This table/day bed by UK based brand Another Country is a sure contender for a small urban apartment. A beautiful and versatile piece of furniture can be transformed from one state to another in seconds. The base is solid FSC oak and employs a screw leg system. The mattress has an organic latex core wrapped in organic coir and wool. It comes upholstered in a Bute fabric from Scotland with a six-button detail and piped edges. So no matter how you use the piece, as a table or a bed, it looks stylish and well-malde.
Thanks To The Tree is a creative collaboration between designer David Boon and carpenter De Lappen. And this cool and clever Print Cupboard (love the bookshelf feature!) is their first love child. When you order the piece you have a choice of 10 unique prints. Thus, each cupboard is special. “TTTT seeks minimal pressure on the environment and works only with local woods and natural products. – designers say, – The furniture and objects are made by hand individually and in small editions to endure the test of time. In this way, the fun you will experience will also be very durable.”
There is a lot to love about this wine rack, created by New York based designer Edward Kilduff of Pollen Design. Aptly called Houdini, the piece disappears into a thin wire mesh when folded. And thanks to its modular construction the rack can easily expand to accomodate 12, 24, or 48 bottles of wine. The assembly is a snap, quite literally. I like how minimal and unobtrusive this product is. You can easily add it to your existing storage, put it in your pantry (if you’re lucky to have one) or even your fridge. One unit unfolds to reveal a four-bottle wine rack. The piece is made of high-tensile strength coated wire. Available for purchase here.
Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Donald M. Rattner.
GRO furniture is a remarkable solution to a fact of life: very little about a child stays the same for long. As most parents can attest, that can make things pretty expensive pretty fast. GRO’s genius is to turn this reality to advantage by designing a piece of children’s furniture that will change as the child changes – and change back when it’s time to pass it on to the next generation or sibling. In between it can break down and be stored flat-packed for space saving.
Things start, naturally, with the crib. As the child grows the crib will convert to a toddler bed, then to a daybed, next to a play table, and finally to a desk – all using simple conversion kits. This makes GRO furniture a potentially multi-generational cradle-to-college design solution.
GRO was designed by two architects, a fact reflected in its quality of construction and easy, hardware- and fastener-free assembly. Made in the USA.
– Absolutely brilliant book cover for Orwell’s 1984.
– If you heart Tina Fey as much as I do – you will enjoy this read. (via swissmiss)
– Florian Gross, who created my favorite storage item of all time, emailed today to brag about his new project – Nordic Fashion Design Store. It’s quite a looker, don’t you think? Love the simplicity and use of the material.
– Fruits like you’ve never seen them before. A collection of re-imagined fruits and vegetables by Sarah Illenberger.
– The world’s loudest purring cat, possibly a future Guinness record winner.
– Lapka – a cool gizmo that collects information about your invisible surroundings and displays it on your phone.
– Here is a bright way to deal with unsightly cordage – Wire Skyline.
– Lumoback – an iPhone app that reminds you not to slouch.
Have a pleasant weekend, guys!
Out of many prefab house concepts I’ve seen lately, this one stand out. Created by New Zealand based architect studio Atelierworkshop, this house is a beautiful reincarnation of a prosaic shipping container. Just like a regular container it ships anywhere in a truck or a helicopter, attaches easily to any plot of land and allows comfortable existence for two adults and two children. The interior includes bunk beds, double bed room, dressing room, kitchen and bathroom. The space can be zoned with dividers, creating great versatility. Exterior canvas screens provide privacy when needed. The container house is environmentally clean and self-sufficient. It can even be suited to remote or non-service supplied land. Atelierworkshop is looking for partners to mass produce the concept.
The Klaffi-hylly (clapperboard) shelf by Finland based studio ELSA is a multifunctional and adaptable item. This shelving system is built with small spaces in mind, it allows you to fold the shelves you are not using and slim the unit down. Klaffi-hylly can fit many storage needs, you can use it for magazines, books, DVDs, CDs, cookbooks, dishes, collectibles… It can also work well as a bedside table/shelving unit or an entryway item. The piece comes in solid oak, ash and white birch and is available in natural, black, white, orange and light blue finishes.
Earlier this week I featured a video about furnishing a tiny room. One of the products in that footage was so clever, I thought it deserved a special mention. The Tiefschlaf bed by Linda Altmann und Oliver Krapf consists of six panels. The headboard element is an option. The bed can be easily assembled and secured with straps. And if you need to free some space – you can take the elements apart in minutes and store them neatly on top of each other. A definite hit for any studio apartment, Tiefschlaf has already won the Interior Innovation Award at the IMM Cologne 2013. I personally love the fact that in addition to being portable, the piece has an elegant, “eamesy” vibe. It doesn’t look like a temp item at all. Made from wood veneer, the bed comes in two sizes and three finishes.
Here is one truly inventive small dwelling. Small and also versatile. The story of this unusual home goes back to the year 1996, when Barcelona architects Eva Prats and Ricardo Flores were hired to convert an old community laundry into a penthouse. At just 27 square meters (290 square feet), the space was minimal; it was also just a temporary home for the clients. Since the owners only intended to use the space a couple weekends per month, they didn’t want to build anything fundamental and laborious. Minimal work was their reqiest. Prats and Flores delivered their solution in the form of two suitcases. The above video, shot by Fair Companies, takes us through a day in the life of the Casa en una Maleta (House in a Suitcase), where all the furniture, housewares, and other living whatnots come out of the two trunks, placed in the middle of the room. Enjoy!
Verso Shelf is a minimalist and versatile piece, created by Finland-based designer Mikko Halonen for furniture brand One Nordic. Slick and transparent, the piece allows you to store (and display) things without physical and visual clutter. The shelf comes with three magazine stands, which can be attached to any of the ladders of the shelf, at the height you prefer. Thanks to this clever addition, you can use Verso for clothes, accessories or whatever comes into mind. The piece is available in two sizes and three colors – black, white and natural wood. Check out the video after the break to see what a snap it is (literally) to assemble the product.
