Coolest Furniture Ever

For many of us post-graduate 20-somethings, we have not had the experience of really owning the place we lived in.

Pre-college, we were beholden to our parents. In college, we could change our rooms only as much as the school allowed. Also, there is very little you can do with the square foot of space the dorms had.

But now, some of us are starting to pay for our own rent, which means we can put as much crazy crap in your apartment and nobody can say a thing.

So today, I present the 3 coolest pieces furniture you could never own before...


Ball Pit
Really, who needs a traditional sofa when you can make a giant ball pit instead?

I first discovered this while reading XKCD (best. webcomic. evar. btw.). Creator Randall Munroe wrote a comic about a ball pit and then actually made one in his apartment.

Apparently, it's pretty simple. All you need is some basic fencing and balls. Lots of balls.

Unfortunately, this isn't the cheapest venture you'll ever embark on. Regular balls cost something like 20 cents a peice, but the recommended crush proof balls go for about double the price. On average you can expect to pay the price of a good coach to make a decent sized ball play-pen.

Still intrigued? You can use this convenient "How many playpen balls would it take to fill your apartment?" calculator to figure out an exact quote.

It may be pricey, but having a ball pit is extremely awesome. And as the XKCD comic says, "We're grown-ups now, and it's our turn to decide what that means."


Giant Posters
My parents were squares and didn't let me put anything I thought was cool (ninjas, robots, etc.) up on the walls. Well, now that I'm older, not only can I put ninjas fighting robots on the wall, I can make them huge by using the rasterbator (haha, I said rasterbator :x).

What this website (and standalone program) does is it takes any image -- even small, low-quality images -- and pixelates them to any size you want. The result is a gigantic mural that looks just like TV static up close, but from afar, looks perfect.

The best thing about the rasterbator is that the program is free and that you can print the poster using your printer at home.


Bean Bag Furniture
A bean bag chair is something I always wanted growing up, but never had. To this day, I still want one.

When you go looking for a bean bag to buy, Target and other furniture places are probably the worst places you can go. The bean bags they have are cheaply made and the filling is an uncomfortable foam. If you're looking to buy one, it's probably worth spending the extra cash and getting a high-end bean bag from Sumo. I've never sat in one, but they look awesome and the people at Penny Arcade (another nerdy reference :x) recommend them.

However, if you're looking to save some money and up the coolness factor, you can make your own giant bean bags. This instructable shows you step-by-step directions for making bean bags the size of sofas. It isn't too expensive and it's a cool weekend project to do. I tried to make one of these bad boys, but I couldn't find a good foam supplier. I think I'm going to give it another go this summer though.


So if you're finally moving into your own place, really make it your own by investing in some unique, big-kid, furniture! Seriously, it'll make you totally hipster.