Play Kitchen... REVEALED!

Can you even believe it? I cannot. Baldy is blogging. Don't even know where to begin with the goingson since the last entry one million years ago. Here's the heavily abbreviated version. Christmas came. I made a toy box for my nephew. January came, and we had our second baby- sweet baby Nate. We made room in our house by adding a new bedroom for Claire (see above). I made her a little table, and a kitchenette which I guess is going to get some love here today. Goes like this:

My mom-in-law had these leftover white shelves and molding from an Ikea entertainment center that she gave me. Pa and I just got done building a murphy bed (did I mention I've been busy making murphy beds too?), so we had a bunch of deck screws left over. There was a bit of leftover 1/2 inch plywood from the toy box, so I threw all that into the kitchenette stew.

Some neighbors down the street were throwing out some stuff, and I snagged this corkboard off their driveway, and tacked it to the back of the kitchen. I also had this leftover radiator grill material that I used to make a table lamp, and it magically transformed into the oven door pretty well.

Besides a couple leftover handles and an old towel rack we had lying around, the hinges, spigot knobs, plumbing parts and the oven burner cover/sink all were purchased from the hardware store down the street.

My mom-in-law lives down the street from an Ikea, so I swung by there to pick up the little pots and pans, as well as 4 mouse pads/burners that I saw someone else use when they made their own play kitchen. Claire's pretty into it. Not really in the traditional way I guess, but more in the "Let's-rip-off-the-sink-and-drop-food-down-the-hole-and-retrieve-it-from-the-cabinet" sort of way. Sometimes she puts her fancy lady attire in the kitchen. I'd like she'll still be doing the same thing in about 25 years.

What, am I NOT going to put a picture of this new addition in this post? I'm NOT gonna NOT! More posts to come??? We shall see!

Industrial Designin & Porch Sittin

I got me a sweet email from Oscar over at the Behance Network saying that my pendant lamp is on their Industrial Design Served site they developed, "to further showcase the best projects in the Behance Network, within specific industries." Hi there. Chad Kelly- Industrial Designer. Anyway, my lamp is easin' its way down the list as fellow industrial designers git recognized.



In some much needed nonlamp news, Julie and I picked up these swank new chairs for our bare front porch.



We went to Ikea to get some sweet solar lights for the new landscaping but they are sold out and don't show signs of getting any in, SOOOOOOO... in order to not lose my mind for driving way out there on mother's day for not, we hit the "As Is" section, and saw these Ostero Chairs that appeared too good lookin to be there. We asked, "what the hay with these chairs?" and were told they were floor models and are marked down 30%.

Nowadays, I get to sit out on the front porch after a nice morning walk with Claire and Chester, and wave at the cute college girls as they go by, who are smiling in my general direction... I'm assuming it's because of my ripped body glistening in the sunlight, and not the cute baby in my lap or the sweet dog at my feet.

wood veener pendant lamp- ALIVE!

So, I'm silently typing, as we've, possibly dumbly, put the crib in the same room as the computer. It definitely cuts back on me watching Cramps videos on you tube (R.I.P. Lux Interior). Anyway, on wit the show.



So I figured out a way to hang this lampshade pendant style, which really makes the most sense personally.

This week was my first time to Callahan's General Store, where I found me some parts that were never made to be attached to a mod pendant lamp, but that I purchased anyway.. and the old guys reminded me of my bros at Breed & Co.

I'm hoping this guy will sell on Etsy. We'll see.

This shot is kind of funny b/c I've taken down the old fam reunion frame that spans across that wall, put up my fave jennski pic in a really weird (some would deem creative) spot up against the door trim, and you can see my extra wire on one side and me actual ikea light on the other. Here's to not cropping!!! CLINK! Get your baldwoodencreation soon!

How Universal is this Base? Infinitely.

So I bought me a Herman Miller universal base at a garage sale… looks like the one on this chair here… (if I wasn’t so lazy, I’d take a pic of the one I got, but…) the dood I bought it from had lots of cool furniture, and repurposed different things. He used a base like this and built a large round coffee table.



Anyway, the other day whilst peepin Jenn Ski’s blog, she talked about her Ikea Alex drawers, and found pics of other’s Alex drawers, and she brought up these from ikeahacker that I saw long ago, and forgot about. Purty cool way to use that base that’s stone cold chillin in the garage currently. Hmmmm….

IKEATTACK!

So Ma and Pa Baldman came to Austin for a visit, and asked if they could help make our house look nice. We let em help us with the... fun. First, Julie told my mom they were going to add some glass tiles, leftover from our backsplash, to the unfinished Norbo table we got from IKEA. Now the table matches the rest of the kitchen, and is cooler than painting or staining it. Grrrl power. Wham. Done.




We wanted to have a hanging light over the table, but there wasn't one to begin with, so we couldn't have it hardwired without calling an electrician. Luckily for us, IKEA has plugs at the end of some of their hanging pendant lamps. We picked ours up for 20 bucks, and can't find it online anymore, but there are a bazillion to choose from. Instead of having the light hang from ceiling hooks, and plug it into the wall outlet, we we took a different approach, and Pa brought his 1 inch boring bit with him. We drilled into the ceiling, and plugged the lamp into an outlet in the attic that the vent hood was using. We first plugged the light into this little white box... a contraption called The Lightning Switch.




The Lightning Switch is this wireless transmitter that is basically a remote control for whatever you plug into an outlet. Not as wicked as The Clapper, but the same general idea. I didn't want to have the toggle ON/OFF switch on the wall, so it's tucked under the table. And it doesn't even run on batteries... just fairy dust and magic.




Now Julie and I have light shining down upon us as we eat our Honey Nut Clusters and Cinnamon Life respectively.

Hack it!

Got a Eurway catalog the other day with this media storage center job in it. 459 smakkas. Brah, I fold. My fave new place to go these days is Ikea Hackers. They take your basic ikea treasure, soup it up, and presto change o, you have a unique piece all your own that is not only cooler than your average ikea piece, but you still have mad cash to burn.

I followed these fairly explicit directions that hacked an Ikea Lack Shelving Unit, spiced it up with some Capita legs, and ended up with this little marvel that now presides in our living room.


Saved ourselves about 300 bucks... And the remote works through the opaque doors. Holla!