Tag Archives: wood

Recyclable stool made from potato scraps and sawdust can be used for firewood

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There are plenty of designs that advertise being sustainable, but many of them stop halfway through the product’s life cycle. They are usually made from sustainable or renewable materials, and some, but not all, are made with a reduced carbon footprint. That said, not many cover what happens after the product has served its purpose, which often means adding to the already enormous amount of waste we produce annually. Fortunately, there are some designs that do take that into account, creating a circular economy where the product or its materials can be used for other purposes. One example is this cork-like stool that, true to its wooden nature, can actually be used like firewood to heat up a space or, better yet, fuel workshops that will produce the materials to be used to create another stool.

Designer: Renaud Defrancesco

Wood is a much-loved material by designers and producers. It has an innate beauty and texture that’s hard to reproduce artificially, it is biodegradable, and, to some extent, also renewable. It takes time for trees to grow, however, and not all parts of the wooded material actually end up getting used. Many get left on the cutting room floor, either as small chunks or, worse, sawdust. The latter is easy to take for granted until they pile up and become pollutants themselves, at least until they dissolve and disintegrate over a long period of time.

Briket is a stool that tries to solve that material waste problem by giving a new purpose to waste byproducts not just from woodworking but also from the food industry. In a nutshell, this nine-legged stool is made from sawdust scraps as well as potato scraps, both biodegradable and environment-friendly materials we throw out by the ton every day. Creating the parts of the stool itself isn’t exactly hard either, as it mostly involves compressing these minute pieces until they become a rigid and solid mass. This, in theory, can be done anywhere there’s an abundance of wood waste, which practically means sawmills, carpentry shops, workshops, and other places that work with large quantities of wood.

What makes the Briket stool more interesting, however, is how it can be used for some unrelated purpose when it has reached its end of life. Inspired by wooden pellets used for bonfires and fire pits, it can serve as fuel to heat up a place or keep the fire of a workshop going, letting it serve people one last time before finally biting the dust, pun intended. In fact, the legs of the stool can be individually removed and replaced, making the piece of furniture almost immortal as long as there are replacement parts available.

In terms of aesthetics, Briket has a unique raw appearance and texture that is more similar to cork than wood, something that might not sit well with everyone’s tastes. Because of that, some people might even have doubts about its stability and reliability as furniture you will sit on. Fortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case, and Briket stands as a shining example of a truly sustainable design from start to finish.

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Sustainable tabletop smoker adds to your dinner aesthetic

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If you’re having a dinner party and you need to smoke some of your food like meats, vegetables, fish, cheese, and nuts, you probably will have to do it outdoors. But if you don’t have space to do actual smoking and you just have your table as your space, then that can be a problem (or you might have to just change your menu). There are options out there for table smokers but not all of them are convenient or emit minimal smoke or worse, they can make your food a bit charred.

Designer: Guillaume Bloget

The Cloche table smoker may be the solution to that particular problem. It uses aromatic plants and wood chips as your smoker so that the food you’re cold smoking will still be able to retain their original flavors but this time with a smoky note added to it. It can also serve as part of your dining table decoration as its beech and stainless steel aesthetic can add to the atmosphere of your meal. You can create a ritual out of arranging the food, lighting the fire, then putting it out and presenting the food for eating.

Using it seems pretty easy on paper. You place the ingredients on the metal part and then put the aromatic plants or pine needles on the hearth. You can use matches or a blowtorch to light your “fireplace” then close the smoker with the beech cover. The fire will be put out once you put the cover on (hopefully). After 30 minutes, you can lift the cover and then start consuming whatever it is you were cold smoking. You will still get some residual smoke but hopefully not to make anyone cough or choke.

Having a table smoker like this can help alleviate the pressure of having an actual smoking grill if you just need to cook a bit of food for your party. But of course this is assuming you’re just having a few guests over since the Cloche table smoker is a bit small. If you’re not using it, it can also just be part of your table decoration or a food container.

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Geometric chair concept almost looks like an Escherian optical illusion

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Chairs can come in all shapes and sizes. Some can take on complicated and organic forms, while others can be extremely minimalist or even brutally raw. They can range from designs that take inspiration from nature to those that adhere to simpler geometric shapes. The Euclid concept is one of the latter, aptly named after the ancient Greek mathematician. But while it draws its shape from a simple cube, its execution sparks a bit of wonder and curiosity as it resembles more the skeleton or wireframe of the shape, represented by almost unbroken lines that are reminiscent of Escher’s famed optical illusion, the impossible cube.

Designer: Sonakshi Gupta

Admittedly, it’s a bit difficult to see the Euclid chair as a cube, since most of us have this idea of a cube as having 12 lines that are all connected at eight corners to form six faces. Then again, that popular Escher object already shows an impossible depiction of that shape, and those familiar with that print might see some of that characteristic in this chair when viewed from certain angles. Overall, it creates a dynamic form that has your eyes following the lines and moving all over the place, sometimes confused about where the front and back sides are.

Its unique form isn’t the only notable thing about this concept, however. Its use of reclaimed wood gives it more than a sustainable character. That material, in a way, carries some history from what it was before becoming a part of this chair. Even if that past is unknown to the new owner, simply knowing it has one could give each Euclid chair its own unique charm.

And then there’s the method used to bring all the pieces together. Instead of requiring screws or even glue, a mortise and tenon joinery is used to provide stability without introducing complicated mechanisms. In theory, this could make it easy to later take the chair apart if some pieces need to be replaced, though that could also start to weaken the connection over time if done too frequently.

The Euclid concept chair offers a design that is minimalist, sustainable, and visually interesting. Whereas a cube is pretty much the epitome of symmetry, the missing edges and disconnected faces give the chair a bit more volatility. That said, it doesn’t seem like the most comfortable chair to sit on. Even if you put a cushion on the seat, the hard edges of the armrest and especially the backrest could give your body some grief after a long period of time.

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Sculptural chair design pays homage to a century-old wooden classic

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Designs come and go, but some manage to become icons in their field. There are quite a few such designs in the larger furniture market, especially in the categories of tables and chairs. More than a century ago, a particular wooden design shattered expectations and became the precursor of mass-produced chairs for years, even decades, to come. It has since then inspired many product designers not only to follow in this chair’s footsteps but also to improve on it or even reimagine it with modern techniques and sensibilities. One such ode turns what was primarily a utilitarian design into an art object, exaggerating the structure and form that gave the No. 14 Chair its identity.

Designer: Jiri Krejcirik

Wooden chairs have, of course, been around for centuries, but most of them were often made with elaborate hand-carved designs that didn’t scale well for mass production. In 1859, the Thonet company revolutionized the furniture industry with the No. 14 Chair, or simply the Chair 14, which could indeed be put through a pipeline but still looked elegant in its simplicity. Its most characteristic design was the steam-bent wooden rods that formed the chair’s back, legs, and support.

More than 160 years after its birth, a new design breathes new life into that classic chair and dials it up to eleven. But rather than modernizing the original design, “Ode to Chair 14” reinterprets it from a different angle, one that puts form and aesthetics on a pedestal. While the original No. 14 adopted bent wood to give a mass-produced design more style and elegance, this particular rendition turns that design element into an art form, transforming the chair from a piece of furniture into an art object.

The Ode to Chair 14’s base is similar to the original, with a circular seat supported by four curved legs joined by a ring midway down their length. Where it differs, however, is the backrest, where what would have been a simple arching curve almost spirals out of control and loops repeatedly until it forms a row of intersecting rings. It gives the chair a character that is both eccentric and regal at the same time.

Despite its glossy blue hue, the chair is still made from bentwood beech wood just like the original design. In a way, it demonstrates how production processes have advanced to the point of making even such complex shapes possible. At the same time, however, it retains the same structural simplicity as the first Chair 14, a vision that paved the way for a new breed of chairs for decades to come.

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Sustainable office chair uses paper-like material made from wood by-products

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Sustainable furniture and designs are thankfully becoming more common, but the “sustainable” label can actually be applied to different things. They can be made from recycled materials like metal or PCR plastics, or they can be made from new but biodegradable materials like wood, cork, and paper. While both kinds are good, they don’t always address the accumulating material waste that comes from the production of these objects, even the bits and pieces of wood that get left on the cutting room floor and then thrown out. Giving a new purpose to these by-products is another sustainable practice, one that is being applied to a beautifully minimalist office chair that’s made from dozens of sheets of paper.

Designer: Arper

Of course, it’s not literally made from paper, which would be too soft for a chair no matter how many sheets you stack, especially for a sleek and slender seat based on Arper’s iconic Catifa 53. Instead, it uses PaperShell from a Swedish startup of the same name, a material that almost poetically transforms paper, which comes from wood, back to a wood-like material that offers rigidity, stability, and, more importantly, beauty. In a nutshell, it uses both wood by-products like sawdust and chips as well as waste wood like fallen branches in forests to create a new paper-like material that can be used in place of wood, plastic, or fiber composites.

That’s the case with the Catifa Carta, which compresses dozens of these sheets into a composite that’s then bent and formed into an elegant chair with a gentle slope sitting on top of thin yet sturdy metal legs. Unlike its older sibling, this more sustainable version of the chair leaves the seat in its original, unpainted glory. That means you can see the natural imperfections of the PaperShell material, giving each chair a unique character. It’s pretty much the same as the highly prized grains in wood that give designs their natural charm.

What’s even more special about the chair is that even the end of its life has a story to tell. PaperShell can be recycled to produce new and different products, but it can also be turned into biochar to nourish the Earth. The material itself sequesters carbon dioxide which can be used to enrich soil. It’s a truly circular life cycle that starts and ends with the Earth. Appropriately, Arper has made the Catifa Carta easy to disassemble to make this process even easier.

Of course, the chair isn’t just a thing of beauty inside and out, it’s also a functional piece of furniture. Though some might have concerns about the ergonomics of using such a chair for long periods at work, it’s still a well-designed seat that makes you feel good not only about sitting on it but also about the exciting journey that this wood-like material has made since its birth from a seed.

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3D printed recycled wood could kickstart another design industry revolution

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3D printing blasted the doors of creativity wide open by allowing almost anyone and everyone to create complex designs on demand. That market started with different kinds of plastic but soon supported other materials as well, including metal and even chocolate. The popularity of this style of design and production, however, also meant a surge in material waste, especially different kinds of non-recyclable plastics. There is a greater need for more sustainable alternatives, one that can perhaps even support a fully circular lifecycle. There is perhaps no better material that meets those requirements than wood, which is why this new 3D printed wooden partition screens and window coverings could very well represent the breakthrough that the design industry needs.

Designer: Aectual

Designers have a soft spot for natural, sustainable materials and wood is perhaps one of if not the most favored one. It is easily sourced, though not quickly replenished, has unique aesthetics and textures, and can decompose safely. That said, it’s not easy to form wood into complex shapes and structures, even if you carve out the design, and the material isn’t exactly easily reusable even after being recycled. This new 3D printed wood addresses all those shortcomings, offering an almost perfect material for bringing intricate, sustainable designs to life.

This sustainable new material is itself made from wood waste blended with some natural ingredients such as lignin and cellulose. It is then reinforced using vegetable fibers like flax or hemp to give it the same durability you’d expect from wood. The result is a composition that doesn’t just look like wood but also feels like the real thing. In fact, it even smells like real wood, a trait that’s hard to reproduce on other synthetic wood alternatives.

Aectual’s material, however, does something even better than wood. After a 3D printed wooden product reaches the end of its life, it can be shredded and then reprinted into some other or the same form. This creates a truly circular lifecycle where the material is reborn again and again as long as it retains its integrity and stability. And when it can no longer be reused, it still degrades and decomposes safely just like ordinary wood.

Of course, it’s a 3D printed material, so it’s almost trivial to create structures and shapes that would be extremely difficult if not impossible with regular wood. You can have intricate repeating patterns that join together with no visible seams, or alternating shapes that are made as a whole rather than composed piece by piece. It might be too early to claim a complete victory, as the process of creating this 3D printed wooden material might still be too involved and too costly, but it’s definitely a great start in producing a viable alternative to designers’ most-loved material.

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Minimalist wooden furniture uses curved shapes to add storage spaces

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Furniture takes up space, there’s really no getting around that. Of course, you need that space to actually use the furniture, but the furniture themselves aren’t always in use. You might not sit on those chairs or couches all day, and tables might be empty at certain points in time. During those moments, they might just be wasting space, so it sometimes pays to have them perform some other purpose, even if it means just looking pretty. That’s not to say you have to stop at looks, especially if such aesthetic furniture can also function as storage spaces, like what this collection of design concepts tries to achieve using nothing but simple curved layers of plywood.

Designer: Julian Topor

Partly thanks to the popularity of flat-packed products from the likes of IKEA, minimalist wooden furniture has become a popular choice in households. Their simple designs save space not only in packaging but sometimes also on the floor. Furniture, however, can also become a space to place some of your things, from books to accessories to even shoes. The KURVE furniture collection accomplishes this without having to resort to complicated construction or mechanisms, using only curves that wrap around an empty space to create a hollow nook for your stuff.

The throne-like KURVE chair, for example, has no legs but instead has a curved backless box for its bottom half. What makes its design particularly interesting is that the seat, backrest, and arms are all made from the same single sheet of layered plywood, just bent on the back and sides to create those support structures.

The KURVE Couch stretches out this concept, quite literally, to provide sitting for two. A central console splits the couch in half and provides a small area to place cups and phones, as well as a compartment below for things like the TV remote. The bottom of the couch is an even wider space for more things, whether or not they have business being there.

The table is admittedly the simplest of them all, nothing more than a wooden trapezoid to hold things above and below it. Its lengthy shape makes it more suited to be placed against walls rather than being a center table, perhaps somewhere near the front door so your shoes and keys can easily find a home for easy access next time you step out.

Last but not least, the KURVE Night Stand is also a trapezoid, just taller and narrower. Like other nightstands, it has a drawer, but this compartment is oddly located a little below the top. This creates yet another space for your things, maybe for a phone that you don’t want to tempt you while you’re resting.

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Mac mini wooden organizer stand uses a mini tambour door to hide your stuff

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The Mac mini and its more powerful cousin, the Mac Studio, offer an Apple computing experience that prioritizes flexibility and your desk space over functionality you might not even need. Its compact form allows you to place it anywhere you want while also offering the freedom to connect any kind of monitor, keyboard, or peripheral you need to get done. At the same time, however, the mini PC form factor doesn’t have enough space to keep all these external devices always connected, and you will often find yourself repeatedly attaching and detaching bits and pieces as you work. Over time, these dongles, cards, and whatnot start to pile up and make a mess on your desk, which is where this handmade wooden organizer and riser comes in, offering a uniquely elegant solution to keep those tiny objects out of sight and out of mind.

Designer: Kostiantyn Andriiuk

Although Apple designed the Mac Mini and Mac Studio to stand on their own, there are some desk setups and designs that require elevating these minimalist boxes a bit higher. In fact, their small bodies make it easy to place them on top of anything, but that doesn’t mean they’ll look good on it unless that “thing” was specifically made for the mini Macs. This handcrafted riser is made to match the dimensions of the Mac mini and elevates the metal box not just in height but also in style.

Made from Cherry and Alder veneers, the wooden stand exudes a warmth that contrasts with the cold silver exterior of the Mac mini while also perfectly complementing it at the same time. Both pieces carry an air of elegance, despite their different materials and creation processes. While the Mac mini is mass-produced in a factory, each piece of this wooden riser was measured and crafted manually.

The most interesting part of the riser, however, is the drawer inside that’s hidden behind a tambour door. Unlike a simple organizer that exposes its container for everyone to see, you have to slide the row of vertical slats out of the way first before you can pull out the drawer. The mechanism offers functionality that doesn’t take away anything from the design’s aesthetics, a philosophy that is perfectly in line with Apple’s own approach to designing products.

The design for this unique and distinctive tambour organizer stand is fortunately available for everyone to follow, but the painstaking process will probably scare all but the most seasoned makers. That said, it could be a source of inspiration for other accessory makers to make their own spin on the idea, especially the brands that pay a lot of meticulous attention to details, materials, and finishes that would perfectly match an Apple product.

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Invite Serenity Anywhere with the Elegance of a Wood & Brass Incense Holder

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Whenever people think of fragrant aromas, most immediately presume something like essential oils. Of course, those aren’t the only way to indulge your nose, and some people prefer the smoky, woody, and unique scents produced by incense. Compared to oils, however, handling incense can be a bit of a hassle, especially the more popular long-stick variety. Never mind needing to light a small fire in the first place, making sure that the ashes don’t spill or get blown away can induce stress instead of calm. Fortunately, it doesn’t take much to fix this situation, and this elegant wood and brass box offers a simple yet effective solution to enjoy your favorite incense sticks safely and peacefully wherever you are.

Designer: Masami Tanaka of Takumi Tokyo

Click Here to Buy Now: $169 $199 (15% off at checkout). Hurry, Valentine’s Day sale ends in 48 hours!

Marrying walnut wood and brass in a seamless fusion that complements your living space.

You need fire to light up incense, and anything that burns always produces some residue, particularly ash. Regular incense stick holders, simple and portable as they are, barely do more than just hold up that thin, burning stick, leaving you with ashes to clean up, if they don’t get blown by a weak gust of wind and become fire hazards in the meantime. Rin is a simple yet beautiful solution that lets you carry those incense sticks with you, light them up for a few minutes of respite, and never worry about ash blowing in the wind.

The main body of this minimalist incense holder is made of walnut wood and is divided into two tiers. The lower tier has three long nooks that can hold five sticks each for a total of 15. Thanks to the natural properties of wood, each holder will be unique, both in the visual pattern of the grains as well as the texture and color, making each item a limited edition product.

The part that actually holds the burning incense is made of brass, a metal that is popular for developing unique and beautiful discolorations over time. The brass plate is recessed deep inside the wooden box so that the ashes don’t fly off after they’ve fallen inside. A matching brass cover can be used to snuff out the fire and also keep the ash secured inside until you’re ready to dispose of it properly.

The wood and brass elements, while contrasting in nature, beautifully complement each other and blend perfectly with any decor. The light brown of natural walnut brings out the golden yellow of brass, while the oil-painted darker colorway exudes a dapper character with the matching black brass cover and plate. And thanks to its small size, you can conveniently bring a bunch of your preferred incense sticks with you wherever you go, allowing you to enjoy brief moments of fragrant peace when and where you need it.

Click Here to Buy Now: $169 $199 (15% off at checkout). Hurry, Valentine’s Day sale ends in 48 hours!

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OnePlus 12 wood texture leak fires off Internet debates on bold design choice

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Although it seems to have become a bit quieter and more business-minded of late, OnePlus was a brand that boasted bucking trends both in the way it designed phones and how it conducted its business. The first OnePlus phone, for example, sported a removable back cover and cover designs that included uncommon materials like sandstone and wood. More recent OnePlus designs have become less daring and more conventional, though the company does offer unique variations or accessories from time to time. Such a time might be coming later this year with the new OnePlus 12, which might don a wooden back yet again, whether as an integrated rear panel or an aftermarket accessory.

Designer: OnePlus (via Digital Chat Station)

The OnePlus One was quite the rebellious teen when it launched back in 2014. It carried flagship specs but dangled a price tag that sounded too good to be true. It brought back removable batteries and back covers that you could swap to your heart’s delight. The latter was an important detail that appealed to a style-conscious market, a market that tends to make things go viral on the Internet, which is probably what helped make OnePlus an overnight sensation. Those days are long gone, but the company might be making a throwback soon, depending on how you interpret this latest leak.

According to a reliable tipster, the OnePlus 12 will feature a “classic wood grain shell,” a phrase taken from an auto-translation of the original text. The image below shows proof of that, complete with all the unevenness and imperfections that give wood its natural beauty. Naturally, with only one part of the phone’s back shown, the revelation sparks plenty of discussions and speculations on what that “shell” really means.

On the one hand, it could be a completely new variant that uses wood or “faux wood” as the material for the OnePlus 12’s back panel. This is a possibility if you consider that OnePlus no longer makes its back covers removable, just like every other smartphone in the market today. On the other hand, it could simply be a special edition of protective cases, though it would seem to be extra slim if that were the case (no pun intended).

What makes the guessing game a bit more complicated is that OnePlus has actually done all of those over the course of its history. The OnePlus One, for example, was notable for its SwitchStyle covers that included bamboo, walnut, and sandstone textures. More recently, it launched a limited “Marble Odyssey” edition of the OnePlus 11 5G that employed 3D microcrystalline rocks to achieve the unique look and feel of marble. Suffice it to say, OnePlus is at least still keen on pushing the boundaries of materials, textures, and designs that give its smartphones more personality than your average handset.

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