AKA Erin Needs a Life

[arcanelegacy]

Okay so I was browing io9 today and I saw this and then I scrolled down to the bottom to the awesome Portal-themed office and naturally my brain decided HOW DO I ONE-UP THIS AMAZING PAINT JOB

The answer, obviously: theme an entire room to look like a test chamber.



Paint the walls like different panels, making sure to have portal-able surfaces and non-portal-able surfaces...

Then make shelving out of blue-tinted Plexiglas and turn it into a Hard Light Bridge (I'm also thinking you do some sort of hidden/invisible hanging method on it and if you're really awesome you can pull it out away from the wall a little and/or run blue LED light ropes along it so it looks like it glows). THEN you could paint portals to make it look like the shelving is extending through the portals (awesome witty way to get multi-layer shelving; you could go with co-op mode colors if you wanted more shelves)

Then you paint the door white and add decals like the Test Chamber entrances

...and make companion-cube shaped boxes for storage (I'm thinking hollow ones with a wooden exterior? Or maybe whatever kind of smooth coating they put on IKEA products, since they're just MDF with something over top) OH if you're going with a co-op mode vibe you could grab some sort of decorative sphere and paint it like and Edgeless Safety Cube

You could also maybe recycle an old flatscreen TV and hang it so it's flush with a wall (might require making a fake wall a few feet in? I'M STILL THINKING LOGISTICS RN) and make it run through a loop of either Wheatley footage or GLaDOS footage (and maybe hide a motion sensor pointing at the door so it trips on as you walk in, Test Subject.)

I'M STILL THINKING ABOUT LIGHTING besides fluorescent lights

Then you just need to make a life-size turret

because who wouldn't want that

and if you really want to be hardcore

you make whatever closet space you have in this room look like one of Rattman's chambers, complete with art



Clearly there needs to be a geek-oriented room makeover show, like Room Crashers for Geeks. BECAUSE AWESOME.

And for my next trick I will do this same thing for Mass Effect because, uhm. Yes. Shepard's quarters on the Normandy would be super simple for a master bedroom, I mean come on.)

Comments

[admiral]

duuuuude, that would be so cool. DO IT.

[cannedcoelacanth]

I scared myself looking for the like button on this, then realized I wasn't on tumblr. Ooops.

A cheap, easy way to do decals would be to just cut them out of black contact paper. That stuff is amazing for decorating walls. In most cases, it peels right off the wall without removing the paint (of course you should test it first). And if the wall isn't textured, it's very easy to apply.

If you wanted to do fake walls, you could cut a pass through in the shape of a portal. Orange lights on one side, blue on the other. Failing that, mirrors might make nice pseudo-portals.

Lexan is probably the way to go for the hard light shelving. I think it's dyeable, and the regular plexiglass (or at least the kind we carry at my work) is kind of flimsy the longer it is, unless you get the really thick stuff.

THIS IS A FUN IDEA. Also, if someone can recreate a Trek bridge for their room, you can totes do a ME one.

[arcanelegacy]

I am so late to reply, but I am filing away that contact paper idea until I find more space (or, again, buy a house for MORE SPACE) because I'd love to put artful quotes and things on the walls and contact paper would be a nice way to do it.

THE BRIIIIDGE. I think I've seen some swanky Star Trek themed rooms going around - I'll have to dig them up for ideas.