I have a bunch of Airport Express that revived from power failure. I’m using two of them to extend my network. One of it was sitting in the drawer all the while. With a set of old stereo speaker and Ikea PICO clock, I’ve turn them into a all-in-one “AirSpeaker” that actually works and looks good.

Here’s what I’ve use:

• Airport Express
• Old stereo speaker
• Ikea PICO clock
• Power cable

And how I did it:

Start off by taking the PICO clock apart. There’s only few screw at the back by holding the plastic part of the clock to the wooden casing. Remove all of them but keep the screws. Once the clock out of the casing, there should be a sheet of clear glass at the bottom. take that out too. I won’t be using the glass.

Next is to put things together. I need to drill 3 hole on the wood casing. 2 for the speaker knob and one for power cable in.

From the photo above you can clearly see all the components. Although it seems like a lot of stuff, but there’re only 2 major parts, the speaker and Airport Express. Mine have an extra 5V USB charger in it cause the original Airport Express power supply is busted. Make sure you protect all power cable properly and glue all the parts into place.

For the top cover I’ve use a grille sheet cut into shape, wrap with pattern clothe. The front cover can be easily replace with other material, poster, cards, old packaging, other printout the list goes on, just use your creativity. Reuse the screws from the clock to hold the cover into place. For the back I just use a straw board. Lastly setup the Express to join my network and iTunes to stream music to it.

The whole project took me half afternoon. And of course, the clock still works as a it is on it’s own.

Add on:

If you happen to build one of this project on your own or have an Airport Express, do check out Airfoil from Rogue Amoeba. It’s a great app that allow you to stream audio from other sources than iTunes.

With recent announcement of iTunes 10 with AirPlay and any iDevices with iOS 4.2 should be able to stream music direct to Airport Express.