He says, "My favorite area of Ikea is the 'As-Is' section. And one of my favorite parts of the 'As-Is' section is where they have all their wood parts, such as drawer fronts, cabinet doors, desk parts, etc. I love the variety in color, size and finish of the pieces. Tons of ideas come to mind as I look through the assortment.
I came across 4 identical 13.75" x 13.75" square white pieces of MDF. There was nothing wrong with them and they were only $.99 each. My wife and I wanted to create our own original artwork to put up on one of our walls. A laser engraver would be our means of doing this. I used to work at a trophy / sign shop and practically perfected the laser machine and experimented thoroughly! The owner still lets me use it when I want, which I greatly appreciate (he doesn't even charge me!). We wanted a nice floral/natural image to encompass the 4 pieces which would be laid out in a big square.
I found some cool photoshop brushes online that I wanted to incorporate into the image. So the image was laid out across the 4 pieces subtracting an inch gap between all of them. The image was prepared for lasering and lasered with great success removing the white laminate and revealing the natural MDF beneath. We hung them up and in the square arrangement on the wall and love them! Not bad for a $4 project!"
That is really nice! Great job.
ReplyDeleteNormally love the stuff on this site but this is a bit misleading. It should be $4 + access to a laser engraver.
ReplyDelete@tc said: true, you can't get the same results w/o a laser engraver (& Photoshop brushes, for that matter); but if you're someone who paints, you could take the as-is mdf and paint over it. Think of it as a suggestion to get the creative juices flowing. Lots of the ikea hacker posts are out of my realm of possibility because I don't own a table saw or a jig saw or some other piece of machinery; but they do serve as nice inspiration for what can be done when you think outside the box. (But yes, the title of the post is a bit misleading.)
ReplyDeleteI'm very impressed. Nice work!
ReplyDeletebeautiful!
ReplyDeleteI'm off to IKEA... breathtaking. Why buying expensive canvas?
ReplyDeleteAs I have no laser-engraver at hand (who does?) i'll simply make some stencils and paint it.
Looks beautiful. Great use of resources! Thanks for the inspiration.
ReplyDeleteWonderful !
ReplyDeleteAnd very clever !
Nice job, beautiful artistic touch.
Yeah, most of us don't have access to a laser engraver, but there's always painting, stenciling, and decoupage!
ReplyDeleteNice! and good inspiration even if we can't use your same technique.
ReplyDeletelu
This is definitely nice, the reflection look awesome.
ReplyDeleteThis is the kind of art that I like best. It's simple and very effective at inspiring thought.
ReplyDeleteImagine using 4 mirrors, and painting something similar on them. OR taking 1 piece and framing it with panes to make the look of a window.
Ideas flow . . . Thanks!
very nice!
ReplyDeletehow i wish i could paint them on my bedroom =]
ReplyDeletevery cool!
ReplyDeleteThis is beautiful!
ReplyDelete1 of the best creative artwork.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful!
ReplyDeletethat's nice but such a small thing may not favor many,any way good work.
ReplyDelete---------kcsekhar.110mb.com
You know, if you are at all artistic, you could tape real plants, leaves or other objects to a canvas, and spray paint it. I like the project, it looks very clean!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous!
ReplyDeleteokay i love this!
ReplyDeletenice post....keep in your touch
ReplyDeleteCrap just Crap go kill yourself ! xD
ReplyDelete"Natural MDF" - lolz
ReplyDeleteAwesome tip!!
ReplyDeleteI went to IKEA yesterday, and got two 30"x40" raw wood panels for $1.00. The same thing at the art supply store would have easily cost me over $50.
Plus, I got three wood-framed glass cabinet doors for $2.50 apiece, that I plan to turn into "stained glass" panels for our living room windows.
Fun to see Ikea
ReplyDeleteI´m writing from Sweden the homeland of IKEA.
Have a nice day/ Mia
The first thing I thought when I saw it was that it had been done with stencilling, but the laser engraver idea is cool too. These are absolutely stunning!
ReplyDeleteArtistic and nice =) i love to look out for artistic too although i not much talent hahaa
ReplyDeleteExcellent use of As Is stuff! I am always telling people its a treasure trove of materials! I've used stuff from there many times in my art work, in fact my current project uses trash from Ikea to make sculpture, you can see it at my blog
ReplyDelete