Tag Archives: Furniture

This reversible mid-high bed concept can grow with your child

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Buying furniture as adults can already be quite a stressful endeavor, but buying one for kids doubles or even triples the difficulty. Not only do you have to consider safety and comfort, but you also have to consider how they can grow up fast and make those products useless in just a year or two. That’s why parents might sometimes be tempted to buy more affordable furniture that they can either dispose of, resell, or give away quickly, which is a practical solution but not a smart one. It would be better if the furniture could actually change and adapt to the child’s growing needs, like this mid-high bed design concept that still be used by the same kid after they’ve grown a bit.

Designer: A Su (PUPUPULA)

It might be surprising to learn that there is a lot more variety when it comes to kids’ bed designs. Some types are better for certain ages, while others provide room for more than one person. Like most beds, however, these are often designed with a singular target audience in mind, which means they easily outgrow their use and their charm in just a few years. That wouldn’t be much of a problem if not for the expense and waste that comes with replacing those beds again and again.

The Big Eyes bed concept solves that problem by employing a design that can change its purpose depending on the number or age of its owners. And it doesn’t employ complicated tricks like modular or moving parts that could actually be dangerous for a toddler. Instead, you can simply flip it over to change it from a mid-high bed to a basic bed and vice-versa.

The mid-high bed position is perfect for younger kids or siblings who need to share the same bed space. The top bunk is the main bed, while the bottom space can act as a secondary bed or a spacious play area. Once the child grows up a bit, however, removing the ladder and turning the bed over changes the story completely, with the bottom now acting as a basic bed and the top frame as a place to hang cotton canvas play curtains for some privacy.

Big Eyes is made of birch plywood, which gives the bed a warm, welcoming tone. There are no moving parts or hidden compartments, making it easier to turn the bed over as needed. The bed’s design is actually quite minimalist, leaving the freedom of decoration and personalization to parents and kids. That same simple design, however, is also its strength, allowing it to have that reversible functionality you won’t be able to pull off on more sophisticated designs.

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This chair concept for fast-casual restaurants comes with a coat hanger and bag tray

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The way we eat outside has been changing over the past years, and fine dining and fast food are no longer the only choices available. In many parts of the world, “fast-casual” has become a popular option that combines the speed and price of fast food establishments with the quality of full-service bistros. Despite being a category in its own right, the furniture used in fast-casual restaurants doesn’t actually take into account the specific needs of this class of customers and is instead meant for either fast-food chains or full-service establishments. This chair design concept tries to break the mold by introducing a piece of furniture that caters specifically to fast-casual customers who need to hang their coats or keep their bags but can never find such a place with regular restaurant chairs.

Designer: Zhiyuan (Frank) Fang

Fast-food restaurant chairs are often made from plastic, designed to be cheap, easy to move around, and often uninspiring. Customers here are often in a hurry, anyway, so they don’t care so much for the things they’re carrying, presuming they’re even carrying some. Fine dining chairs, in sharp contrast, are elegant and a little more expensive in order to match the restaurant’s ambiance. They, too, don’t have convenient features for keeping your things, because restaurants often have available storage for those near the table or by the entrance. That leaves fast-casual diners to fend for their own most of the time, often resulting in awkward displays of jackets or even forgotten bags or purses.

The RACK Chair design was conceptualized with fast-casual restaurants specifically in mind. While the chair might find some uses in other diner types as well, the aesthetics, materials, and features truly shine in this middle-ground of the catering industry. It’s made from a variety of wooden materials, including birch, pine, walnut, and ash, giving it a bit of style and fine character. At the same time, however, the minimalist design and flat-pack-friendly construction are ideal for mass production and use.

The real distinctive parts of the RACK chair are the integrated coat hanger on the backrest and the storage tray under the seat. While it’s certainly possible to drape coats, jackets, and other clothing over the back of most chairs, they also have a tendency to slip off, sometimes unbeknownst to the owner. The tray offers a secure space to put in purses, document folios, and small bags for each reach, while also blocking unauthorized access from behind.

Some might downplay the impact that these two simple features can bring, but knowing that there will always be a place for your jacket, coat, bags, and things adds tremendous peace of mind and convenience. That in turn, will surely make the experience and location memorable, increasing the likelihood that you’ll be a repeat customer. After all, the last thing you need is to stress over your stuff when all you really want is to enjoy an affordable and delicious meal.

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This wooden shoe rack doubles as a bench and a tray for transient bodies and objects

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A lot of the clutter and missing items in our homes are caused by having no proper place to put our stuff. Whether they’re keys or shoes, small objects can lead to big messes when left anywhere and everywhere. Sometimes, it’s not enough just to have a place to put them; you also have to be smart in where you actually place these objects’ homes. Things that you take with you outside but not indoors are often best left near the door, but that space might not always be the best location for shelves. This design concept offers a rather elegant solution to this multi-layer problem, providing a more permanent fixture for temporary things like shoes, keys, earbuds, and even your own tired body.

Designer: Joao Teixeira

Shoe racks are not an uncommon sight inside houses, apartments, and living spaces. More often than not, their placed by the door to make it easy to put shoes on when leaving and have a convenient spot to leave them after you’ve taken them off. Due to the space these pieces of furniture occupy, however, they usually serve a single purpose only and have almost no other use except for shoe storage. It’s practically wasted space, especially if you don’t have that many shoes there to begin with.

Inspired by traditional Japanese architecture like torii gates, “Tokyo” is a shoe rack that goes above and beyond the call of duty, at least if you want it to. It actually serves two other functions in addition to holding your shoes. The cushioned top serves as a comfy bench, perfect for when you need to sit down to take a breather or put on shoes. There is a small tray on one side that lets you put down your phone, keys, and other knick-knacks for a while. Given the multi-functional design of the concept, it’s something that can easily be placed near the door or against any wall. Yes, it will take up a length of space, but you’re getting three for the price of one.

What’s even more impressive is how this design implements those three functions in a beautifully minimalist manner. Like many of Joao Teixeira’s furniture concepts, it involves using bent planks of plywood to achieve simple yet sophisticated-looking forms. In this case, the two legs are bent at opposite angles, but one of them extends upward and curves embrace the cushion, creating a completely flat and solid surface to act as a temporary holding area for small objects. Structural support is provided by a pseudo three-centered arch, also made from bent plywood, that creates a shelf for larger things.

Admittedly, Tokyo hardly looks like any typical shoe rack, which makes it an ideal piece of furniture to place anywhere. The large empty space at the bottom can be home for taller shoes and boots, while the shelf can hold sandals, loafers, sneakers, and similar footwear. Of course, it could also be used to hide books, foldable umbrellas, or other things you might want to quickly grab before you rush out the door. Either way, this shoe rack and bench in one provides a convenient and charming place for shoes and small items, not to mention a comfortable way to catch your breath after coming back home.

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This Adaptable + Minimal Furniture Collection Is The Future Of Seating In Schools & Offices

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Having the right seating solutions in offices and schools is of utmost importance. We spend a lot of time on it, completing our tasks, working away to glory, or sitting through tedious classes if we’re still in school. An excellent seating design is of course, comfortable and ergonomic, but also able to add some personality and spunk to a space. It functions as a great spot to not only complete your work but also lounge about a bit, and have a quick chat with your co-workers and friends. And, one such seating option to consider is the Plega Seating Collection by Alexander Lotersztain for Derlot.

Designer: Alexander Lotersztain for Derlot

Designed by Australian designer Alexander Lotersztain for Derlot, the Plega seating collection includes a range of stool and benches that perfectly combine acoustic properties with adaptable seating, to work efficiently for work and school environments. The Plega stools and benches are made using a thick felt sound-dampening panel which is called Autex Acoustics’ CubeTM material. The collection is built using an attractive yet functional design that can be folded and slotted together from a flat-pack format.

The stool and benches have a cuboidal form which allows them to be used as flexible furniture items in dynamic settings. The lightweight seating designs can be bundled together to support team meetings and huddles. The aforementioned CubeTM panels are built using compressed polyester felt with 60 percent recycled content. The entire collection is awarded with certifications by WELL, LEED, Green Star, and BREEAM for the collection’s high environmental performance.

“Beyond sustainability, these stools and benches encapsulate a harmonious blend of adaptability and form, catering to the dynamic requirements of educational and corporate spaces,” said Derlot. The varied PLEGA stools and benches are available in a collection of soft and pastel colors that won’t command too much attention. They’re available in both adult and kid sizes, making them ideal for offices and schools. PLEGA is designed to be the future of seating in contemporary schools and offices. The collection has a minimal and clean form, making it appropriate for such spaces, and allowing the furniture pieces to harmoniously merge with such environments.

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Minimalist lamp uses simple, linear shapes to create a functional and ambient light source

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Lamps are something that you need especially if you’re particular with the working or ambient light at home. I particularly don’t look that much at the design when I’m buying one but more on the practicality or how easy it is to set up and use. But if something can tick all of those boxes and has a minimalist look as a bonus, then it’s something worth looking at. You don’t need elaborate or intricate parts and designs to come up with something pleasant to look at that can also be as multi-functional as possible. As the designer says, “Good design is as little design as possible”.

Designer: Y.S.M. Products and Baptiste Vandaele

The Linear Table Lamp is an upcoming Kickstarter project that aims to bring a simple enough lamp that only needs a few linear planes and a light bulb. It is made up of a steel body with a rectangular base and two planes that face it at a 45 degree angle. This particular angle of the planes brings a light and shadow effect to your lamp so that the light is reflected downwards. The metal surfaces are bent and welded but there are no other redundant elements as it is inspired by the Bauhaus art movement.

The light source itself is a 3000K LED bulb that is dimmable so you can use it either as a desk lamp or an ambient lamp. The color of the bulb is the perfect one that can be functional or cozy and can be controlled through a button attached to the cord. You will be able to adjust the brightness or dimness of the lamp depending on what you need at the moment. The color of the lamp itself is also pretty minimalist but with splashes of bright colors in case that’s what you prefer.

The simple design of the lamp as well as the color options (green, orange, white, gray) makes it appealing as an addition to my sometimes messy desk. The Kickstarter funding project will launch by January next year where people will be able to pre-order it. No price or other funding details have been revealed but it is one that I may actually watch out for if the other details are reasonable.

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The Valencia Modular Seating Is The Sleek + Stylish Furniture Piece Your Living Room Needs

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We often underestimate the importance of a great sofa. When in reality, we really shouldn’t. We spend the majority of our day sitting on sofas, whether we’re watching some TV, enjoying a meal, or simply sitting and reading a book for leisure! Hence, this piece of furniture needs to be not only comfortable but ergonomic and aesthetic as well. And we’ve curated a collection of chair designs that meet all these criteria! An excellent sofa should not only be super comfy to sink into, but should also perfectly match the interiors of your modern homes, and one such sofa design is the Valencia Modular Sofa.

Designer: Morgan Furniture

The Valencia modular sofa is designed by the British brand Morgan, and is intended to be a light and aesthetically pleasing design. It is designed to be an alternative to typical modular sofas. It is a classic of the brand’s catalogue and made up of individual seating units that are meant to be placed together. You can pick from the option of a full, three-quarter or half backrest.

“The combined backrest outlines create a rhythmic sequence of rise and fall, with sofas coming together to form distinctive ‘V’-shaped silhouettes,” said Morgan. The backrests of the Valencia modular sofa are tapered at each end to reduce some of the weight from the volumes, providing the sofa with a clean and flowing form that brings to mind the image of rolling hills in a landscape.

The tapered timber legs add an impressive effect to which echo the gentle angles at the top of the sofa, providing the seating with a look of lightness. The Valencia collection has won the Design Guild Mark award in 2017, which recognizes excellence in British design. The collection will include a daybed, as well as a side and coffee tables, which would make for an excellent addition to your modern living spaces.

The post The Valencia Modular Seating Is The Sleek + Stylish Furniture Piece Your Living Room Needs first appeared on Yanko Design.

This cute chair transforms waste into beauty using recycled plastic bottles

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The use of plastic in products has almost become so second nature that we spare no thought about how the material affects the environment in the long run. After all, there are plenty of benefits to plastic, such as its resilience, durability, and affordability, that we easily lose sight of long-term disadvantages. Fortunately, there are also more people who have become aware of this situation nowadays, and they have started to either move away from plastic completely or at least incorporate recycled plastics as much as possible. This chair is one of the latter, and while that in itself isn’t exactly extraordinary, the play of contrasting elements creates a harmonious composition that makes it look not only interesting but also welcoming.

Designer: Xingcheng Zhu

“XOX” might sound like an odd name for a chair, especially since it’s synonymous with a simple yet popular paper-and-pencil game. You immediately see the connection, however, when you view it from an angle and notice the two wooden X’s flanking the half-spherical shape that forms the chair’s seat and backrest. The choice of the name may have been based on that visual, but it also represents the very essence of the chair as a combination of contrasting elements.

While the standard design of a chair involves flat surfaces for the seat and backrest, the XOX Chair employs a hollow sphere that has a portion of it chopped off, forming the cavity for a person to sit inside. This circular shape sits in between the long, tubular legs of the chair, spindly in contrast to the fuller mass of the seat itself. Although the legs are the more visible part of the chair, their simpler and thinner forms draw your eyes immediately to the seat instead.

The materials used also contrast and complement each other. The legs are made of wood, a natural material whose grains create minute yet beautiful imperfections that give each piece a unique character. The middle component, however, is made from recycled PET bottles, resulting in a synthetic perfection with almost no blemishes. The seat is also completely transparent, giving it an airy and ethereal imagery that contrasts nicely with the solid and earthy tones of the legs.

This balance of elements yields a design that is both pleasing to look at and comfortable to use. Although it lacks the traditional armrests that add some support and stability to the body, the open spherical shape evokes feelings of openness and spaciousness, as if enveloping the person in protection and warmth. Best of all, it is also a design that is aware of the impact that furniture has on the planet’s health, implementing a sustainable solution that doesn’t compromise aesthetics and functionality in the process.

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Quirky shapes make this modular table set a fun yet functional addition to your space

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Tables primarily serve a functional purpose, providing a horizontal surface to place things. Considering the space they occupy, it’s only fair that they should also have some aesthetic value, adding to the ambiance of a room instead of sticking out like a sore thumb. Unfortunately, not all designs balance form and function equally, with one aspect getting a heavier focus than the other. Some might be extremely beautiful but have little room for use as an actual table, while others try to get too smart with features at the expense of a pleasing appearance. Fortunately, we have plenty of inspiration around us to help shape our designs, and this family of odd-looking tables takes a few pages from Mother Nature’s book to create pieces that offer both practical utility as well as visual interest, bringing any living space to life.

Designer: Superlife

Most tabletops come in conventional shapes such as rectangles, squares, circles, or ellipses. These, after all, are the most space-efficient shapes around, maximizing the area that you can use to lay down objects like laptops, books, or cups. They’re probably also the most mundane shapes you’ve ever laid eyes on, and they are totally dependent on the rest of the table’s composition or materials to pique your interest. The Flow family of tables bucks that trend and presents a table that almost looks impractical but is actually quite flexible in its functionality, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that it pulls off this feat by learning from organic things designed by nature itself.

As the name somewhat implies, these tables are inspired by naturally occurring bodies of water. Whether they’re puddles or lakes, water doesn’t appear as a perfect circle or rectangle, not unless you put them in artificial containers. The amorphous and almost random shape that water comes in evokes a sense of fluidity, even while at rest. It’s almost the perfect metaphor for tables that become centers of activity even as they act as resting places for your stuff.

Flow, however, is also inspired by cells that take similarly undefined shapes. Each table in the collection also has different heights to add to its unique character. And just like cells, these distinct pieces can function independently or merge into one to provide a larger canvas to arrange objects. The dynamic shapes of the tables might even inspire you to inject some life into your room, just like how cells are the building blocks of organic life.

Whether alone or connected, the fluid shapes of the Flow tables create an interesting ambiance that is both lively and calm, just like water. The tables are both pieces of structural art as well as flexible furniture that provide a bold visual impact, blending form and function in harmony just as things in nature usually do.

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The Traditional Outdoor Armchair Gets A Makeover With The Net Lounge Chair

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We often underestimate the importance of a great chair. When in reality, we really shouldn’t. We spend the majority of our day sitting on chairs, whether we’re working in our home office, enjoying a meal, or simply sitting and reading a book for leisure! Hence, this piece of furniture needs to be not only comfortable but ergonomic and aesthetic as well. An excellent chair design is not only a boon to your back and helps you maintain a healthy posture, but is also super comfy to sink into and will perfectly match the interiors of your modern home or backyard. And, a great chair to consider for your home is the Net Lounge Chair.

Designer: Raffaello Galiotto for Nardi

Designed by Raffaello Galiotto for Nardi, the Net Lounge Chair is designed to be a modern alternative to the traditional outdoor armchair. The chair is made using monochrome recyclable fiberglass polypropylene resins with UV additives. The Net Lounge features a deep round seat, with an interesting wave-like form that encloses your body and forms a comfortable envelope while you read, nap, or watch a pretty sunset.

The Net Lounge chair is a part of the Net Collection, and it is equipped with a low seat position and an ergonomically designed backrest that supports good posture. The chair has a stackable structure that is light and breathable. It features a radial pattern of square perforations that have been placed over the armchair. It also holds towel clips that allow you to keep your towel in place, and safe from windy days, while non-slip feet ensure the chair is grounded in position.

The simple yet thoughtfully-designed Net Lounge is an excellent seating option for poolside, terraces, and other outdoor spaces, making for a comfy seat where you can sit back peacefully. The chair is available in an option of six matte colors, and you could also opt for a cushion for more relaxation. The entire Net collection also includes more chairs, armchairs, tables, stools, and loveseats. The Net Loung Chair would make for a stylish and functional addition to your backyard. It would look perfect placed poolside!

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Ergonomically Designed Dining Chair Is All Set To Transform Your Dinner Table Seating Experience

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We often underestimate the importance of a great chair. When in reality, we really shouldn’t. We spend the majority of our day sitting on chairs, whether we’re working in our home office, enjoying a meal, or simply sitting and reading a book for leisure! Hence, this piece of furniture needs to be not only comfortable but ergonomic and aesthetic as well. An excellent chair design is not only a boon to your back and helps you maintain a healthy posture, but is also super comfy to sink into and will perfectly match the interiors of your modern home. And, this is also applicable to dining chairs, which are often ignored when it comes to ergonomics. A well-designed and ergonomic dining chair to consider would be – the Noho Move dining chair.

Designer: Formway for Noho

Design studio Formway teamed up with the brand Noho to create the ergonomically sound dining chair called the Noho Move. Both the New Zealand-based brands collaborated to create a chair that can support and facilitate hours of sitting. “Our brief was to bring ergonomic performance to the dining room — that isn’t really something anyone has done before,” said Formway design lead Paul Stevenson.

The studio Formway has previously designed office chairs for Knoll, hence they were well-versed in designing ergonomic chairs. They also researched how humans can sit for hours at the dining table, to finally create the Noho Move which is an excellent seating option not only for eating but also for work and leisure. The chair is designed to support a wide range of movements such as stretching, fidgeting, and shifting. When you sit on the chair, and comfortably lean back, the back of the Noho Move flexes with you, and when you incline or move ahead to speak to someone, it tilts forward with you.

The chair is built using a recycled nylon shell which is quite flexible, so it moves with the body. The open weave structure of the chair regulates body temperature, creating a comfortable seating experience for sitters. It is available in two color options – Ironsand Black and Cloud White, with the choice to opt for interchangeable upholstery toppers that are made from sustainably sourced New Zealand wool.

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