Man Made DIY

The Eames lounge chair is a standard in many a manly room. It's welcoming shape, perfect height, and oh-so-essential ottoman make it a main supporter, but not a major focal piece in any room. It does it's job, and it does it well, but doesn't demand attention...well, other than when you have someone over for the first time and they say, "Oh my gosh, you have an Eames lounge?!"

Which is why Ana's makeover of a chair she knabbed for free and an ottoman she found for $10 is so unexpected...and yet, kinda works.   … read more

Here at ManMade, we're big proponents of not sitting all day during work hours. Especially as bloggers and editors, where we're more naturally inclined to...sit all day during work hours.

We've covered the dangers before, even offering this easy solution to create a standing workspace.

But in case you're not quite convinced, take a look at this infographic: … read more

"Every year, the Rural Studio, a program of Auburn University's architecture school, located in Hale County, Alabama, pursues a research project called the 20K House.  [They] build a house on a budget of $20,000 that can be a sustainable, safe, spacious, dignified replacement for the mobile home. Each prototype is then documented and will hopefully become a model that can be replicated across the rural south for low-income homeowners."

This year, the 20K house featured a fine front porch, a staple of Southern culture, and Wholman wanted to create a porch-worthy rocking chair with the same spirit of the 20K challenge. He came up with this incredible design, which forms the chair from upcycled shipping pallets and cardboard shipping tubes… read more

IKEA made have ruled out plastic bags three years ago, but haven't quite figured out a clever reuse for the pencils, tape measures, and store map/aisle-bin lists that sit at the bottom of each escalator.

For that, we'll have to turn to Dutch designer Judith Delleman, who recreate an old IKEA chair using 500 tiny IKEA pencils. "As a second year student of interior design she used over 500 Ikea pencils to redesign an old Ikea chair. The seat and back she carefully outfitted with leather upholstery. “The future is in the reusing of materials” she claims and “the gold and black paint I used can give ordinary materials a luxurious look and fe… read more