Friday, November 6, 2015

Our New Color-Changing Steampunk Shelving!

Several months ago I posted this little teaser over on the Epbot FB page:


Those wooden rings were the beginning of John's final(?) big furniture project for the steampunk room.

From there he added shelves:


Then a stand:
(Anyone else seeing Spaceship Earth? Because I SWEAR that was not intentional. Ha!)

Next he stained the wood and added steel trim to the shelf edges:


And finally - the tricky part - wrapped the whole outer edge in aluminum:




Pretty sweet, right? I was inspired by Restoration Hardware's Aviator line:


Here's the pair all set up in the room:
 


Originally I wanted the shelves to have industrial fan blades behind them (ergo John's crack about the smoke effects) so they'd look more like airship propellers. Reality and a lack of space intervened on that count, but in the end I got something even cooler:


Embedded. Color-changing. LEDs.

BEHOLD!





The flash feature would be a bit crazy-making, of course, so we leave them at one color. There's a wireless remote with all the color choices, so it's easy to change. My favorite is the teal, since it matches our side chairs, but it's fun to mix it up.

Or, if we don't want any color, I can set the LEDs to orange and they'll match the rest of the light in the room:

You can also control the brightness, which we keep at the lowest setting. I often leave these on while we're watching TV, so I don't want them to be too distracting.

The LED strips are glued to the underside top of all three shelves, which gives them a perfect all-over glow. The strips we used were dirt cheap - only around $20 with the power supply and remote for each unit - but soldering the tiny wires was crazy hard, and our first set promptly broke the second John finished it, which I hear is common. :/

Our second set of LEDs worked, though, and - knock on wood - has been working just fine for the last month. If you're willing to take the gamble, here's the set we bought over on Amazon.

Those pics up there have the overhead light on, but at night I love having just the Edison lights and these on, which looks more like this:

It's darker and cozier, and very warm with the Edison bulbs' glow. (Not easy to capture with my camera, which makes everything a lot brighter. Sorry 'bout that.)

Purple and fuchsia do weird things on film; they're not really this insane looking:

Although red IS this hellish. Ha!

Now a look at the stuff ON the shelves:



I'm planning to replace that scale with our new Harry Potter Omnoculars, once we build a stand for it.
Over on the other side, the star is my Nixie clock:

Which of course photographs terribly, but looks oh-so-cool at night:


And one more overview shot:


So there you have it: our finally completed main wall of the steampunk room!

Hope you guys liked it! And of course you'll be getting another tour come December, once we deck this bad boy out for Christmas. Can. Not. WAIT.

60 comments:

  1. Very cool, the look amazing! The teal is my favorite too.

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  2. Love the blue colors of the lights...it looks like you're in a ship, looking out through an opening and seeing an underwater world. Or like the shelf itself is full of water behind a clear window...like a snow globe, only a water globe scene. You know??

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    1. I thought the exact same thing! Like a 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea vibe.

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    2. I thought 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea too!

      I *love* these. They're amazing!

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  3. This is amazing! I love everything you've done in here. Can't wait for the Christmas pics!

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  4. A good wife would show this to her husband who is obsessed with color changing LEDs. I am not a good wife because as cool as I think those are, we have ZERO space to A. build them and B. put them. But maybe after we move ;-)

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  5. I need a template and instruction on Etsy asap! I am in looooovvvvveee with the shelves. Unless John wants to make them for me, in which case it's not a bad drive from NE FL. :D

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    1. John was saying that now he's figured out the construction, building more of these *should* be pretty fast/simple. Maybe he should start a steampunk furniture shop? :D If only they weren't so hard to ship!

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    2. If John starts building these, I will personally drive from NW Washington to Florida just to own a set.
      However, you'll have to waive the shipping costs, and give me a steep discount, and maybe entertain me for lunch at Disney World.

      --Piper P from Washington State

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    3. The Mortier's is in charge of road snacks.

      --Piper P from Washington State

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    4. If you two don't mind swinging by SoCal, I'll bring extra snacks and help with gas $ and driving!
      -Zippy

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  6. Love the shelves! Lost in words what else to say but I want and wow.

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  7. i want to make these! They look awesome!

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  8. Wow!!! Those shelves are so awesome!!

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  9. Stunning! I have a steamy levitation currently being crafted and welded in our garage by my magician husband....he however did NOT cut the smoke effects. Chris totally would have gone with the fan blades but only because that would have turned the shelves into mini versions of copperfield's fan blade illusion.

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  10. So cool! John is a genius.

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  11. Ohhhh I want to see a before and after of this room... you guys have done some AMAZING work in there!

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    1. These pictures from last Christmas will show you what it looked like before the big steampunk overhaul - so different! And oddly, I think the room looked smaller then, even though the walls were lighter.

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    2. I agree! The wide shot from the doorway really shows it. LOVE what you guys have done!

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  12. You two are the coolest people on (and off) the internet!

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  13. Damn it, Jen.
    Of course, the one thing I need in my house is shelves. And these happen to be the coolest dang shelves, ever.
    Okay, fine, I'll sit through a tutorial if you wanted to post one.
    And then I'd probably try to build it... and I'd probably love the end result... and all my friends would have shelf envy.

    --Piper P from Washington State

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  14. If I ever hit the big time, I would like to hire you both, at an exorbitant fee, to completely design (and execute said design) my house (which will likely be a different house than I currently live in...which, though a modest size, is full of tiny boxy, useless rooms). I just love every little touch...and the attention to detail is outstanding. I don't have nearly the vision, let alone the skills, of you two creative geniuses. I am in awe.

    I also like the teal the best, and as someone said above, set to teal, they remind me of portholes looking out into the sea. So gorgeous.

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  15. Sweet! How's the matching frame for the flatscreen coming? :D Hee hee!

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    1. Ha! You guys are gonna make me add rivets to that thing, aren't you?

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  16. This is absolutely, stunningly amazing and I have literally been moved to tears. I immediately thought of aquariums when I saw the teal lighting. Then when I went back to study the pictures, I realized I was so emotional because the whole room makes me think of Les Mystères du Nautilus at Disneyland Paris (http://www.disneylandparis.co.uk/attractions/disneyland-park/les-mysteres-du-nautilus/ Be sure to look at the third picture in the gallery.)

    P.S. I am positively vibrating with excitement over the idea of this room with Christmas decorations.

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    1. I love that you say that, since that area of DL Paris & also Tokyo DL were a big inspiration for this room! In fact, the big steampunk frame we made (not pictured in this post) is almost a direct copy from TDL's Journey to the Center of the Earth ride!

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  17. These are freaking SUH-WEET!! I love them so much! Brilliance! Perfection!

    Question, though: you said, "The LED strips are glued to the underside of all three shelves," and I'm not understanding how the top shelf is illuminated then. Is there a strip of lighting above the top shelf as well? Looks as though maybe there is a strip of lighting on the underside of the top two shelves, but not the bottom shelf, and that there is lighting above the top shelf...so underneath the top of the unit. Is that correct?

    The teal setting does look beautiful with the upholstered chairs!

    One detail I really love is how the glow from the Nixie clock mixes with the glow from the LEDs and changes the color slightly in the space around it. Very cool!

    Looking forward to seeing this room all decked out for the holidays!

    KW

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    1. Ack, you caught me out in my not-so-good-at-describing-technical things... thing. Heh. Yes, you are correct: the LED strips are actually *above* each shelf, and only below two of them.

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  18. I love how this whole room has just come together like the realization of a wonderful dream. You two really are miracle workers!
    I have just one question though, where are books one and two of the Harry Potter series?

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    1. I had that question too! I'm glad I'm not the only one who wants to know where the first two books are.

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    2. Ha! Would you believe I just now got those two in hardcover? We've had them in paperback 'til now, which isn't as display-worthy. Now I just have to make room on the shelf...

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    3. Yes! I thought I was the only weirdo for noticing that!

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  19. Those are amazing!! That room is magazine worthy!! You guys are so talented. Beautiful job.

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  20. These are fantastic. When is John opening his Etsy shop? He could totally sell these or the blue prints / tutorial on making them :) And yes, they do remind me of Spaceship Earth in shape <3

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  21. I can hear my hubby groaning as I ooh and ahh over your shelves. He's probably waiting for his new build request to hit his desk. I looove those! I'd love to see what I could do with those LEDs. Your room is turning out spectacular!

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  22. They look great! Did you cut the rings or buy them?

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    1. John cut them himself - and to save wood, he cut each ring in two halves, joining it in the middle with a custom biscuit joint. He was SUPER proud of that joint, since he doesn't have a biscuit joiner, and had to make it by hand.

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    2. Awesome! And yes, he should be proud of that, that's really cool! :)

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  23. Those shelves are awesome! Mind making me a set? J/K

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  24. Absolutely incredible. What a glorious room!

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  25. You two just continue to blow my mind!

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  26. OH MY GOSH that's my box. The clockwork box I sent you is on your awesome shelf and I am currently Kermit Flailing in line for the Gringotts ride at Universal.

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  27. Well done!! Seriously, John should make these on Etsy - and the blue lights do make me think of port holes, I was thinking you need a mermaid in there somewhere or atleast one more seahorse! :). The decor is great and can't wait to see the Christmas version!!

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  28. I love the teal with the chairs! Also, I keep thinking "Hobbit door" when I see it! It adds a touch of Bag End to the room!

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  29. this is a good idea. I think I'll make it for my new house.
    little league baseball banners fontana ca

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  30. I just want to uproot your steampunk room and plop it in my apartment! Simply amazing, you guys!

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  31. The room is awesome, John should totally go into making custom furniture

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  32. Time to open a custom steampunk furniture Etsy store. People seriously buy custom furniture and pay the shipping. You'd make a fortune.

    Beth M.

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  33. When I grow up, I want to be John. And Jen. But not Tonks - that'd be silly.

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