Next up in our tour of Small Cool 2008 tech is Mathew Melis' pad in Los Angeles, where a tea cart was repurposed as a peripheral pad...
Look! Best Tech in Small Cool 2008 -- Part 4
Melis' office used to live on his desk. Then he discovered the versatility of the tea cart.
When he invested in a large format printer he needed more space and needed space in both the front and back for printing large posters. Melis went looking for something with wheels so he could accommodate both sides of his new gadget.
"I can't remember where I got the idea for a tea cart, I might have just come across one when I was browsing furniture online or at the flea market. It took me a while to find one that fit the large printer and had more than two shelves. I eventually found it on Craigslist."
His tea cart-turned-peripheral center holds a large format printer on the bottom, a VCR in the middle and scanner on top. "I'll probably get rid of the VCR soon," Melis says. "It's the last remnant of my TV owning days that ended last year when I got the iMac. When it's gone I'll probably put my CD/stereo on that shelf -- another thing that my computer has mostly taken over, but I still like to have a non-computer CD player handy sometimes."
His stereo for now is a vintage Electrohome turntable. 
According to Melis, Ellectorhome is "a Canadian audio company that created some beautiful designs in the 60s and 70s. They're less well known than Weltron so their prices are better (minus shipping from Canada)."
He previously had a larger model with satellite speakers, but his smaller apartment forced him to get something more compact. He found his current version on eBay, and, "to play off the circular shape and the faded white/yellow I found a similarly faded Kartell to use as a stand (and more storage)."
Melis also has Electrohome speakers on his office table (they're the lamp looking things flanking his monitor).
"One of the speakers doesn't work so well," says Melis. "And neither sound very good at the moment, but I plan on keeping the cases and replacing the speakers inside to act as my computer speakers. Modern quality in vintage style would be a winning combination." We couldn't agree more.
Tags
Look!, organizing, turntables, cd & digital music players, shelving & storage, dvd & video, printers, peripherals, home office, tea cart, small cool 2008, large format printer, peripheral centerRelated Links
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Does Matt get a prize? His mixture of the vintage and the tech has always inspired me. (we're neighbors.)
view pudgy-girl's profile
I just used that VCR for the first time in months (years?) last night.
A bit of a smallest/coolest contest emergency, I'd lost my firewire cable and needed to get my apartment video from my camcorder to the computer. I had to connect my camcorder to my VCR and my VCR to my computer through a coaxial/usb adapter I have.
So maybe I won't give away the VCR quite yet.
view thew's profile
I love old tanker desks - I've got one in my office, but I can't find one for my home that isn't either a wreck or doesn't cost a small fortune. I like that chair you've got with it, too.
view sine nomine's profile
Hey, I have that exact same desk chair. I got it from my mother in law when the college she worked at was getting rid of dozens of them. We saved one, but I think the rest were trashed. I really like the apt. and we are currently looking for a desk very similar to the one pictured.
view sar3j's profile