George3 Console Table by Gareth Neal

The George3 console table is designed by Gareth Neal, and is a piece of furniture that is quite unique, and can very easily catch your eye. In the same style we presented last year another interesting table by Gareth Neal. The only problem I can see is there will be dust to collect in those small spaces, and it could be difficult to take it away.

Amazing Landscape Architecture : Namba Parks

Namba Parks is a really amazing piece of architecture, a place where you’ll spend half your time shopping and the other half admiring the design. It stands where Osaka’s baseball stadium used to be until 2003, and consists of a 30-floor skyscraper, Parks Tower, and 120-tenant shopping mall which includes many restaurants and a cinema. The eight floors of terraced gardens, boutique stores, big brands and trendy dining have been an instant hit in shopping-mad Osaka. In addition to providing a highly visible green component in a city where nature is sparse, the sloping park connects to the street, welcoming passers-by to enjoy its groves of trees, clusters of rocks, cliffs, lawn, streams, waterfalls, ponds and outdoor terraces.

Stretched, Curved, Stacked and Unusual Pieces of Furniture

These pieces of furniture which aren’t practical shelving space, are called Dust Furniture and are designed by craft artist Vincent Thomas Leman. Vincent’s work has been described as ‘abstract traditional furniture.’ Each piece is essentially a traditional piece of furniture that is stretched, curved, stacked and stepped to fit his design intentions. While wood is the material employed to make his furniture, Vincent considers his actual medium to be ‘traditional furniture.’ The classical root of each piece helps maintain its identity as furniture and keeps the work familiar and approachable despite the unusual shapes. Environmental integrity is also very important to Dust Furniture.

JBL Control Now Speakers

JBL just launched a new set of speakers that are uniquely shaped to provide multiple installation options depending upon your space. They are called the Control Now speakers and they are priced at around $250 each ($280 for an outdoor version). The Control NOW speakers feature a quarter-round shape which means the speakers can be mounted between a ceiling and a wall or between two walls, or horizontally/vertically on the bookshelf, a few examples of how these speakers can be used you can see in the image below. The 8-Ohm speakers offer a frequency response from 80 Hz to 30 KHz, and can handle up to 300 Watts at peak, although 150 Watts is a more realistic maximum power. The speakers offer an integrated 2000 Hz crossover that divides the work between the main drivers and the 3/4-inch high-frequency horn, and they feature removable push terminals for connecting speaker cabling.

Speak Bubble Shaped Speakers

In the last two weeks I think that I’ve presented about 3 or 4 speakers designs, but the design for today is the cutest, and I can say that is also my favorite. These speakers are simply called Speak-er, and for now they are just a very interesting “speak bubble shaped speakers” concept from Sherwood Forlee. This designer has on his page a sentence that I totally adore : “Sherwood Forlee is a designer with no design or art education.” I love this sentence because this is another proof that of a very creative product, without spending years studying. In these days with all the informations available on the internet you can learn anything and master it if you really want.

Furniture from Giant Lego Bricks : LunaBlocks

For those of you who loved Lego when you were young here is something that might remind you of that period. Designed and created by Thierry Nahon & Philippe Landecker, LunaBlocks are based on an original concept, the transformation and enlargement of bricks used in building games for children. Easily stacked together, functional and totally versatile, LunaBlocks are designed for the world of decoration and for the home. Like traditional Legos, these blocks come in a variety of colors and configurations all you need to finish a project is some glass, a pillow or cushion, some creativity and loads and loads of disposable income. Unfortunately, each one of these bricks will set you back $20-$55, which could make your dream of turning your pad into a mini Legoland quite costly. You can buy the bricks online from Homology. The good part is that you can create your own piece of furniture, and change it’s shape from time to time.

Stink Coffee Table, A Table That Cracked

The Stink table is designed by Dylan Gold for Link Studios and it is a brilliant conversation piece for those guests that appreciate contrast in modern design. Now I know that a lot of people would say, but is a cracked table, I can’t use it. That’s right that stuff will fall through the cracks if you are not careful, and you should buy it only if you want a piece of modern design that looks good, but it isn’t really functional. According to the designer, Dylan Gold, the table is very heavy, made of solid mdf layers coated in automotive lacquer and clear coat. Finally to solve the cracked part the designer suggests that you can also fit it with a piece of glass on top.

Branch Bookshelf

Shaped as a tree branch, this supposed bookshelf looks like a part from a super tree that managed to grow through your walls. With an unique and simple design inspired by the nature this branch not only supports books or objects, but it can also as be used as a clothing rack. This piece was designed after the designers ( Wokmedia ) went to work in Sri Lanka, and they experienced a culture shock. They wanted to take a reminder of the feeling of the flooded environment home so they transformed the image of “partially submerged trees” into shelves. Now if you want a creative way to store your books, you can try to find a sturdy branch like the one above and set up your own branch shelf.

Compact Desk for Apartments with a Limited Amount of Space

At a first glance this piece of furniture looks like a simple cabinet, but if you take a closer look you’ll see that this cabinet can be coverted into a 55″ full-size desk, making it a clever solution for studio apartments and multipurpose rooms. This innovative compact desk is an awesome piece of furniture that can be very useful in tight spaces. When open, the top of the cabinet reveals generous storage space for a laptop, plus cubbies with removable dividers to stow paper clips, rubber bands and other smalls. Below are a storage drawer and one letter and legal-size file. Integrated wood handles run the length of the drawers, which slide smoothly on ball-bearing glides.

Wooden Chair with a Secret Drawer : Moheli

Moheli Wooden Chair with drawer is an interesting idea, and is a great piece of furniture especially if you want a piece of furniture with secret drawers or compartments. The secret drawer that is placed under the chair can be used to hide your personal belongings from your guests eyes and also have them readily available at your fingertips when your need them. Just don’t place heavy objects is this drawer, because if you’ll have to move the chair then you’ll have troubles with the extra weight.

Drawerment : A Composition of Drawers from Old Furniture

This idea looks nice, but is not something new, we presented some time ago a similar piece ( Chest of Drawers ), that was made from of discarded drawers, found and rescued at flea markets. Drawerment is a composition of drawers collected from old office furniture. The Drawerment is the creation of Czech designer Jaroslav Jurica of the Hubero Kororo Design Group and it was designed for the Dutch design house, Demakersvan for their renovated studio in Rotterdam. Jurica designed this to celebrate “the 15th anniversary of Tejo Remy’s chest of drawers for Droog Design called “You Can’t Lay Down Your Memory”. The idea as I’ve said is not new, but is another example of have we can use recycled pieces of furniture, to make something unique.

Two-piece Flower Vase in the Shape of a Whale

The flowers, placed in the whale’s ‘blow hole’, are like a colorful burst of water spray. Bêda’s vase is still in the concept phase, but he is looking to have it produced and on the market. I hope that he will get lucky and find someone that will help him produce this vase, because the design looks very good, and would be great in any modern home.

So not your Grandma’s Sofa – Star System Collection

The designers described taking the chester classic sofa and transforming it into a “radical monoblock sculpture.” The “chester classic block” designs come in deliciously vibrant candy colours – purple, blue, red, fuschia and basic white, enough to make you all starry-eyed. The rolling curves and sculptured shapes of the Star and SuperStar make for plush and wide seating. The Starlet, the swivel armchair is the smallest of this starry collection.

Modular Carpet Tiles – Alexander Girard’s La Fonda del Sol Collection

Modular carpet tiles are the way to go for a beautiful yet customizable focal area for your living space. New from Flor.com are these drop dead gorgeous designs by Alexander Girard, the renowned textile designer. His La Fonda del Sol celebrates folk art designs like you’ve never seen before – whimsical sun shapes in must-have colours to warm up any neutral decor. The most useful feature of modular carpet tiles is the ability to add more than one set for total design flexibility. Mix and match from their different design offerings. There are three main colour selections – the Verde, Mandarina and Azul. If the larger designs aren’t your cup of tea, then try the smaller scale Pequeno which has nine sun graphics in one tile. Like the other tiles, the Pequeno tiles can be built up to cover larger surfaces.

Untitled Chair by Alessandro Bêda

This chair is rather a cool concept proposed by the Portuguese designer Alessandro Bêda, we presented another interesting concept made by him a week ago ( Two-piece Flower Vase in the Shape of a Whale ). He called this chair “Untitled Chair“, and it seems that he’s not very good at coming up with names for his designs. I would like to name this chair “Perfect Shape” because design features 100 gas shock absorbers that enable the chair to adjust to pressure and change its shape to accommodate the person or object placed on it. The measurements of the chair are exactly the same of the LC2 Petit Comfort by Le Corbusier. Until now this chair is just a concept, but designer Alessandro Bêda told on his website that he’ll start working on a prototype soon, though he ponders if his concept is really doable.

Five Franklin Place by Unstudio

Five Franklin is a 20-story building designed by Ben van Berkel of Unstudio that will be located at 5 Franklin Place, between Broadway and Sixth in Tribeca. The building pays homage to TriBeCa’s iconic cast-iron aesthetic, with a facade constructed from reflective black metal bands of varying widths. This facade treatment offers privacy with maximum light and views within each residence. The metal bands twist like ribbons, wrapping Five Franklin Place with terraces and balconies, employing this decorative element as a functional tool. The interiors of the 55 residences are designed in three distinct apartment types: Loft Residences, City Residences and Sky Penthouses, each with their own distinct architectural features, colour palate and choice of materials. Potential buyers will need to shell out between $2 million and $16 million for one of the 55 residences, comprised of apartments, duplex lofts, or duplex townhouses.

Kitchen Design Inspiration from Sanidero

For those that are serious about the way the kitchen looks like, Snaidero has a few ideas to choose from. With a modern design and features a combination of stainless steel and LED lighting, the Venus kitchen uses a Solid Surface top to make the countertop. It has plenty of storage and though simple, it’s really eye-catching. The Skyline kitchen is a bit different, with an ergonomically adapt design, great color combination and great functionality, it looks pretty neat and uses every space at its best. Last one is the Time kitchen. It looks classic and is not really my style, but I’m sure there are people who’d choose one, if asked. It has lots of details, either teak, cherry, light oak, dark oak or matte lacquer, a 9cm thick worktop and side panels that symmetrically follow the lines of the cabinet.

Table with Hexagonal Form and Round Shapes

It’s been a long day at the office, you get home, change into something comfortable and watch the football game. Wouldn’t you want to rest your feet on your new FUKU/TTON table? You’re not allowed on the table? Stephan Wootton designed the FUKU/TTON with a hexagonal structure meant to reduce the living space, and with a slide-out top that hides four cushions (upholstery foam and Italian wool fabric) inside, that would transform it into a footrest, ottoman or a Japanese-style floor seating. Made of rubber ply and sugar maple veneer for the body, solid Canadian sugar maple on the rails and aluminum sheet for at the base. It gets our vote for functionality.

Modern and Comtemporary Storage Furniture

This beautiful piece of modern and contemporary storage furniture is designed and manufactured in Germany by Mueller. Made of 1 to 3mm thick Steel this is a very strong, well made product not to mention unique. For comparison, sheet steel for cars is 0.8mm thick. For painting, the manufactured uses acrylic paint specific to the car industry including metallic and pearl finishes. The advantage: the surfaces are particularly hard wearing, non-sensitive and easy-care. This piece looks good, and I feel that pieces of furniture that combine wood and white plastic or steel will be the future of furniture. They look good and are very strong.