A Stone Farmhouse With Room to Roam By: Grace Bonney

I always wonder, when it comes to older homes, what the original owners would think of the present-day families living inside. I imagine some of them would be surprised to see how we live and decorate today, but when it comes to this beautiful stone house in Western Massachusetts, I feel confident that the original owners would be thrilled to know who is living there now.

Artist Emily Billings and software engineer Max Shay recently moved from a small, fifth-floor apartment in Boston to the tiny town of Cummington, MA (population 800), where they now rent an incredible home with a rich artistic history. Their new house used to be the home of The Cummington Press (an influential literary printing company) and the Cummington School of the Arts, which housed artists like Diane Arbus, Helen Frankenthaler, Willem de Kooning from the 1930s until the 1990s. The basement still holds the remnants of a darkroom and the main house originally held both a printing press and a photo studio. The barn next to the house dates back to the 1800s and once held the school’s painting studios and wood shop and a tiny building deep in the property’s woods was once devoted entirely to sculpting. The home’s history of such incredible creative energy and talent makes it the perfect place for a young, artistic couple to work and live.

Emily and Max are taking their time decorating their space and are excited to let their home evolve as they live there. Their goal is to fill their space enough to make it welcoming and comfortable, but not too much to distract from the architectural details and history of the home. I can only imagine how inspiring those views are for both Emily and Max’s work and I’m thrilled that we get to take a peek inside such a special place today. xo, grace

Photographs by Max Shay

via Design*Sponge http://ift.tt/1IqUvPV From Grace Bonney

Climbing wall for cats By: IH guest

To give my indoor cats a new challenge I made them a climbing wall. It takes up very little space and could be fitted in any small room or apartment.

I attached an OSTED rug to the wall and made a perch above the door next to it. They can reach the perch by stepping through the open staircase or by climbing up the wall.

For the climbing wall you need:

1 OSTED rug, 80 x 240 cm (2’7″ x 7’10″)

at least 8 screw hooks

sturdy wire

For the perch you need:

2 EKBY LERBERG brackets

1 shelf

2 BORRIS doormats

screws to hang the shelf

First check to see if the rug fits between your floor and ceiling. I decided to attach it to the wooden plinth on the ceiling so I didn’t need to drill in the wall. If you can drill in the wall this might be sturdier. The rug itself is pretty heavy and you need to count in the weight of your cats, so make sure your connections can hold the weight. I screwed 6 screwhooks into the ceiling at regular intervals, to hang the rug from.

I then threaded some wire through the top end of the rug, right beneath the rim.

The stitches were about 4-5 cm wide. I then measured out where the rug would meet the hooks and at those points made a small loop in the wire that could fit over the hook. I then fitted these loops over the hooks so the rug now hung from the ceiling.

I decided to make some anchors on the bottom end so it doesn’t come off the wall when the cats hang onto it. To do this I screwed two more hooks in the plinth near the floor, open end down, and attached the bottom corners of the rug to these anchors with some more wire pulled tight. You might want to make more anchors, but for me 2 was enough.

I then made a perch near the top, so they had a destination to climb to.

To do this I hung two EKBY LERBERG brackets on the doorframe and laid a shelf over it.

It’s pretty strong, so it can hold our three cats.

To make sure they could grab onto the perch with their nails I covered the plank with some BORRIS doormats, cut to size. These I nailed onto the shelf. I then hung some toys from the top end of the rug to get their interest.

Our cats love it, I hope yours will too!

~ Rosa Sellies

The post Climbing wall for cats appeared first on IKEA Hackers.

via IKEA Hackers http://ift.tt/1GdQcbu From IH guest

TV bench with a personal touch By: IH guest

Materials: BYÅS TV bench

We saw a similar idea on Pinterest with a BESTÅ TV bench and applied it with a BYAS, the result was just what we wanted an original TV bench with our personal touch.

We used a wood board cut to size and apply varnish.

Total cost: 99+40=139€

~ Ana Gonçalves

The post TV bench with a personal touch appeared first on IKEA Hackers.

via IKEA Hackers http://ift.tt/1N49JNb From IH guest

Birch sock table By: IH guest

Materials: Galant table frame and Galant A-legs

First I painted the Galant table frame white. I took off adjustable parts from the Galant A-legs, lathed birch wood to 38mm and added all adjustable parts back to new birch legs. Only needed some threaded rods and bolts to get back to new legs. Table top is 18mm white laminated birch plywood. Simple, Scandinavian “design” table. It’s our dining table now, but if we gonna change that some day, we have a beautiful adjustable working table!

~ Jori

The post Birch sock table appeared first on IKEA Hackers.

via IKEA Hackers http://ift.tt/1N0gX4V From IH guest

Hello chalkboard! By: Jules IKEAHacker

Just wanted to post an update on the red wall.

It’s now a chalkboard (Nippon Satin Glo Crater Black).

Truth be told, I had a bit of painter’s remorse the few days after the red wall was gone. The room felt a tad darker and I wasn’t sure I had picked the right colour. And my furniture didn’t seem to go with the new scheme anymore. (That red chair has to got to go. Am thinking how to reupholster it?)

But it has grown on me and I am looking forward to doodling and writing my favourite poems on it. Give me some time, the rest of the room will slowly shift shape to melt into this new black.

From Jules’ blog

The post Hello chalkboard! appeared first on IKEA Hackers.

via IKEA Hackers http://ift.tt/1N1OTfz From Jules IKEAHacker

Mid Century Modern Besta Media Center By: IH guest

Materials: Besta Shelf unit/height extension units. 1 single and 1 double.

In need of a mid century modern style media center to match the rest of my home but at a price that was reasonable, I created a unit using 2 Ikea Besta height extension units.

I started off with a single unit and a double unit and connected them together using the same hardware that is used in the Akurum kitchen cabinets together (I had some left over from the kitchen but it can be obtained for free from the hardware cabinet at your local Ikea).

I also used heavy duty glue as an extra bonding agent between them.

Once connected I bought some unfinished sheets of stain ready aspen wood, enough to cover the top, sides, bottom of the Besta cabinets and some additional trim and support. I measured and cut the wood to exactly flush cover the outside perimeter of the cabinets but leaving extra overhang on the face and rear of the piece. Once I had the wood cut, I roughed the exterior of the Besta cabinets that would be covered and applied glue and then placed on the cover pieces one at a time. Once a cover piece was in place I inserted the proper length screws from the inside of the cabinet outward to also secure the wood in place and to avoid having any hardware show from the outside. The exception is that on the bottom of the piece I put the screws in from the outside since they are not visible. It is imperative to drill pilot holes for any and all screws you put into an Ikea cabinet. I repeated this step with the top, sides and bottom. Once completed I measured and centered a smaller piece of aspen, about 2/3s the size in area, on the bottom of the cabinet to correspond with the position I wanted the legs.

I used glue and screws to again secure. This provides extra support in the center of the cabinet and allows for longer screws to be used to mount the legs. Once this was done I took some old pencil legs and angled mounting plates that I found on a trashed piece of furniture. I cut them a little shorter, being cautious to keep them even and to angle cuts to correspond with the angled mounting brackets. I then secured brackets and pencil legs into place. At this point I took the unit outside and sanded it first with a 150 grit sand paper, then a second sanding with a 220 grit. I tape and papered off all the white Besta cabinet that was showing, front and back, to protect from stain and spray. I cleaned the wood with alcohol to remove any dirt and grease, then treated the exposed wood with a pre stain conditioner. Once dried I applied a light coat of “Special Walnut” stain, then went over it to highlight the grain with a “Dark Walnut”. Once this was dry I sprayed the wood with a semi gloss aerosol lacquer. Once all was dry I then drilled 4″ holes in the top center of each segment through the back cover for cords and wires. The extra wood overhang on the back is excellent for tacking down wires so none hang. This was my hack. It took me 3 days.

~ Rick Turner

The post Mid Century Modern Besta Media Center appeared first on IKEA Hackers.

via IKEA Hackers http://ift.tt/1GA3Wep From IH guest