Walking around in your favorite video game worlds was probably a dream of every young gamer. These floor mats from JBox can’t exactly put you into a game, but they can help you recreate one in your home. The Quest 8-Bit Mat Sets feature the recognizable blocky graphics we all know and love from the early days of video gaming.

There are four sets, and each comes with four blocks. Two are “base” blocks (like grass) and two are “special” blocks (like treasure chests). The foam blocks all interlock to form a soft, cushy surface on which to sit and while away the hours playing vintage Super Mario Bros games.

For just $6.85 a set, the blocks seem like a rather good deal…but you would need an awful lot of sets to re-floor your entire living room. If you did manage that feat of nerdery (and questionable home decorating), you might just be able to play a life-size game of The Legend of Zelda with a few willing friends.

The post Walkin’ On a Dream: Floor Tiles Put You in 8-Bit Games first appeared on Gajitz.

Even for avid home decorating enthusiasts, putting up wallpaper is all kinds of annoying. The décor trend has waned a bit over the last couple decades but is making a comeback because, well, it just looks good. Before you call foul based on the memories of that hideous early-80s floral print your parents were too lazy to take down from your bathroom walls, have a look at the future of wallpaper with the Freenter DIY printer concept.

Based on the instant gratification, user-friendly trend that has pervaded DIY technological advances, the Freenter uses a handheld printer (which resembles a pregnant iPad) to put prints on your walls. You can create your own design by drawing or typing on the device. Then, you simply swipe it across the wall to create instant wallpaper. Want an orange unicorn frolicking in a pile of pandas on your wall? If you can draw it, you can make it into your new wall decoration.

The post Hand-Held Printer Concept Helps You Put Up With Wallpaper first appeared on Gajitz.

If you’re especially worried about the security of your home wireless network, or if you’re the kind of person who wears tinfoil hats to avoid the effects of electromagnetic waves, this wallpaper could help ease your mind. The wallpaper is covered with silver crystals arranged in patterns that were specially designed to block certain frequencies. When ordering the wallpaper you can choose which frequencies to block and which to allow, so wi-fi signals can be stopped from leaving your residence while cell phone calls are allowed to go through. Neighbors won’t be able to steal your wi-fi, and exterior electromagnetic waves can be kept out.

The wallpaper won’t block radio or emergency signals, and if you don’t dig the silver snowflake motif you can paint over it or install your choice of other wallpaper over it without affecting its functionality. Of course, to maximize the efficiency of a product like this you would need to install it on all of your walls, your floors and ceilings, and your windows. Perhaps future home builders will start building barriers like this right into the walls of new structures so we won’t have to fiddle with installation later. Finnish company Ahlstrom is expected to release the wallpaper in 2013 at a price that is on par with regular, non-paranoid-people wallpaper.

The post Anti Wi-Fi Wallpaper Bedecks Your Home’s Walls in Security first appeared on Gajitz.

Some people take the “nature” trend a little too far when they’re decorating their homes. This iPod dock is made of the entire trunk of a real tree, putting a little bit of nature right there in your living room. The iTree contains speakers and a charging station for your iPhone/iPod so that you can fill your home with music as you make the forest shed a little tear.

Every iTree is unique, so even if one of your friends decided to pony up the 11,000 Euros (over $14,000) just like you, you would still have a totally one-of-a-kind masterpiece to boast about. They’re hand-made by KMKG Studio and can be used as makeshift battering rams in an emergency…probably.

The post If a Tree Falls in Your Apartment, Can You Hear Your Music? first appeared on Gajitz.

The phrase “she lit up the room when she walked in” is about to get a lot more literal. Electronics giant Philips has unveiled plans to introduce a glowing, color-changing wall covering that will provide a whole new layer of ambient lighting and customizable room decor. The flexible panels will combine LEDs with sound wave response, making the lighted wall covering react to certain sounds in the room. Music, movies and even conversations will be able to affect the way the room itself looks.

The panels are flexible aluminum designed to dampen sound in a large room, so they could be doubly useful in business settings to create a more intimate atmosphere. The shifting colors can be programmed to the user’s taste in order to create a specific mood – then changed at will to create a whole different feeling for the next event.

Philips doesn’t say when the panels will be available or how much they might cost, but the concept seems to be geared more toward businesses than individuals. It isn’t hard to see how a hotel, restaurant or dance club could make good use of glowing wallpaper. But there is also something to be said for having dancing lights covering the walls of a living room.

The post Glowing Wallpaper Makes Room Design Totally Customizable first appeared on Gajitz.