We Have Upgraded!

Dear readers, thank you for your readership and support since I started this blog. The lack of posts recently is due to my attention being diverted to another project: dxyn.net

Yeah, Trick My Crib is now dxyn.net
dxyn = design

This blog will still be accessible for the time being as I continue working on our new site. Once 100% operational, I'll be putting a re-direct page to automatically send you over to our new crib.

Check us out for more great ideas!

A Shorty on Good Design

Good design doesn't have to be cutting edge or highly sophisticated, it just needs to be thoughtful. To this end I think IKEA deserves an honourable mention. But no, these tealight holders aren't from IKEA, they're by Form Us With Love also, incidentally, Swedish.

 Anyone who's ever tried lighting a tealight in a cup knows that this exercise can hurt. These are designed with a notch for a matchstick. In my book this is a "Why didn't I think of that" moment. 

Groovy Retro Car Sofa

Trick My Crib DXYN is all about inspiring you with the funkiest designs out there today, but outside of the Crib, my real passion is cars. And old cars. And this piece, the Sofa 600 by Bel & Bel Studio ticks all the boxes.



Check out the making of the Sofa 600 and more pix after the jump

DXYN/design Something in the pipe

Regulars to this blog would notice the change in the header. Without letting the cat out of the bag, something's brewing and change is a coming.

Follow this webspace.

Jenga House - No Floors, Walls or Ceilings

Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto set out to build the ultimate wooden house. It's pretty obvious where he got his inspiration from for this one. If you've never played Jenga, its about time you did.

While the exterior of this house may raise some eyebrows, or compel your inner O.C.D self to want to align all its chaotic surfaces, even more startling is the fact that this house has no floor, no walls, no ceiling and no furniture.

Sleek Minimalist Garden Chairs

In case you're looking for something a little different than the typical 'tropical style' teak wood garden furniture, this stuff may be for you. Apparently, they are very comfortable.

These zen designer garden chairs from Stephane Ducatteau are sculptural and functional at the same time, and would look truly pimp sitting on the front lawn of your modernist crib. I know I want one for mine.

Psychiatric Clinic with Twisted Interior Design

This is the seemingly stiff interior of the MD.net Clinic in Akasaka Tokyo. The black and white theme is all at once sombre, conservative and formal. Great for setting your mind straight you might think.


It has doors. Lots of doors...

...that do not open. WHAT?

Contemporary Wooden Outdoor Furniture

Apparently there were a couple of you guys who thought my fence sucked. In anycase, I can't help but think that the handmade Sunset Collection by Jonathan Stockton of UK would look great sitting in my front yard. And yes, because they match my fence.
 

Now here's the really trick part. They bling up at night with LED illumination in a single, or morphing colours, and with remote control capability. Sick huh. Wait till you hear the price.

Timber Fencing Construction with Resak Wood - Finale

Here it is, all done. I designed it to have no visible fasteners from the outside. I often think that in Malaysia, people spend big money getting contractors to build mega-bucks timber fences for them only to have the aesthetic spoilt by too many visible rivets/bolts. The devil's in the details.

The edges in the near side of the pic are irregular. It was intentional, and I wasn't sure how it would turn out. Either you like it or hate it.

Scratch-Building a Toaster.

When Thomas Thwaites scratch-builds a toaster, he doesn't mess around. In this case from scratch means mining the ore from which to get the iron from which to make the grill, the copper for the plug pins, nickel for the heater core and mica to wind the heater around. And yes, even sucking up some dino-oil from which to make the sleek plastic shell that dresses the crude innards of your average domestic toaster. Oh, you didn't know that plastic comes from dinosaurs?


This is just the intended goal. The blueprint on which the scratch-built toaster will be modeled upon.

Ultra Modern Bed

A good friend of mine asked where to buy a nice bed recently, so I decided I'd set the bar for just what should qualify as a 'nice bed'. Money being no object.

This number by Venturi Paris is a bit of a transformer. Converts from bed to lounge and something in between.

"Every morning there's a halo hanging from the corner of my girlfriend's four-post bed"

Modern Garden Shed Construction

Prominent illustrator David van Alphen builds himself a new garden shed from the ground up to use as his studio, all on a budget of USD3000. Full build story here

Organic Design Lounge Chair

I like this number from designer Erick Sakal. Very uber-modern.

House Renovation with Extreme Lattice Structure

Now I'm a fan of lattice structures. It gives your design a "now you see it now you don't" sort of vibe. I even designed our timber fence as a lattice structure. But this here house renovation project by Katsuhiro Miyamoto Architects just took the concept too far.

Now Tweeting

Twitter tab is now active, and I've finally taken up Tweeting.
Click to follow!

Surrealist Furniture

This stuff totally recalibrates your axes and spatial perception in a room. Rockingly trippy. Parallel World collection by Samal Dzmitry.

Timber Fencing Construction with Resak Wood - Epi. 5

Fabricated the extensions for the horizonal members to connect them to the steel upright. 21 pieces in all and a major pain in the back.

Sharp Microwave Oven

The latest and very essential addition to our kitchen... microwave oven from Sharp. Looks like it was made for its place.

Timber Fencing Construction with Resak Wood - Epi. 4

W.I.P Update... Installed some of the horizontal elements. Pretty straightforward... drill pilot hole, screw in stainless steel hex bolt.

Still need to finish the rest toward the bottom of the fence, and at the far end to connect to the other steel post.
Stay posted.

Timber Fencing Construction with Resak Wood - Epi. 3

Now that the old chainlink is down, we can move on to constructing the timber fence proper. This is the eventual goal... or something quite similar.

Timber Fencing Construction with Resak Wood - Epi. 2

This weekend I got around to removing the old chainlink fence to put up the new timber fence, but I got interrupted by rain. I managed to get the chainlink down, but only managed to get the main framework of the wooden fence up, which is the hardest part of the job anyway.

Chainlink fences are held up with these iron bolts, which have a habit of rusting through and fusing together so that it's impossible to get them off with a wrench.

Wooden Slab Tables

The best way to appreciate the beauty of timber is in its natural form, unshaped. Seeing these trick tables from Hudson makes me wanna stop by the roadside to pick up random fallen trees and try make something out of them. How about someone hand me a chainsaw? Check out the charcoal table too, cos black is my favourite colour.

Site Updates

Did some housekeeping with my slowly improving HTML skillz, and the About and Contact tabs are now functional.

Timber Fencing Construction with Resak Wood - Epi. 1

Over the weekend I managed to track down a timber yard in Puchong that sells resak wood, the wood of choice for outdoor applications as its very hard and very durable. 2 sizes are needed, 2x1 inches for vertical support columns and 1.5x1/2 inches for the horizontal strips.

Unique Coffee Table Idea

Yeah, I can definitely see a coffee table happening here. Submerged car sculpture by Ivan Puig

Concealed Basins: Steel, Concrete and Wood

Quite obviously, I like trick stuff. Like these basins... that are not quite basins. In three different elements, here are some of my picks for pure, clean minimalist design.

1. Concealed steel washbasin from Meeus

2 Effective Natural Cat Repellents

Problem:

Yeah, cats are all cute and cuddly until they start using your front lawn as a litter box. This one has staked its claim on my polycarbonate roofing. I hear cats are a problem for many people, so here's what we do to get rid of them quite effectively.

Power Tools for Fools

Yes, there is a new A-team movie coming out. And if you remember what the A-Team was all about, it was a heavy machinery orgy. This is the perfect excuse for a post on my arsenal of power tools, and no they're not for fools.


Bosch GSR 3.6v cordless screwdriver and Talon 12v cordless drill/driver. The pocket sized Bosch packs quite a bit of muscle for its small size, and is easy to use. Combine it with an array of Phillips, Flat and Hex heads and you'll blow through all your Ikea, and other DIY installation jobs. But for really big projects that involve plenty of screwing around, you want the 12v cordless drill to really pack a punch. And yeah, you gotta love cordless mobility and maneuverability. I pity the fool who go messin' around with wires all day.

Carpet Tiles for Utility Room

We don't have any immediate use for the utility room downstairs, but it does get traffic passing through since we relocated the bathroom entrance in there. So, the floor needed to be made presentable while we didn't wanna spend a lot of money getting it done.

Found some used but decent carpet tiles going for cheap at a junkshop in Puchong, hunted down some carpet cleaning foam at Ace, and make it work with good old fashioned elbow grease.

Before

Pardon the mess in the bathroom, temporarily placed it there to get it off the floor.


After


Breakdown of costs:
Used carpet tiles - RM80 (RM2 x 40pcs)
3M Carpet Cleaner - RM60 (RM30 x 2 cans)
Elbow Grease - RMPriceless

Pipe Dreams

Some of you may have noticed that when I installed the under-sink water filter, the white PVC drain pipe was dirty looking and the cement interior of the cabinet under the sink just looked grubby. This of course did not look trick and needed to be rectified.

So, the pipe was painted a vivid shade of metallic green and the cement wall painted white to make it look clean.


Why green, you ask? In case you don't get it by now...

Random Stuff

No stranger to trickmycrib.blogspot.com, these cute hugging salt/pepper shakers have made cameos every now and then. They were a Christmas gift from good friends of ours.


Bought from Bali, ethnic yet stylish, black yet shiny.


Any hour is happy hour in the crib.


Salt cow and pepper milk in a tray. Another set of shakers, another Christmas gift from another good friend.

 
Oil painting from Bali. I only wish we had more money to buy more of this stuff while we were there.


Wooden blinds from Ikea.


Philips toaster which we got as a Christmas present, from an aunt.

New Comments Feature

This template comes with a great new comments feature, which you will see somewhere on the top right. Using it I just realised there were some comments which I haven't read or replied to.

Sherry: Yes, that space is meant for the dining table, but haven't got the money to get one yet. Guess I should do a post on the wet kitchen sometime soon. Haven't covered that since the house was completed. Here's a pic in a semi-finished state.

Good to hear that you just got yourself a crib too. For a small unit, just make the spaces as open as possible. That's just my RM0.02 lah, not everyone agrees with me... particularly old-school types who think every space in the house should be a room on its own.

Dhruv: Agree that wooden laminate flooring is great. Looks and feels good, is durable and easy to clean. However, I'm not into free advertising on this site, so your link was removed.

2010 New Look

I've decided that in keeping with the spirit of this blog, which is constant improvement, TrickMyCrib will now sport a fresh new designer look for the year 2010.

That aside, keep a lookout for upcoming projects in the crib involving timber and tools. You gotta love tools. Personally, I wish I had one of everything in the Bosch catalog. MMmm...