with our May theme of organizing, Ikeahacker shows us how a Pax wardrobe was split between storage and workspace. On one side you have shelving for books and office supplies, on the other side you have all the office bits like the monitor, keyboard and PC tower. The addition of the pull out drawer as a keyboard tray here is a nice improvement. Now you don't have to sit inside the wardrobe to work on your computer.

-via Ikea Hacker

This would be the perfect kids room lamp, except for the fact that a kid today will have no idea what this is. You either have to love Duck Hunt or have a great deal of extra time on your hands to put this together, but nevertheless, you have to admire the attention to detail and execution.

The picture above is the result of regular Wii Sports action, but opinion still seems to be split on whether the Wii Fit could be a viable replacement for going to the gym.

Who knew that keyboard shortcuts could be cool and funny. The perfect office, cube, workspace decor.

Thanks,
Cecily

"Wireless whole-home HD connectivity with quality equivalent to that achieved with HDMI" is what the press release says. By pairing a wireless transmitter with a receiver that comes built in to the X-series line of TV's, options around where you can place your TV have suddenly become much more flexible.

While we have seen lighting that stripped the fixture down to just the wire and bulb before, these tangled wire lamps from designer Kwangho Lee bring that idea to an entirely different level.