Trash Panda Likes It Hot: DIY American-Style Kotatsu

It’s been a fucking difficult year. And now it's the holidays and it's cold out and it's still not safe to spend time inside with loved ones who're outside of your pandemic pod. If you don't have a firepit or one of those expensive outdoor propane heaters how the fuck are you supposed to make this work?

Enter the Trash Panda Kotatsu.

Ok, so in Japan they've got these cool coffee table looking things with a heavy blanket skirt and a special heating unit attached up underneath. You sit on a cushion, put your legs underneath and snuggle up there to keep warm during the winter. These snuggly table friends are called kotatsu. 

Actual kotatsu don't really work for American outdoor winter gathering purposes during COVID because:

They're real short. Like just over a foot tall. They're meant for sitting around on the ground or on a cushion. Nobody wants to do that outside during the winter because the ground is cold and wet. Also most Americans are so used to sitting in chairs they can't bend that way anyway.
They're also not very wide or deep. Great for small living rooms, not great for social distancing.
And they're not cheap. Quick search on Amazon says they're $200-400. I mean, that seems like a good price for a magical warm blanket table, but that's a lot of money to drop during a global pandemic. And you have to throw in a voltage converter because these are made for use in Japan and Japan has different electricity.  

Fortunately for all of us lonely, cold & impoverished Americans, all you need to make your own outdoor American DIY kotatsu is a table, a space heater, a large heavy blanket, and maybe a good outdoor use extension cord. And depending on how lumpy your big heavy blanket is, maybe some trays or a second table top to put over the blanket so you can put your drinks down without them tipping over.  Hopefully you've got all this stuff around your house so it doesn't cost you anything but five minutes setup time.

Make Your DIY Trash Panda Kotatsu in six easy steps!

• Place table outdoors, preferably out of the rain and wind. For social distancing purposes, a long folding table is a better option than a tiny card table
• Plug in space heater and place under table
• Put big blanket(s) over table. Make sure blankets are at least big enough to reach the ground, preferably a bit longer. If using multiple blankets, make sure they overlap or pin them together so there's fewer ways for heat to escape.
• Maybe set down some trays or a second table top over the big blanket
• Turn on space heater
• Pull up your chair and tuck blanket around legs
• Extra credit: pin, tie or tape fabric to the legs of your chairs to create little chair skirts that help keep the heat in when you tuck in your chairs

Enjoy the glorious warmth of good company and your new magical blanket table friend!

Advisements for the safe use of your Trash Panda Kotatsu in the times of COVID

Don't catch on fire: 

• Use a new-ish heater with independent safety certification and modern safety features, like automatic tip-over turnoff and shutoff in case of overheating. Wirecutter and Consumer Reports both have good "best of" lists
• Place the heater on a hard, flat, nonflammable surface...like the ground
• Plug that space heater directly into a wall outlet that it doesn't have to share with any other devices
• If you have to use an extension cord, the US Department of Energy says to use the shortest possible heavy-duty cord of 14-gauge wire or larger and to always check and follow any manufacturer’s instructions pertaining to the use of extension cords
• DO NOT plug your space heater into a power strip. It could blow up. For real
• Don't leave your heater on without supervision, it might act up and catch something on fire
• Ok, so you're supposed to keep space heaters three feet away from things that might catch on fire, like tables, blankets, and your pants. If you have a giant table that'll give your heater that kind of clearance, sweet. If not, please be careful and turn the damn thing off when you walk away from the table, ok?

Don't catch COVID:

• Keep your masks on
• Don't use your sweet new DIY Trash Panda Kotatsu as an excuse to invite over your whole damn rugby team. Keep it to small groups of whatever limits your state or county is recommending at the time
• Space yourselves out as much as possible - a six foot folding table is better for this purpose than a bitty little card table

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References: 

How to Not Burn Your House Down With a Space Heater by Thom Dunn. Wirecutter.com, updated November 16, 2020.

How to Find the Safest Space Heater for Your Home by Mary H.J. Farrell. ConsumerReports.com, updated November 1st, 2019.

Portable Heaters by the Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy. Energy.gov, accessed November 29th, 2020.

Photo credit: 

Kotatsu Electric & Kotatsu Electric Underside by Hustvedt, September 28, 2009, on Wikimedia Commons. Graphic design and photo editing by Trash Panda DIY.

Beautiful outdoor American-style DIY kotatsu, photography & art direction by Brett Wiseman.