It was October 2012 and I was living in China, a country that had fascinated me since my childhood in Iran. I was living in a modest apartment in Wudaokou, Beijing, sharing the space with four roommates. They all came from various corners of the globe, each with a story uniquely their own.
One of them stood out: a young 20-something Indonesian-Chinese student from Peking University, with dreams of becoming a renowned pianist and composer. He lived by a principle famously articulated:
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."
Theodore Roosevelt
He embodied this philosophy and it soon began to influence my outlook.
Our living conditions were modest. We lived in a building still under construction with unreliable hot water and electricity amidst the freezing Beijing winters. Looking back, it's almost amusing to think we were inadvertently practicing the Wim Hof method.
My room was a testament to minimalism, stripped to the essentials. To me, "essentials" meant just that—nothing more, nothing less. The floor was my seat, my desk, and sometimes even my bed. My roommate's suggestion to enhance my living space came unexpectedly:
"Improve it? It's the floor. What do you have in mind?" I asked.
He proposed extending my bed to create a workbench—a crazy idea, but one that could improve both my posture and my productivity. Intrigued, I wondered how we might pull this off. He responded that we could "save our money and use what we have."
"Use what we have?" I was skeptical. The idea of extending the bed with limited materials seemed far-fetched. "Ready? Just help me!" He responded, charged with enthusiasm and a quick-paced Indonesian accent.
...and before I knew it, we were tearing my bed apart.
Without precise measurements or new materials, we transformed the bed's wooden foundation into something entirely different—a bed with a retractable bench that helped me work and relax.
Here are two pictures of my bed with a retractable bench. This allowed me to easily work, dine, and organize items on it.
You had to see it to truly appreciate its brilliance.
The experience was eye-opening. It wasn’t just about rearranging furniture; it was about seeing potential where I hadn’t before. I began to think differently: What could I achieve if I took stock of what I had and used it creatively?
But as I surveyed my room for other projects, I realized everything already had its place. The simplicity of our living space—a desk, a wardrobe, a bed—left little room for innovation. It was a stark reminder of how our minds, shaped by routine, can stifle creativity:
"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."
Albert Einstein
The true testament to his creativity came weeks later. I returned home to find our apartment in chaos and knocked on his door, curious. Before I could ask, I saw him tearing apart his wardrobe.
"What are you doing now?" I asked.
He envisioned a sliding table that would slide over his bed, transforming his sleeping space into a multifunctional hub for dining, working, and entertainment.
I didn't know what he was imagining, but that didn't stop me from believing every bit of what he was intending to build.
He explained that one of the wardrobe's doors appeared to be the length needed to cover the width of his bed. That, he thought, would make for a perfect tabletop. With that in mind, he was off to build the ultimate table.
He explained that since the table will be long, it will need to slide back and forth to be ergonomic. So, he added wheels and put the entire table on tracks mounted to the side of the bed. The tabletop slid with ease.
With a mix of ingenuity and resourcefulness, he repurposed materials from our apartment, adding under-glow lighting, built-in speakers, and even a custom lamp made from washing machine hoses. In the pictures below, you can see how he used these flexible tubes as an LED light. He also built a docking station under the table to put away the lamp when not in use.
The table was not just a table—it was an experience.
As the table took form, he ran wires underneath to power under-glow lights, speakers, and outlets for easy charging. This could've aired as an episode on "Pimp My Ride" where Xzibit would show the creation of a ridiculous table.
It was time to finish up the top with organizers to store plates, books, and other random stuff. He used some thick rubber mat to hold the tableware in place. After about an hour of precision cutting, the tabletop was complete.
At that point, we were joking that this table was on its way to becoming conscious.
After a couple of days, the table:
- Covered the entire width of the bed and slid with ease
- Served as a working bench and organized his tableware
- Lit up the room and provided under-glow lighting
- Powered his electrical devices and entertained with built-in speakers
- … and who knows what else
If I were to pay someone to build me a custom table, it wouldn't be as functional nor unique. The real magic was that he did it all with what we had on hand.
I didn't know it at the time, but I later came to understand this process as bricolage, the French term for making do with what's available. This wasn’t just furniture; it was a philosophy that challenged the way I saw the world.
What started as a simple apartment in Beijing became an experience of creativity, discovery, and friendship. It’s a reminder that with imagination, even the most ordinary objects can be reimagined into something extraordinary.
Through this story, I hope to inspire you to embrace bricolage in your creative endeavors. Who knows what you might create with the resources at your disposal? I mean, you really have to ask. Who looks at a bed and sees a workbench? Who sees lamps in washing machine hoses? Who envisions a multifunctional table in a wardrobe?
My roommate, Zhang, does.
I extend my gratitude to Hacker News (Y Combinator) for their support and stimulating discussions. While opinions on the term "genius" may vary, geocrasher's suggestion to describe these creative exploits as "ingenious" seems most fitting, capturing the essence of resourcefulness, originality, and clever execution that defined our experiences.