That Hack on Erie St.

I don’t think I’ve ever been a hack! There are dozens of meanings for “hack” but I’m referencing the association with writers specifically.

Hack: a writer who works on the staff of a publisher at a dull or routine task; someone who works as a literary drudge: He was one among the many hacks on Erie Street.

The only true portions of this statement are, I am a writer and I do live on Erie Street. Even though I’m a staff of one and I’m the publisher, I rarely if ever find writing a blog a dull or routine task. I may churn out similarly styled blogs week after week, but I trust they are productive, for somebody out there.

I think some people have formed this “hack” idea where Ikea is concerned. They look at the product and seem to be dumbstruck by the sameness of it all, and fail to find inspiration in the style or function. So what if someone could come along side you and inspire your creativity and do it with Ikea products in hand? You would need a hack.

In order to catch up to this new meaning I’ve turned to the Urban Dictionary (yet again) and I came up with this definition:

To jury-rig or improvise something inelegant but effective, usually as a temporary solution to a problem.

Ikea Hackers is a bit like that. Certainly taking an Ikea product and creating not just a temporary solution but a long term solution is really the plan here. So grab your Besta and your Vika and your little hex key and let’s hack.

As I surfed the site, I stumbled upon a great hack for a 1 room apartment. Studio apartments while perhaps affordable for a new married couple, really don’t offer much privacy when the bed is in the same room as the kitchen, dining room and living room! The couple in this hack used a bunch of Ikea products but the PAX doors were the centre piece of the hack creating an awesome, private bedroom. They went on to add more “dividers” which really made for a great layout in a tight space. It also proved to be “Ikea Hack 2010” (aka Hack of the Year).

More and more of us with access to cable and satellite, feast incessantly on design shows. This next hack met my cool criteria for designer-like flair. Get some Torka’s and Ribba’s and drill and your going to be able to create a design feature for your living room wall that’s really great.

Some of these hacks take what might have been a product designed for kitchen use and pairs it with a shelving unit and voila you have a most productive hack. Many just repurpose a product for a tight space or use it for something that just required a bit of sideways thinking. So I need to go, because I just saw a hack that would work for my daughters 2 foot wide closet. Ikea, here I come!

The Colour of Night (iPhone 3GS: John Matthews)