2011 Year in Review: Best of Home Furnishings

Much of what we do here at Design Milk is source the newest and coolest products to hit the shelves and design fairs. This year’s batch of home furnishings are innovative, cool, and highly covetable. From a hauntingly beautiful carafe to an über-practical seating system, we bring you the best accessories we found.

Sculptural Bike Storage
Quarterre designed three sculptural bike storage solutions –- Hood, Branchline, and Shadow –- to support everyday life on two wheels. The pieces are not only useful and good-looking, they elevate the bike to a work of art.

Inlay
The Inlay collection, comprised of a dining room cupboard and a chest of drawers, was designed by Front for Porro, The surface is covered with squares, rectangles, and other geometric shapes done in different shades of oak.

Human Heart Carafe
Drawing on the design world’s current fascination with anatomy, the Cuore (Heart) carafe, designed by Liviana Osti, is composed of two carafes nestled in the form of a human heart. It is a reminder that one should drink as much water as wine.

Bubble Fish Tank
The Bubble Tank by Psalt Design makes us a wee bit nervous, as it was meant to. Made of hand-blown glass done in a slumping shape, the piece teeters on the edge of a table.

Kitty Meow by Studio Mango
Studio Mango designer Paul Hendrikx’s Kitty Meow cat house can be used inside or out. And, if the cats prefers some sun, he can sleep on top of the structure’s head.

Missoni for Target
Not since the mega chain’s collaboration with Liberty of London has it seen such a hit. Missoni for Target was insane (in a good way), including housewares, clothing, accessories, and even a bike. The line was so popular, it took down Target’s web site. How’s that for some zig and zag?

Engine Table
The base of the Cylinder Radial Engine Table is actually a US Army Boeing-Stearman PT-13 engine acquired from the Canadian Museum of Flight in Langley, British Columbia, and was constructed between 1936 and 1938.

Bocci 28 in Color
Bocci has introduced a huge range of color in its 28 series collection. These gorgeous glass pendants, like the clear ones, are designed to cluster in hexagonal shapes, which nestle into one another.

Inception Chair by Vivian Chiu
Inception Chair by Vivian Chiu is a chair within a chair within a chair, and so on until no more chairs will fit inside. Each chair has hand-cut grooves that notch inside each other, securely connecting them together but making it easy to disassemble. Genius.

Pencil Bench by Boex
The Pencil Bench created by Boex is made of 1,600 individually-placed pencils. Better yet, each can be removed and used if necessary.