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Friday Five with Ben and Fi O’Brien

Editor’s note: “Friday Five” is a new weekly column in which we ask a designer, artist, or shop owner to tell us their five favorite things, often on a theme. If you are interested in contributing to “Friday Five”, email us at info [at] design-milk.com.

Husband and wife design duo, Ben and Fi O’Brien operate as an independent boutique design and illustration studio who create work for advertising and editorial commissions, illustrations for interiors, sleeve artwork, and products for the home under their art print and home wares brand called WYWH (Wish You Were Here).

Pictured above, Ben and Fi sitting at one of their wooden faves! Their kitchen table “passed down through the O’Brien family, where Ben used to sit and do his homework and eat spaghetti bolognese in short trousers. Now this is the center of their home not only a place to eat but the venue of many-a-business meeting, brainstorming session and chin wag over a cup of tea and a ginger biscuit.”

Today, they’re going to round up their five favorite wooden, woody, and woodish things.

magno radios

1. Magno Radios
When we first saw these in a magazine we almost popped! It’s the first product in a while we’ve both been really excited about. It is a super example of craftsmanship and design, handmade and high tech yet simple, functional and beautiful.

noferin

2. Noferin
Our favorite artists of the past few years, Noferin not only paint beautiful character based scenes on wood but also produce adorable wooden toy figures of their sweet characters. Their paintings keep us encapsulated with every scene takes us right off into their world.
high market studio

3. Higher Market Studio
Based in our home county of Cornwall, UK, Lucy Turner takes vintage yet tired items of furniture and creates stunning one-off pieces of fresh and functional design for your home. We’re blessed to own a piece of Lucy’s furniture, a vibrant orange cabinet that never fails to bring color to a room. That’s the beauty of what Lucy does, we love the care taken to restore vintage pieces and the creativity in adding super-sweet colors and precise laser cut graphics.

huf haus

4. Huf Haus
This is the stuff of dreams. Modern, well designed homes produced with high-end engineering, precision, thought and love. We adore Huf Haus’ understanding of using timber, where others would use concrete and steel. Our life is targeted towards the day that the Huf Haus engineers arrive at our plot of land to construct a complete, bespoke, eco-conscious family home.

Pine Tree by ~Sage~ on Flickr

Pine Tree by ~Sage~ on Flickr

5. Pine Trees
We couldn’t write a list of favorite things without including some nature and of all wooden things we have to include pine trees! From the pine trees we see on our daily walk to the photos of the magical Chinese pine trees in Huangshan, China. We never cease to find inspiration from pine trees, whether it’s the majestic monsters or the cute little pine cones.

Jaime Derringer, Founder + Executive Editor of Design Milk, is a Jersey girl living in SoCal. She dreams about funky, artistic jewelry + having enough free time to enjoy some of her favorite things—running, reading, making music, and drawing.