This image of a charming plywood platform bed reminded us of the late Tobias Wong’s bed made of a mattress on top of a grouping of file cabinets. No need for an OFFICIAL bed, of the grand style seen on every home blog and magazine. A good mattress on a flat sturdy slab is a simple formula. And…
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Our new favorite blog Moon to Moon has a swell house tour of the lightly renovated 450 square foot apartment of architect Lukáš Kordík of GutGut architects. The major takeaway for us, aside from the pleasingly UNconstructed feel of the space, is Kordík’s use of laminate. First there’s the stylish turquoise kitchen cabinet with oven and storage built in;…
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Disappointed by the cheesiness of many of the mainstream products at a big furniture show, we wandered down a long corridor to the Pavilion of student work. THERE we saw some really interesting things made by design students: original ideas, good execution, sparks for our imagination, and some stuff we’d really love to take home. It reminded us of Niels Strøyer Christophersen’s very good advice about buying furniture.
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We recently came across another clever possibility in the realm of cardboard, one of our favorite materials, especially corrugated cardboard which is lightweight, durable, recyclable, and inexpensive: the cardboard standing desk. Recently a Kickstarter campaign, you can order one from Chairigami for $95, or copy the design analyzing the gif, below.
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Furniture and product shows like the upcoming ICFF teach some useful and unexpected lessons in buying products for your home.
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We love this face of crochet bits that is peaking through the fence, that we think were done by Isabel Rower, who tends to embellish whatever is at hand. And as soon as we posted it, we found THIS image of a crochet-bombed benches at the San Francisco ferry building. Spring is here and it’s…
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This charming striped, oddly-shaped coffee table from the 70’s made us consider what we take for granted in the realm of coffee tables. WHY NOT stripe them?
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Just about everyone we know has on-going piles of books they are in the process of reading somewhere in their house, whether it be along side the sofa (us), the bathroom (us), or on the bed table (MANY people). The New York Times Book Reviews’ weekly column By the Book asks writers what is currently…
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We love this design idea from German design group Ambivalenz. The Fläpps: Folding Chair doubles as an artwork, and a simple folding ‘picnic’ chair. The chair snaps out into a modern, streamlined version of a fold-out chair. Unfolded however, it transforms into a less than one-inch-thick artwork,
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We’re big fans of the versatile Componibili system of modular storage units. Originally designed by Anna Castelli Ferrieri for Kartell in 1969, they have since become a modern classic. Made of ABS, the units come in rounds and squares that can be stacked, stand alone, and put on wheeled bases. They are flexible, functional and stylish. Their simple lines seem to work in just about any interior and just about any room, from bathroom to living.
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Italian artist Costanza Algranti forges recycled material such as copper and iron into uniquely modern items for the home, with an aesthetic very different from many repurposed home design we see.
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There are a number of great ideas in this image of antique dealer Lars Kristensen’s Copenhagen home. We’ve blogged the essential ideas before but think Kristensen’s unique take worth checking out.
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Angled headboards are much more comfortable than straight-up-and-down, right-angled headboards. Check out some examples of REALLY comfortable angles, bed frame possibilities AND a way to DIY an angled headboard yourself.
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It many of the modern interiors we browse online, there’s a lamb or sheep skin thrown onto a mid-century chair. They are everywhere, so ubiquitous they are a bit…er…irritating. Then we saw this chair designed by Franco Albini for Cassina (in 1959! but still available) and thought Aha! Why not completely COVER an ordinary chair with sheep skin…
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Artists Donald Judd and Martin Kippenberger both liked sleeping on a low platform, unbounded in the room…the precursor to the popular pallet bed?
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The supermarket shopping cart has always seemed to us to be a splendid raw material, its metal-grid walls and sturdy wheels rich with possibilities. Artists have long been hacking shopping carts, transforming them into moderne, beautifully-designed objects of leisure.
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In the process of experimenting with mechanisms for his clever “Evolution Door”, artist Klemens Torggler came up with an innovative take on the room screen, turning the idea into a kinetic sculpture.
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An essential practice of improvising is developing x-ray vision: you gradually train your eye, or mind to identify the essential structure of a thing, to understand how it works and how it is made. We learned about plywood construction by scrutinizing some cool simple furniture.
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These shiny black Alvar Aalto stools reminded us of just how great and versatile these simple classic stools are. In the open air Kauppatori food market in Helsinki, where Aalto was from, the stools provide seating at just about every coffee stand. Before we knew who Aalto was, we were buying Ikea’s knock-off, the Frosta — which…
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The trend of the past several years to make sofas deeper so that they appear more luxurious is bad design in the name of the illusion of affluence and style. Here’s our thinking…
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