If it’s fast and stackable, it’s hackable. That includes IKEA and West Elm, too.

It’s been a good week for hackers. The internet collective known as Anonymous hacked some 70 law enforcement websites and the Syrian Defense Ministry. Even the New York Times Op-Ed page was kinda sorta (but not really) hacked.

It is in the same cyber spirit – interestingly its own branch of DIY – that we investigated some design hacks, namely fast furniture getting a slow upgrade.

Like this find from Green Upgrader, IKEA legs strapped to a scavenged wood pallet.

Nice.

It turns out that there’s an entire blog dedicated to IKEA hacks called IKEA Hackers. Very search engine friendly. Like Anonymous, their modus is to crowd source their hacks from all over the web rather than go it alone out of a dark living room in Encino.

So goes their mission statement: “We hack, personalize, repurpose IKEA products into the very thing we want.”

This bench is made entirely out of LACK coffee tables sourced from Craigslist.

The hacker, who goes by the name Charles Crawford of San Diego, CA (an alias?), built the bench by cutting each LACK in two, filling them with expanding insulation foam, and coating the whole thing in paint for waterproofing.

A designer who calls himself Andrew Riiska, also of California (coincidence?) hacked four laminated IKEA legs with two seats from antique banker’s chairs.

I am reserving opinion on the widely blogged about treadmill desk because I do believe a healthy and active lifestyle is not that hard to come by, though I can appreciate the JERKER desk/treadmill combo by hacker John of Ft. Wayne, Indiana.

An interesting twist on the fast furniture hacking trend on the web is the scavenged hacking scene out of Tel Aviv. A duo known as Godspeed, comprised of Joy van Erven of Holland and Finn Ahlgren of Sweden, skip the design phase entirely and construct furniture out of raw and scrap materials.

Their M.O.: they hack each piece in an hour or less.

Images: IKEA Hackers; Godspeed

Attention IKEA shoppers: yes, the EXPEDIT bookshelf might be the solution you’ve been looking for to sort out your life, but at what cost?

Welcome to Sweden: population 9 million and change; number 6 on the Happiness Index. Here in America (where we rank number 10 on the same scale), we love Sweden, if not for its innovative social programs like a publicly funded health care system and year-long maternity leave for working moms, then certainly for its meatballs with lingonberry sauce and IKEA. We love IKEA so much that, as Edward Norton’s character narrated in 1999’s Fight Club, we’ve all been “slaves to the IKEA nesting instinct” at one time or another.

Admit it, you own the BILLY shelving system or know someone who does.

But as news surfaced this past spring of racial discrimination complaints, a union-busting battle royale, and exceedingly high turnover rates in disgruntled employees at its Danville, Virginia plant, socially responsible consumers are faced yet again with a nagging moral conundrum: in a culture where bargains are a dime a dozen, how does one resolve the human cost?

In Sweden, IKEA’s factory workers are unionized thus paid $19 per hour with five weeks of paid vacation every year. There, mandatory government supported social programs date back to the 18^th and 19^th centuries, including free and equal access to healthcare and guaranteed pensions for the elderly. Sure, Swedes are taxed for it at an extraordinary rate (up to 60%), but they’re amongst the happiest societies in the world. As political scientist at Stockholm’s Södertörn University College, Nicholas Aylott, told the Guardian, “Swedes are very attached to the idea of the state as the People’s Home. Everyone in society is under the same roof, everyone will be protected.”

In Danville, Virginia, meanwhile, it’s an altogether different narrative. Factory workers are not unionized. They’re paid $8 an hour and are often forced to work mandatory overtime – reportedly being told on a Friday night that they’re expected to work the entire weekend. If they don’t – or can’t – they’re faced with disciplinary action.

Safety-wise, conditions in the Virginia plant are just as sketchy. Over a 30-month period, workers suffered more than 1,536 days of lost work due to accidents on the job.

Wait a minute. Has the United States of America – with its lower taxes and comparative lack of societal benefits and worker’s rights – become IKEA’s sweatshop?

Huh, suddenly that Ektorp loveseat isn’t looking so cozy.

Since going public, Danville workers have been informed they will no longer be forced to work mandatory overtime. Nevertheless, efforts to unionize have been continually squashed by IKEA and the law firm of Jackson Lewis Associates, who are infamous for their rabid anti-union counsel and litigation.

Change.org is circulating a petition pressuring the company to rethink its union position here in the United States. At last count, more than 83,000 people had submitted their signatures, and you can, too.

Petitions and klagande aside, the question for consumers remains: IKEA is cheap, sort-of-convenient, cute and easy. But so is fast fashion and, for that matter, fast food. Sorry bargain shoppers, like a double bacon cheeseburger wrapped in Perfluoroalkyl served through a drive-thru window, McFurnishing your home just ain’t lagom.

Images: yassan-yukky; The Movie Doc; Ham Hock, rarye

I don’t cook. I mean, I do cook – but strictly for survival purposes. Some people regale tales of julienning vegetables and sautéing diced delights as stress relieving and amusing. I don’t buy it. If food wasn’t a biological necessity, you wouldn’t find me in a kitchen. Even my dainty apron with elegant eggplant pinstripes doesn’t draw me to a chopping board or oven.

Imagine my surprise when I caught myself swooning and drooling over a kitchen. If these walls were in my house, I would be nurturing soufflés and simmering beef bourguignon within reach of no less than seventy-three spice varieties.

Notice the frayed edges dangling from the table. If only I could rip textiles apart and drape them perfectly under exposed light bulbs. Though I have to admit, my neurosis would likely keep me from a wall of cupboards sheltered only by translucent glass. I would spend all my time straightening, aligning, and adjusting pristine white dishes instead of actually utilizing all those gleaming surfaces and mixing bowls.

To illustrate the power of styling and photography (brace yourself), this kitchen is stocked with products from, drum roll please, Ikea. That’s right, Ikea.

(This kitchen was spotted on Escapade. Images from Ikea via Livet Hemma.)

Every time I pass a Best Buy, Wal-Mart or Target, I can almost see a pulsing blue aura hovering around the mammoth plex; or rather, an anti-halo that screams: “This facility couldn’t give a rat’s ass what it eats. Enjoy your rolling blackouts this season.” And inside, I hear the hum: A diffuse but powerful white noise surrounding me like a florescent radioactive soundtrack. This, I think, is the sound of energy consumption.

I would never have expected any of these shops to own up to the issue and take some (expensive) steps to deal with retail energy crime. But IKEA may be stepping to the plate.

The often mysterious Swedish (or is it Dutch) superstore has been making a bunch of noise regarding green corporate responsibility in recent years, from investment (IKEA GeenTech venture capital) to sourcing and sustainability. And though the store certainly has its critics, the shop is digging deep to find out ways to deal with facility energy usage. To that, witness its geothermal energy heating and cooling plans for its new Centennial, Colorado (near Denver) store scheduled to open next fall.

IKEA worked with the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to design and build the geothermal system, which will be buried under the store’s parking garage. Way under. Like 500 feet-ish under (that’s down, down, a football field down and then down some more), where some 130 pipes will pump liquid that will cool and be brought back to the surface to heat or cool the facility, depending on the season.

Explains Triple Pundit: “When warm air at the surface is passed over the cool pipes, the air gets cooler. When the air is cooler than the liquid, it is warmed as it passes over the pipes.  Meanwhile, the geothermal technology helps to maintain a building’s relative humidity at 50%.”

When it’s super hot or cold outside, the system won’t be able to do the job by itself, but most of the time it’ll be able to take care of business.

IKEA says the system may serve as a model for future stores. NREL Senior Geothermal Analyst Erin Anderson (above, on-site) adds: “The IKEA/NREL project could be the benchmark for a credible standard for geothermal installation in large-scale retail stores nationwide”¦ We’re trying to collect data on how it actually performs, which could prove invaluable to future projects. By collecting actual live data on the performance of systems, you have better insight on what needs to be improved. We’ll be able to say with confidence, ‘if you do it this way, it will work this well.’”

At the end of the day, it’s not like your next trip to IKEA will be “hum-free” or that the halo will be any less toxic – much less saintly. It’s positive, though, that these things aren’t going wholly unnoticed. Whether it’s good consciousness or just good PR for the big box shops to show some energy manners, a reduced footprint is a reduced footprint. Let’s hope some more shops dig deep for some answers, as well.

Images: Håkan Dahlström and Pat Corkery

If we can swap party dresses and soccer shoes, why not club chairs, throw pillows and framed art prints, too?

You can probably convince a designer friend to work for food, trading services for a veggie burger and a smile. Even IKEA organized a swap at its Amsterdam store in February, advertising the husselmarkt as a way to get customers to think like designers by exploring the rearranging of vignettes in their own homes. Up to 250 people were invited to bring in unwanted pieces to shuffle around and swap.

Swapping and trading is a good alternative to shopping Craigslist for purveyors of bargain furniture and accents. When you shop Luanne’s list or Sara’s list, you can get it for free.

Here are 10 ways to freshen and color your space without spending a dime:

1. Hold an art swap in your backyard inviting friends to bring framed prints or unimportant paintings they no longer enjoy. Serve lots of wine so that everything looks extremely enticing and you leave the party feeling you plucked something great from the treasure chest.

2. See if you have a designer friend who will work for food. Offer to make him or her lunch or dinner for a design consultation. What do you say, Orlando? You do my dining room and I cook you an omelet. Deal? Things are so slow – designer buddies might take you up on it. If you need the designer to return for more free advice, offer a massage!

3. Form a design crew with your circle of friends and travel to each other’s homes to help with a quick-fix makeover. Often, simply rearranging the furniture can make a huge difference. Let’s face it; some of our friends just don’t have the talent but still desire a cool pad. It’s also a way to get a small room painted. Call it Extreme Makeover – the economic collapse home edition.

4. Pillow Talk: Changing out pillows is an easy way to make a big difference in reviving a sofa or bed. Flickrstream photos of pillows you no longer love and get friends to do the same thing. Hopefully, the bed pillows won’t tell tales.

5. Have a Father’s Day garden party for actually gardening, not just firing the BBQ and watching grandpa rock and sip bourbon. Turn on some lively tunes and get down to that urban gardening. Replant those pots and flower beds. Maybe someone has a bird house or feeder they don’t want that would attract feathered friends to your garden.

6. Roll out a fabric free-for-all with rolls of extra upholstery fabric from your past projects. I have several I’d be happy to part with that might be useful to someone. And I know my friend, Susanne, has some spare Ikat I wouldn’t mind using to cover a bench.

7. Pass on kids’ furniture that your little ones have outgrown. There is nothing like getting a used rocker or desk set that your child will view as special and new. It’s absurd to have to buy a lot of furnishings for children’s rooms when so many of our friends also have children and can share the wealth – especially pieces that aren’t marred with permanent marker graffiti or dented from raucous play.

8. Media rooms are simply spare spaces with televisions and lots of good DVD’s. But we all know they get pretty tired. Have a Hollywood night and let everyone bring movies they can’t watch again, no matter how sentimental the scene of George picking out a Cracker Jack ring for Audrey at Tiffany’s. I’ve even given away large-screen televisions to people who wanted them. Electronics are another good thing to swap. Anyone got an iPod for Sydney? I’ll give you a Hello Kitty CD player for it.

9. Register for serving items again (with your friends), after the divorce or when you have decided you never use that china in the spare closet or that giant salad bowl in the attic. Tell everyone what you need, and offer to swap with what you no longer want. I could use a can opener that actually opens the entire dog food can.

10. Call area hotels and department stores and find out if they have spare furniture they want to get rid of. You’d be surprised how much of their stuff is headed for the heap. I’d take anything from Hotel Vitale. You might be able to score a nice headboard or set of chairs. Say you will return the favor by telling all of your guests to stay there. Hospitality, indeed!

Image: Jeff Kubina