Chrome Spheres Are Now Furniture, and It’s Surprisingly Beautiful

Posted on by

The easiest way to describe the Wishes Collection is to say it looks like someone took a string of chrome Christmas ornaments and turned them into furniture. But that description undersells it considerably.

Designed by Reza Raeisifar in collaboration with Saber Abar, the Wishes Collection is a limited-edition furniture and lighting series built around a single, almost stubborn idea: take one spherical module, connect it to another, and keep going until you have a chair. Or a rocking chair. Or a bench, a table, a lamp, or a pet house. The collection includes all of these, and the remarkable thing is that they all feel like they genuinely belong together, not as a marketing decision, but as a structural one. Literally, visually, and materially.

Designers: Reza Raeisifar, Saber Abar

The concept draws from how nature builds complexity. Think coral reefs, honeycomb, bone structure. Raeisifar and Abar were inspired by the way intricate forms emerge from the patient repetition of simple elements, and they made that principle the backbone of everything here. It is a surprisingly old idea to apply to contemporary furniture design, but that is part of what makes the execution feel considered rather than gimmicky. Each piece is constructed from interconnected spherical modules in Grade 404 stainless steel with a nickel-chrome finish. The result reads as opulent without being overwrought, sculptural without needing to announce itself.

The rocking chair is where the collection’s internal logic gets genuinely interesting. On paper, chrome steel spheres and a piece of furniture meant to sway gently do not sound like natural partners. The spheres carry an obvious rigidity, an almost architectural seriousness. But paired with curved wooden runners beneath and a soft cushion on top, the chair pulls off a kind of material negotiation that should not work as well as it does. You see the tension and it reads as deliberate. It is.

The bench and chair follow the same logic. Polished steel spheres form the body, a cushion in red or velvet sits on top, and the whole thing manages to look both industrial and inviting at the same time. It is the kind of furniture that makes you want to sit in it before you even think to ask whether it is actually comfortable. For a limited-edition piece, that is exactly the instinct you want to provoke.

Then there is the pet home, which is either the collection’s best joke or its most earnest moment, depending on how you look at it. The same modular sphere system that supports a grown adult on the rocking chair now forms a miniature shelter for a cat, a cat that, in the campaign images, looks perfectly unbothered living inside polished chrome walls. The designers describe it as the architectural boundary element now forming a miniature interior of its own, and while that framing reads a bit grand for a cat house, they are not entirely wrong. The logic holds, and it lands.

The floor lamp completes the picture by pushing the modular system beyond furniture altogether. Here, the spheres are no longer bearing weight or defining form. They are catching light, letting it fracture across their polished surfaces in ways that feel more jewel-like than industrial. It is a smart shift in function, and it shows how far a single design language can travel when the designers trust it enough to keep pushing rather than introducing something entirely new.

Raeisifar and Abar have tied the collection’s name to a metaphor. A wish, they suggest, takes shape through many small actions over time. One modest step, repeated often enough, eventually becomes something whole. The Wishes Collection makes that idea physical, and it works. Not because the metaphor is particularly new, but because the execution is committed enough to make you believe it.

For a limited-edition collection, Wishes does what the best ones do. It does not just sell you an object. It sells you on a way of thinking about design. And given how much of the current design conversation rewards loudness and novelty at almost any cost, a collection this disciplined, this committed to a single shape, feels more interesting, not less.

The post Chrome Spheres Are Now Furniture, and It’s Surprisingly Beautiful first appeared on Yanko Design.

This 38-Foot Wide Tiny Home Feels More Like an Apartment Than a House on Wheels

Posted on by

Most tiny homes ask you to make peace with compromise. The Retirement Retreat, built by New Hampshire-based Backcountry Tiny Homes, asks something different: what if a home on wheels didn’t feel like one at all?

Measuring 38 feet long and 10 feet wide, the Retirement Retreat is built on a triple-axle gooseneck trailer — that extra width pushing it beyond standard road limits, which means a towing permit is required. It’s a deliberate trade-off. The added room reshapes the interior entirely, giving it the breathing space of a small apartment rather than the compressed logic of a typical towable.

Designer: Backcountry Tiny Homes

The exterior reads quietly confident. Cedar tongue-and-groove paneling pairs with metal siding and a metal roof — materials that age honestly and hold up well across climates. Inside, painted board and batten walls meet knotty pine ceilings and a mix of engineered hardwood and vinyl flooring. The palette is warm without being precious.

The living room anchors the home near the entrance. A wood-burning stove sits against the wall — modest in scale but entirely capable of heating the space — alongside a chest of drawers and a large built-in cabinet. A mini-split system and ceiling fan handle the warmer months. The wall is prepped for a mounted TV, leaving the room clean and uncluttered.

The kitchen is where the extra width earns its permit. Arranged in a galley style with cabinetry running both sides, it includes a dual basin sink, a fridge/freezer, an oven and four-burner propane stove, a microwave range hood, and quartz counters throughout. A breakfast bar for two pulls up to the counter — small enough to be practical, generous enough to feel like a proper meal.

Behind the kitchen, the bathroom offers a shower, vanity sink, and flushing toilet. Across from it, a stacked washer/dryer fits neatly into a laundry alcove beside a small mudroom — the kind of domestic detail that separates a house from a home.

The main sleeping area sits in the gooseneck section, accessed by storage-integrated steps. It fits a king-sized bed with built-in storage, bedside tables, and a wardrobe — with enough headroom to stand fully upright. A secondary loft above it runs low on ceiling height but offers flexible space: a reading nook, a guest bed for two, or extra storage depending on the day. Pricing starts at $91,380 for a shell, $186,575 unfurnished, and $202,950 turnkey. Delivery is available across the US and internationally.

The post This 38-Foot Wide Tiny Home Feels More Like an Apartment Than a House on Wheels first appeared on Yanko Design.

Xiaomi Now Sells Coffee Machines, and This One Costs Just $121

Posted on by

Xiaomi sells phones, electric cars, rice cookers, robot vacuums, air fryers, and now a capsule coffee machine, which means the company has quietly built a catalogue capable of furnishing your entire apartment and then driving you out of the garage. The playbook has not changed since: pick a category ruled by expensive Western brands, strip it to the essentials, price it like a provocation, and make it look far better than the price suggests. The Mijia Capsule Coffee Machine has been a China exclusive since February 2025. It just went international at €104.90 ($121 USD), sold directly by Xiaomi.

Xiaomi designed it in-house under the Mijia sub-brand with no external studio credited, and the object measures 33.2 x 9.0 x 21.2cm, roughly an A4 sheet standing on its edge. Inside sits a 19-bar ULKA pump from Italian manufacturer CEME, the same pump family Nespresso machines have used for years, alongside a 650ml removable tank and a 25-second preheat. The detail that actually matters is a magnetic capsule rack holding 20 capsules, sitting flush against the machine’s flank or clipping straight onto your fridge door. At ¥499 in China, this thing was a weapon. At €104.90 it lands in Nespresso Essenza Mini territory, which makes the argument far more interesting.

Designer: Xiaomi

Most capsule machines are wide and squat, built to disappear into a corner counter next to the toaster. Xiaomi went the other direction and made this one narrow enough to stand like a book on a shelf, which is exactly how the brand shot it for launch, next to a picture frame rather than a fruit bowl. The front is split into a rounded brew head sitting above a column of fine vertical fluting, with a smoked panel at the back revealing the water level. Nothing here is flashy. It is the kind of quiet, considered grey object that photographs better than it has any right to, and Xiaomi clearly knew that when it wrote “extraordinary craftsmanship” into the marketing copy.

The rack is the smartest move in the whole design. Instead of selling capsule storage as a separate accessory the way Nespresso does, Xiaomi built it into the silhouette, a slab of twenty vertical slots that clips onto the machine’s side or peels off entirely to stick on a fridge door. It also happens to be the only place color shows up on the entire product, since every capsule you load is a small bright object against an otherwise monochrome machine. That is either genuinely clever industrial design or the tidiest lock-in mechanism I have seen on a kitchen appliance in a while, and honestly it can be both at once.

The internals are competent rather than flashy, which is fine, because this machine was never going to out-engineer a Breville. A 19-bar ULKA pump built by CEME S.P.A. in Italy handles pressure, paired with an NTC sensor and PID algorithm for temperature control, plus a 1400W heater and a 650ml tank you can pull off and rinse at the sink. Two cup sizes come preset at 40ml and 110ml, and both are adjustable by holding the button and tapping again once you hit your preferred pour. Xiaomi rates the whole thing at 55dB(A), quiet enough that it will not wake anyone sleeping down the hall. None of it screams for attention, and that restraint is sort of the point.

The internals are competent rather than flashy, which is fine, because this machine was never going to out-engineer a Breville. A 19-bar ULKA pump built by CEME S.P.A. in Italy handles pressure, paired with an NTC sensor and PID algorithm for temperature control, plus a 1400W heater and a 650ml tank you can pull off and rinse at the sink. Two cup sizes come preset at 40ml and 110ml, and both are adjustable by holding the button and tapping again once you hit your preferred pour. Xiaomi rates the whole thing at 55dB(A), quiet enough that it will not wake anyone sleeping down the hall. None of it screams for attention, and that restraint is sort of the point.

Worth saying plainly: Xiaomi never claims Nespresso compatibility. It lists four capsule diameter ranges instead and lets you do the math yourself, which is a neat bit of legal sidestepping dressed up as a spec sheet. It is also worth remembering that capsules cost more per cup than ground coffee and are harder on the planet, no matter how good the machine holding them looks. The bigger question is what happens to the price argument now that it has left China. At ¥499 this machine undercut everyone. At €104.90 it is going toe to toe with Nespresso on cost and betting the design carries the rest. Given what is actually sitting on that shelf, I would not bet against it.

The post Xiaomi Now Sells Coffee Machines, and This One Costs Just $121 first appeared on Yanko Design.

Here’s What You Get When You Combine A Beanbag With An Inflatable Chair

Posted on by

As a millennial with lower back issues, my biggest complaint with a beanbag is that it doesn’t provide enough stability. And my complaint with inflatable furniture is that it’s never looked classy. Carlo Livaja managed to hit two birds with one stone with his Sonnet Chair.

With the aura of a beanbag and the inner workings of an inflatable chair, the Sonnet is just a clever bit of furniture design, relying on an inflatable fabric ball that’s restrained/shaped by a bent stainless steel pipe. The result is something eye-catching and intriguing enough to make you want to sit down, while the Sonnet supports you perfectly in all the right places.

Designer: Carlo Livaja

You get the lower support from the fact that the Sonnet’s base is a defined tongue-shaped seating element, while the backrest inflates into you, giving you enough “lean-back resistance” (I coined that term) just like an inflatable would. All this, while looking like a beanbag went and did a Masters in Design from Milan. It has the spiritual appeal of a beanbag without any of the collapsibility.

One’s immediate question is whether the metal pipe actually obstructs your seating, and my gut reaction is that it probably won’t. As long as you don’t jump into the chair, the Sonnet respects you back. Don’t lean back like you would in a recliner and your neck won’t hit the pipe at the back. It’s a chair built on clever compromise… clever being the more operative term there.

The beauty of the Sonnet (especially if you see its video on Instagram) lies entirely in its transformation. The fabric cover sits like a heap, gaining shape as air is blown into it. Immediately as it hits the frame restraining it, the chair begins taking its true shape, and stops once it can’t accept any more air. In essence, it’s a lot like IKEA’s inflatable chair showcased at Milan this year – rely on a rigid element to restrict the inflatability of your design and you’ve got something that’s constrained yet comfortable.

The post Here’s What You Get When You Combine A Beanbag With An Inflatable Chair first appeared on Yanko Design.