Industrial upholstery is a project from Gilli Kuchik with Gil Sheffi and Ran Amitai, who together make up Tel Aviv-based Bakery Studio, a design collective founded in September 2009. This project explores new ways of upholstering furniture using the upholstery polyurethane foam as the fabric.
I am a huge fan of Balanced Design, but I was especially pleased with the new pieces that they showed at ICFF. The new peacock design is certainly my favorite, but they have new bird’s feet and leaf patterns as well. Also, last year they introduced rugs, which I think are simply adorable.
I love these Lattice and Starburst sheets and pillowcases by Nate Berkus for HSN. I’m really considering the gray lattice set for my bedroom, as my white sheets have just about seen their last days.
CraftedSystems is a Portland-based company run by designer Aurelie Tu in collaboration with the YWCA. The pieces are all hand-interlocked with 7 shapes, no glue, no stitching, etc. These pieces are amazing. I want them all. Portland-based retailer Relish will have the entire CraftedSystems line available this week, which consists of placemats, table runners, vases and bowls, lighting, and floor mats/rugs.
I don’t know if you think rubber flooring is cool or not, but I sure do! Mats Inc. specializes in recycled rubber mats, but what I love about them is that they have this Mixology system that allows you to create your very own custom rubber mat. Rubber isn’t something you’re going to put in your living room, but beyond commercial uses, it works great for garages, exercise rooms, basements, porches, patios and even as a kitchen mat. They offer a ton of colors, which can create hundreds thousands billions of possible combinations. Try it out!
Since I still have Iceland on the brain because of the recent volcanic eruption of Mt. Eyjafjallajokull, I thought we’d feature some interesting designy tabletop pieces from Birkiland, the Icelandic design shop.
Mt. Herdubreid by Lyng is a 3-piece trivet featuring a topographic-style Mt. Herdubreid, often referred to as the Queen of Icelandic mountains.
Last year we featured Kontextür’s acrylic shower curtain rings. Now, Kontextür is back with two brand new collections: a line of couture shower curtains designed by the talented British textile artist, Kaniez Abdi, that incorporate environmentally-friendly materials such as TPU and a series of sculptural, organic-shaped toothbrush holders designed by the NYC-based Icelandic designer Hlynur Atlason.
Designed by the NYC-based Icelandic designer, Hlynur Atlason, the VIKTOR collection features a set of three toothbrush/razor holders available in three metal finishes – black nickel, real silver and 18k gold. Each holder is distinctly sculptural and beautifully detailed yet fulfills a functional niche. Pricing starts at $45.
Art Nouveau fans are in for a treat with Mottoform’s collection of re-purposed, hand-printed linens inspired by the patterns found in Art Nouveau architecture from the early 20th century. The graphics are a tribute to Helsinki architecture and celebrate the beauty of architectural details we forget to notice.
These iPad sleeves by Rogue Theory keep the design to a minimum, making it safe and easy to carry around your iPad, without bulking up your already gadget-filled bag.
Room Moments I / II are two rugs by Amsterdam-based designer Franziska Wernicke.
From the designer:
A story or moment unfolds. The dye becomes an image and communicates with its surroundings, the 2D rug as a frame of dimension. The rug opens up the dimensions of the room, playing with perspectives, 2 D and 3D and the viewers’ perception of composition and construction. The rugs can be placed on the floor or the wall. Play with it and open up your dimensions!
“A daydream, the kind that is attracted by detail or by features of reality which, at first, seem insignificant. There are angles and corners from which I can not escape. For to great dreamers of corners and holes, nothing is ever empty, the dialectics of full and empty only correspond to two geometrical non-realities. The function of inhabiting constitutes the link between full and empty.
“It is not about places, it is about pictures which surround me, are in me and are kept in my mind. There is a feel about those images, an apparent emptiness, fainted, pale. A yearning for the ordinary is what intrigues me. They are unspectacular, with dissonances. The traces in the rooms are the only signs of the absence and presence of life. A home.”
