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Before & After: MacBook Dye Project

Gregory Han
Gregory Han
A Los Angeles native, Gregory’s interests fall upon the relationship between design, nature, and technology. His resume includes art director, toy designer, and design writer. Co-author of Poketo's "Creative Spaces: People, Homes, and Studios to Inspire", you can find him regularly at Design Milk and the New York Times Wirecutter. Gregory lives with his wife Emily and their two cats—Eames and Eero—in Mt. Washington, California, curiously investigating the entomological and mycological.
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updated Mar 11, 2020
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Got an outdated white Apple MacBook? Here’s a surprising customization project utilizing RIT fabric dye to give the MacBook’s polycarbonate case a whole new colorful life. Considering how expensive professional custom paint jobs cost and the outdated state of these models, we’re pretty impressed with the project’s results…

Get a pan (An inch or so deep, if possible.), and fill it with water (4 cups of water per packet, 8 cups.) Add two boxes of RIT dye of the color of your choice into the water. Add 2 tbsp of table salt into the water and stir. Place pan onto your stove, and heat. (Make sure the pan is stove safe.) As the water starts to boil, place your dye part into the bath. (If you’re dyeing the display bezel, keep the flame as low as possible to avoid warping the bezel.) Add water as necessary, it will boil away quite quickly.

It took about 45 minutes for the lid and bottom case to become saturated with the orange. For darker colors (Navy Blue, Scarlet, Black, Pine Green) more time may be required.

We’re tempted to give this a try, as we’ve got a slightly worn for wear white MacBook that could live another day with some new fashionable duds. And the project is a great reminded fabric dyes can be used to revitalize an assortment of items out there.

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(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

Check out the complete DIY instructions for the Macbook Dye Project over at BrainDeadLock Labs.

Images: BrainDeadLock Labs

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