Odds & Ends, Bits & Pieces is a beautiful four-piece furniture set made entirely out of re-purposed materials. Designed by Inhabitat favorite Jo Meesters, the spring-colored furniture was crafted using a variation of upholstering and weaving techniques and is an amazing transformation of 34 discarded wooden beams and 16 leftover blankets.
Imagine inviting a dinner party of six into a formal dining room with only 3 chairs. The horror! Well, it’s really no problem with the Guarda Inside-Out Chair by Zanic Design. At first glance it’s a sleek, modern piece that is so slim, it can’t possibly have room to hide a box of chocolates, let alone a whole other chair. That is unless the other chair is molded right around the first chair like a second skin – hidden in plain sight. When you slide the white outer chair off, it “gives birth” to the inner one nesting doll-style. What a great way to psych your dinner guests out!
For parents living in small dwellings in the big city, furniture that is aesthetically pleasing, highly functional and compactable is a must… especially when it comes to making room for kids and all their accouterments, either by expansion or hideaway tactics. The Offi Paket Table and Chairs set is an eco-friendly masterpiece that comprises all of the aspects mentioned above. It stylishly houses a table and four chairs in a compact storage cube that opens up to provide space to share a meal. Made of laminated birch plywood and powder coated metal, the Paket Table and Chairs set should be a staple piece in every family’s home.
Whether you’re an advocate of low-footprint living or a space-restricted city dweller looking to get the most milage out of your dining room, Ecosystems‘ brand new transforming Bada table may be just the piece you’re looking for. Crafted entirely from reclaimed walnut, the slick table features an ingenious design that transforms into a loveseat with a flick of the wrist, saving on both the space and materials consumed by multiple pieces of furniture.
The word Tagei means versatility in Japanese, and what better way to describe this fabulous line of plyboo furniture that converts from table into bench? Brooklyn designer Akemi Tanaka caught our eye last year when she debuted her clever Futaba unfolding couch/table. Now Akemi’s got a new addition to the eco-friendly, transforming-furniture family, and we think its as cute and clever as its big sister Futaba.
What is it about the Dutch and design? Why is it that most witty and thought-provoking designers these days all seem to be coming out of the Netherlands? Tord Boontje, Jurgen Bey, Hella Jongerious, Droog… Its hard to put a finger on exactly what it is that unites these different designers ? but there seems to be a certain playfulness to Dutch design which makes it uniquely compelling.
I’m a big fan of transformer furniture these days. Any furniture that has fold-out parts and a variety of different configurations is A-okay in my book. This Rotor Coffee Table from Design Within Reach is another in the line of mega-efficient modular tables. It is composed of a stationary top and base and three swively surfaces in-between, which radiate outward 360? to create endless table configurations. In its most compact form, the table is a simple cube that fits neatly into smaller spaces; when the three interior surfaces are expanded outward, the table gains up to five times the surface area. Plus the geometric design is inherently beautiful. It looks good in almost any configuration.
$1700 from Design Within Reach
We could all use a bit more space in our place. Thats why I have such love for folding 2?in?1 furniture like Murphy beds and More Doors. Next in this illustrious line of folding furniture is Reversica’s reversible media center. Sort of like a Murphy bed for the high-tech generation, Reversica’s Gyre allows you to swivel between your flat screen TV on one side, and your books and knick-knacks on the other side. Very cool.
The hit product at ICFF this year appeared to be Molo’s softwall. This giant flexible wall made out of crenellated paper was on display everywhere. It was prominent not only in Molo’s booth, but surrounding quite a few other companies’ stands as well. The softwall’s appeal is evident ? it is totally flexible in shape and size, and can be transported and set-up anywhere to alter the space of a room at whim. It is translucent, fire retardant, modular (multiple walls can be snapped together), and the delicate honeycomb pattern evokes origami and Japanese paper-craft. Who can argue with the softwall? The two architects behind Molo, Stephanie Forsythe & Todd MacAllen, have a whole line of soft products: softlight, softroom, and even softhousing.
One of the best things I saw at ICFF was this expanding table design by Austrian furniture company Xpand System. What I love about this is that the design is so simple and uncluttered, and the functionality is ten times better than any other expanding table I’ve ever seen. You just pull one end of the table to expand it, and the latticed wood in the middle stretches apart like an accordian. There is no need to remove tableware in the way that you would have to with an old-school expandable table. Plus, the patented “Xpand System” in the middle of the table is actually quite beautiful as a design element.
To go with your MOD Cabinet, Glide also makes a series of cute modular lights. The Twist-Together lights will appeal to the kid in you with their Lego-esque, building?block design. They can be assembled piece by piece into any formation you desire. It is so easy to pop the square blocks on and off that you can reassemble your twisty lamp every 5 minutes if you wanted to. For more complicated building fun, you can add shelving to the light blocks, and turn them into Twist-Together Light+Storage Units. Fun for the whole family!
Okay, so I know I am writing a lot about doors recently. I just can’t resist. Finally door design is becoming about more than just blocking or facilitating movement into a space. About time! Urban Rock Design’s More Doors project is essentially just a contemporary update on the classic Murphy Bed idea. Furniture that folds up vertically into wall space isn’t a new idea, but there is a surprising dearth of designers doing anything interesting and aesthetically pleasing with this concept.
Hmmm. Another rising Dutch design star, another door. I don’t usually wax this lyrical about doors, but then I haven’t seen so many interesting doors in a long time. Marjet Wessels Boer’s Door of Secrets seems to be an over-arching concept rather than a specific design. She shows 6 different door designs on her website, all featuring little compartments that can be taken …
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