Archive Category: Home & Garden
Best Pool Table EVAR!
All right. So John Farrier has posted a couple of really cool pool tables. The first one is Deep Green, a pool-playing robot created by the robotics lab of Queen’s University in Canada. The second one is the $200,000 Obscura CueLight Pool Table that creates an interactive image using an overhead projector.
Well, fie! The first two rounds belong to you, John. But in this game of Neatorama one upmanship, I’m compelled regain top dog status and post a pool table to beat ‘em all.
Behold, the Snooker Sofa, created by Accrington upholsterer and UK pool table maker Riley in the 1970s.
Can your pool table transform into a sofa, John? Just look at that beauty and weep: Link
Note: And yes, you may have seen this one round the Net back a couple of months ago, and was on eBay (since then it’s been out of eBay).
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Eco-Friendly Steam Dishwasher
Washing dishes in a full-loaded dishwasher without pre-rinsing saves water (particularly expensive hot water) over washing by hand. This steam dishwasher designed by Vincent Liew saves even more water and energy!
As the title suggests, this dishwasher uses pressurized steam to dislodge food particles on dishes and sanitize them. A hearty rinse after the cleaning process gives you squeaky clean dishes!
Now for the Eco-friendly part. Since no detergents are used, there is less of “ozone depleting solvents” going around. The water used in the steam and rinsing is collected in the recycling bay and using “Membrane Technology” (read more info on this here), the grime and food particles are separated from the water. The clean water is recycled to be used again for the next wash.
Contaminated water, too harsh for reusing is discarded via an outlet and only then is a fresh load of water consumed.
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Illusion Table by John Brauer
Love, love, love this Illusion side table by designer John Brauer of Essey – the table is handmade from acrylic to look like a draped tablecloth! Design Year Book has more pics: Link – via FreshBump
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Oh Snap! Cheese Board Disguised as a Giant Mousetrap
Oh, Snap! Mousetrap Cheese Board and Slicer
Somebody finally built a "cheddar" mousetrap! Here’s the perfect "bait" to entice people to come to your next party: a giant 9" x 5" beechwood cheeseboard with a stainless steel cheese slicer shaped like a giant mousetrap. Available for $17.95 at the Neatorama Shop: Link
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Not Your Typical Low-Income Housing
Discarded frame samples become ceilings, license plates become roofs, wine bottle bottoms become stained glass windows… Dan Phillips is a self-taught carpenter, electrician and plumber who has created an unusual connection between two seemingly unrelated problems: The shortage of affordable housing in his neighborhood and the plethora of junk and discarded materials filling landfills.
“Look at kids playing with blocks. I think it’s in everyone’s DNA to want to be a builder. …You can’t defy the laws of physics or building codes,but beyond that, the possibilities are endless”
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Nature Reclaiming Abandoned Houses in Detroit
Across many cities in the United States, hundreds of thousands of foreclosed and abandoned homes turned some neighborhoods into urban blight … but nowhere is the effect as acutely felt as in Detroit.
Sweet Juniper blog has an interesting post about how nature is now reclaiming some of those abandoned houses. They use the description "feral houses," which given the condition they are in, seem very appropriate:
I’ve seen "feral" used to describe dogs, cats, even goats. But I have wondered if it couldn’t also be used to describe certain houses in Detroit. Abandoned houses are really no big deal here. Some estimate that there are as many as 10,000 abandoned structures at any given time, and that seems conservative. But for a few beautiful months during the summer, some of these houses become "feral" in every sense: they disappear behind ivy or the untended shrubs and trees planted generations ago to decorate their yards. The wood that framed the rooms gets crushed by trees rooted still in the earth. The burnt lime, sand, gravel, and plaster slowly erode into dust, encouraged by ivy spreading tentacles in its endless search for more sunlight.
Previously on Neatorama: 100 Abandoned Houses (also in Detroit)
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Hangman Light
Designed by Ji-youn Kim, this hanging lamp can shed light in the darkness, but probably won’t make you feel any more secure. What a conversation piece! Link -via Coolest Gadgets
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12 Eggscellent Things You Can Do with Eggshells
Eggshells are a wonder of nature. They are the perfect packaging for bird babies and the food they need. Eggshells are full of calcium. And they have a great many uses after you take the yolk and the white out. I put all my eggshells in the compost as a matter of habit. I didn’t know they were also good for repelling bugs and deer, and I certainly have never thought of putting them in the coffee! Find twelve ways to use eggshells at The Daily Green. Link -via Digg
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Glue Toilet Paper Dispenser
This toilet paper dispenser looks like a giant tube of glue! No need to squeeze this tube, just pull the toilet paper out. The back end is sealed with Velcro, so you can easily add more paper. Link -via Unique Daily
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Match and Matchbox Designs
Pull a petal off this lovely flower and you have a light! If you play “he loves me, he loves me not,” be careful not to get burned. It’s just one of a collection of artful and innovative matchboxes at Crooked Brains. Who knew there were so many odd and unusual ways to package matches? Link
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| Neatorama Shop » Home & Garden » Dishware, Drinkware & Flatware | ||
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Glow In the Dark Toilet Paper
Sadly, this product is currently out of stock — toilet paper always runs out at the worst possible moment. But when it’s available again, it will shine a light into the darker recesses of your bathroom. Normally on sale for £4.99.
Link via Nerd Approved
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Food Face Kid's Dinner Plate
Food Face Kid’s Dinner Plate – $9.95 each
If your kid doesn’t find dinner time enjoyable, maybe this will help make meals fun: Food Face Kid’s Dinner Plate. The plate has a picture of a face that your kid can decorate with food. Pasta hair, mashed potato beards, and string bean eyebrows – the possibilities are endless!
Check out the plate as well as our growing list of neat dishware, drinkware and flatware over at the Neatorama Online Shop: Link
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Shark Beanbag Chair
Oh, I want one of these! Sit down in a shark’s open mouth to enjoy the latest marine nature documentary on TV. $19.95, beans not included. Link -via Unique Daily
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Recycled Shipping Containers Transformed Into Trendy Homes
Who would have thought that shipping containers could be used in making beautiful homes? In this post at Green Diary, blogger Aditi Justa explored 10 of the most interesting homes (and structures) built with recycled shipping containers.
Take, for instance, the Redondo Beach Container House:
The Redondo Beach House is an architecturally designed shipping container based contemporary house to suit your site and lifestyle.
The award-winning De Maria Design’s luxury beachside house was constructed using eight prefabricated, recycled steel shipping containers, which are integrated with some traditional building techniques.
Built on modern lines, the sleek and elegant building is resistant to fire, mold and termites. About 70 percent of this affordable construction was assembled in a shop making it inexpensive, time-efficient and resource-efficient.
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Musical Tea Pot Plays Your Tune
This musical kettle is designed by Naoki Kawamoto in an effort to “redesign soundscape.” It will play your favorite tune when things get heated up and begin boiling.
Link Via BoingBoing
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The Upside Down Forest
At the 50-acre Glacier Gardens in Alaska, designers added an unusual flair by uprooting more than twenty hemlock and spruce trees, flipping them over, and using the trunks as natural flower pots:
During the rehabilitation process, Steve was developing the lower landscaped gardens using a large piece of rented equipment to arrange the masses of soil, roots, plants, trees, and rock dragged down the mountain during the landslide. During the last few hours of equipment rental, the equipment was damaged while moving a large boulder. This boulder has become known as “Steve’s Rock” and is the centerpiece of one of the many waterfalls flowing through Glacier Gardens. Full of frustration about the large repair bill he was sure to see, he used the equipment to pick up a large tree stump and slammed the inverted stump into the ground trunk first. The tree stuck into the soft mud upside down and as the roots hung like the vines of a petunia basket, it only took moments before he had a vision of how to recycle the trees cleared from the development of the property: The Upside Down “Flower Towers.” Each flower tower is made by inverting spruce or hemlock trees with the root ball pointing towards the sky. The stock of the trunk buried 5-7 ft, netting on top, mosses laid down, and nearly 75 – 100 plants planted every year for guest enjoyment.
Official Website via Urlesque (where there are many marvelous pictures)
Image by flickr user John & Peggy Bromley used under creative commons license
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Toilet Paper Tube Faces
Artist Junior Fritz Jacquet crumples and folds toilet paper rolls until they make faces displaying anguish, happiness, disgust and more. Once they’re folded right, he adds just a bit of color to help bring out their color and then they’re ready to go.
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Human Flypaper
This anti-burglar mat works just like flypaper! Leave the super sticky mat inside your doorway when you leave or go to bed. If a burglar breaks in, he will be confounded and frustrated. He will probably free himself, but won’t be interested in whatever else he thinks you might have in store for him. What could possibly go wrong?
Of course on the other hand that might just make them angry and want to tear up the place a bit, in addition to robbing you.
The anti-burglar mat will be on sale in Japan this fall. Link -via J-walk Blog
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ZeroEdge Aquarium
It’s a good thing that I’ve completely given up on aquariums (mine was cheekily named "The Last Stop Before Fish Heaven"), because this one by ZeroEdge is absolutely gorgeous. With its overflowing water, it’s what you get when you cross an infinity edge pool with an aquarium … Link
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AT-AT Bed
(YouTube link)
I thought I was going overboard by painting my kids’ furniture weird colors. This guy built a Star Wars AT-AT Imperial Walker for his son to sleep in! The interior is accessible by ladder and by the ‘escape hatch”. -via Boing Boing
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| Neatorama Shop » Computer & Office » Road Mice | |
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Why settle for a boring computer mouse when you can surft in style with Road Mice, a cool wireless computer mouse that looks just like the car of your dreams? Road Mice is available in various Chevy, Chrysler, Dodge, and Ford models including the popular Dodge Viper shown to the left. It's the perfect gift for the auto-enthusiast in your life! |
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Cat Ladders
Here’s a blog that collects and displays cat ladders from all over the world -and there are plenty, with a variety of useful designs. The ladder shown was found in France. Link -via Metafilter
(image credit: Lara Craft)
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Cthulhu Weinie Roaster
Keep your dogs off the charcoal in style with this Cthulhu hot dog roaster from Roast My Weenie. Only $35, a bargain for diehard Cthulhu fans. Link -via Foolish Gadgets
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Storage Barn by Gray and Organschi Architecture
This ain’t your father’s backyard shed – take a look at Storage Barn, a workshop and storage facility designed by Elizabeth Gray and Alan Organschi of the firm Gray and Organschi Architecture. The spatial arrangement of the storage area around the outside of the building gives it a fascinating texture:
The building serves as a dimensionally economical and energy efficient storage rack for heavy materials, in which tightly packed and palletized stone and wood are stored in a flexible external shelving system that allows access to any pallet in any position on the rack without disturbing others around it.
Link – via Dinosaurs and Robots
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Style Your Garage
Style Your Garage is a German company that makes photorealistic tarps to cover your plain boring garage door. Instead of a closed door, passers-by will see something special, like an expensive sports car, an airplane, a wine cellar, a fancy room interior, or even a giant alligator that appears to be in your garage! Link -Thanks, Holistic CPA!
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Tree Top House
I’ve always been obsessed with tree houses, probably because I never had one. That being said, I couldn’t stop looking at these bizarre structures at the very tippy-top of the trees. For more cool tree houses, check out the rest of those on the Now That’s Nifty post of Amazing and Awesome Tree Houses.
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i.Saw, For Sawing At Work
Are you the type of person who needs a USB-charged chainsaw? Well then you need therapy…but if you must go through with your psychotic plans, there’s always the i.Saw for home and office needs.
Methinks this may be a gag listing, but if not, I’m sincerely disturbed by the distance we have gone with these USB toys.
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Boogie Man Rug
Afraid of monsters under the bed? Your fears are confirmed when you have this rug from Jellio in your bedroom!
Place it under your child’s bed and they’re sure to have the coolest room on the block. Or just place it in the middle of a room to reveal a monster who’s actually a little afraid of you.
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Ugliest Product of the Year Contest
The Oops Design Awards have taken it upon themselves to do something that should have been done a long time ago -they have created an award for the ugliest, silliest and most useless product designs of the year. As you may have guessed, the lamp above is in the running for ugliest. It is the Oswine Lamp designed by Johanness Hemann. The nominees gallery actually has a few items I like, but for the most part it’s brimming with hillariously hideous items.
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Solar Birdhouse
Even our fine feathered friends are getting into alternative energy! This birdhouse design from Studio Oooms has a solar panel on the roof, and a translucent perch that lights up at night. The idea is that the light will attract bugs that the bird can feast upon. Genius! Link -via J-Walk Blog
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Geek Rug Mimics Circuit Board
This latch hook rug was obviously made by a computer nerd. On the page is an image of the circuit board it is based on -it’s amazingly well-replicated.
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| Neatorama Shop » Computer & Office » Road Mice | |
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Why settle for a boring computer mouse when you can surft in style with Road Mice, a cool wireless computer mouse that looks just like the car of your dreams? Road Mice is available in various Chevy, Chrysler, Dodge, and Ford models including the popular Dodge Viper shown to the left. It's the perfect gift for the auto-enthusiast in your life! |
See more Road
Mice » |
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