Seeing potential. Not everyone has this gift to see beyond an aged surface, weathered finishes, a far from perfect interior space, or even damaged furnishings.

Is there anything more ubiquitous than the IKEA LACK series? I remember it being amongst my first purchases coming out of college, thanks to its neutral-modern design and affordable price. It’s no surprise it remains popular to this day for the same reason. Here’s an example of someone taking a me-too LACK and converting it into a me-only TV stand… I searched and searched for a TV table I could live with, and finally came across this cool Jetson-esque one at Logue Studio.

The IKEA MALM is amongst the most popular of the Swedish retailer’s line of home furnishings, ubiquitous for the series’ simple lines and wallet-friendly price. In other words, perfect for anyone with a little ingenuity, wood-working tools, and plans for a DIY transformation. Can you guess what this common IKEA chest of drawers was converted into?

Not only does this IKEA Hacker project by Huib von Essen reuse and refresh three discontinued IKEA BOALT CD racks, but the solution even incorporates 15 clear empty CD cases as transparent shelves for displaying small items (on a related note, CD racks installed horizontally also work great as toy shelving/display) …and you know you’ve got at least a few of those empty cases laying around somewhere.

She saw the late 1960’s couch sitting there at the local thrift shop, covered in a yellow satin paisley flower patterned fabric which she immediately deemed “very not cool”. Yet something about the style spoke to her as “hella fabulous” (her words, not mine).

After careful deliberation, my girlfriend recently decided to say farewell to hour long bus commutes to pursue some promising freelance opportunities and work from home. The bad news? We only have one home office space between us in our modest sized one bedroom apartment (and in reality it’s only the smallest of converted closet spaces).When space is at a premium, dining tables can easily become serviceable desks. The challenge is keeping it organized for dual duty.

I might belong to the last generation who grew up using these touch tone style handset telephones (aka, the Trimline). I see them pop up regularly at thrift stores, yard sales, and on eBay. They’re commonly found stored away in garages, attics, and closets, disconnected and forgotten.

Coltography’s closet home office was already a space efficient and streamlined affair, with cables and wires thoughtfully routed through the wall from PC to a trio of wall-mounted screens. But with improvement in mind, this industrious gent set out to eke out even more usable desk space with an impressive modification merging desk with computer… As a person with a tiny room, I have used my closet as my desk space.

What happens when you find yourself in need of an area to call an “office”, but the layout and/or space inside your home doesn’t offer delineated work and live boundaries? That’s the issue general contractor Tim Logsdon faced when helping set up a home office in Atlanta, Georgia for a novelist who needed somewhere to write.

Who hasn’t owned an IKEA EXPEDIT shelving unit at one time or another? These shelves are to storage like Keds and Vans are to sneakers: basic, affordable, and available in plain white. But maybe you’ve had one for awhile now and are itching to change things up and customize it with a little more character beyond the plain old white finish. Check out how one EXPEDIT owner hacked his cabinet into something with more rugged character.

Drop by IKEA’s as-is section, any thrift store, Goodwill, or yard sale, and you’ll eventually run into one of these wooden slat bed bases.

The compact shape, characteristic midcentury tapered wooden legs, and bargain price all caught Shannon’s eagle eyes at a yardsale, immediately convincing her this worn and roughened desk had yet another life to live in her living room after a serious makeover…I decided that a fun dose of bright color was just what it needed to really come to life!

On those unbearably hot days I really need to turn on our apartment’s window air conditioner I’m certainly thankful I installed it. But for the majority of the year the air conditioner is an unsightly presence, blocking a third of the view looking outside our windows and keeping desirable light from entering…A Brooklyn designer decided it was time to give eyesore window air conditioners a visual makeover.

From what I’ve seen at garage and yard sales, bookshelf speakers are amongst the most common audio gear components readily available for DIY projects on the cheap. And how many of us have old audio speakers gathering dust in a closet or in the garage?

It might have been wrong to refer to a cheat sheet in high school calculus class, but nobody is going to blame you for not being able to identify all of the various types of fasteners, screw heads, drive types, nut and washer styles available today.I ran into this Fastener Type Chart created by Bolt Depot while trying to identify a mystery drive shape used to fasten a part I wanted to remove from a home office task chair (the extraneous piece kept hitting the wall in a narrow space).

For most apartment and home owners, the idea of a dedicated media room is wishful thinking. Usually a basement, spare bedroom, or in this case, the living room has to be designated for home entertainment purposes. But that doesn’t necessarily mean having to settle for “as-is”.

DIY desks are becoming a more common sight these days, but desks like rrim’s beautifully executed bi-level birch and pine desk designed for three displays and a water-cooled PC is far from the norm. Hours upon hours of “sanding and staining and clear-coating” resulted in a space efficient and cable-hiding piece worth showcasing… rrim’s Spec’s List: CPU: Intel i7 980x @ 4.

What started off as a worn down circa 1960’s stereo cabinet was converted into an impressive yesterday-meets-tomorrow media PC capable of storing their 50,000 song library.

My philosophy about technology in the home is akin to a strict private school headmaster’s opinion about children: technology should neither be seen nor heard until required/requested. Even though Apple’s Airport router is fairly benign aesthetically, I prefer to keep the wireless router tucked inside a floating shelf, next to other blinking light culprits like the cable modem and home security system, a trio of otherwise mismatched clutter if left out all together.

Like many of us, Weiya was searching for an affordable solution for her storage woes, searching for a piece which could work as a landing strip for her personal belongings (keys, diaper bag, etc), while also provide additional storage underneath, and surface area for her laptop.