Check out this great New York Times article on "Ikea hacking" and Etsy’s involvement. For those who’ve never heard of the concept, The Times define Ikea hackers as "do-it-yourselfers and technogeeks, tinkerers, artists, crafters and product and furniture designers…united only by their perspective, which looks upon an Ikea Billy bookcase or Lack table and sees not a finished object but raw material: a clean palette yearning to be embellished or repurposed."

Etsy’s recent upcycling contest is featured, as well an interview with Rob (aka Rokali) about his take on d.i.y. construction and upcycling. According to The Times, "Mr. Kalin said that to him and his fellows at Etsy, Ikea is a natural resource. "We don’t look to a forest for wood,” he said. "We don’t want to use ‘new’ wood. We look at a Dumpster or an Ikea store as a place to go harvest ‘raw’ materials. It’s a very urban phenomenon: we have the resources we need and we have become expert at repurposing them, like taking these broken Ikea chairs and making them into a table.”

JackRabbit‘s (aka Christine Domanic) weiner bench is also prominently featured in the piece. (Plus some great shots of Ikea hacked stuff Etsy’s office ecologist Pete made for the Etsy Labs.)

Circled in reb above is Etsy’s Rokali with the Ikea hacked surfboard table that Pete constructed.

For more information on upcycling, check out these articles. Also, make sure to check out the Etsy Labs’ original post on Ikea Hacking, as well as the Ikea Hacker blog.

P.S. Rob named this design "brollöp" because it means marriage in Swedish. Huh!