Tag Archives: marble

FreePower turns your beautiful stone countertop into a wireless charger

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Wireless charging is finally becoming more common but despite the freedom from tangling cables that the technology offers, wireless chargers still have a few inconveniences, especially when it comes to aesthetics. Only a few of these products can be considered pleasing to look at, especially when mixed with the rest of your room decor. And they still have at least one cable snaking out of their bodies, which might be difficult to hide depending on where you place the chargers. In an ideal future, almost any flat surface can become a wireless charger, immediately juicing up your phone or device the moment you put it down, anywhere you put it down. Part of that future seems to already be here, with a creative wireless technology that can hide that wireless charging space inside stone countertops, seamlessly blending with your choice of interior design.

Designer: FreePower

Wireless chargers remove the messy cables from the charging equation, but the current state of technology requires you to still make physical contact between the device and the surface of the charger. Add to that the hard requirements on materials for the surfaces of wireless chargers and you will find yourself with a few of these products scattered around your house, often sticking out like a sore thumb. Some designs are admittedly more elegant and stylish, but they still add to the visual baggage on what would be an otherwise pristine table or countertop.

FreePower is a technology that tries to offer the best of both worlds, combining the liberating convenience of wireless charging with a clean and unblemished tabletop surface. In a nutshell, it embeds the wireless charger inside the countertop, and not just any countertop, mind you. It is compatible with different stone materials, including quartz, granite, or even marble, materials you’d never think could be used for wireless chargers. Thanks to this innovative design, you don’t need to actually put a charging mat or stand on your kitchen countertop, side table, or bedside table, because the countertop itself is the wireless charger.

Of course, only a portion of the countertop actually functions as the wireless charging zone, but you don’t have to worry about ugly and conspicuous markings that ruin the aesthetic of your beautiful stone top. A customizable LED halo glows around the area where you can place your devices, and you can even turn this light off when it’s not in use. FreePower does even better than most wireless chargers because you can place your phone or earbuds anywhere within that zone, no need to perfectly align with markers.

FreePower is the latest in a growing number of designs that aim to integrate wireless charging technology into every surface inside your home, completely freeing you from unsightly cables. Of course, such a design is also less flexible in that you have very little choice when you want to change furniture or designs. You’ll have to hope there’s also an invisible wireless charger version available for that or else you’ll have to go back to old-school wireless charging mats.

The post FreePower turns your beautiful stone countertop into a wireless charger first appeared on Yanko Design.

This glass and marble lamp creates an air of mystery and harmony with contrasting materials

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Think of a lamp and you will probably immediately imagine a bulb on a metal pole, a circular base, and a conical lampshade. More modern designs often involve simpler geometric shapes like bars with rotating arms. Of course, there’s a wide world of lamp designs that cater to an equally wide range of needs and tastes. Some even tell stories with their forms, materials, and production. This beautiful lamp, for example, exudes an ethereal character as well as a sense of timelessness, two different properties brought together in graceful harmony thanks to the interplay of contrasting elements made in very different ways.

Designer: Omar Godínez for Peca Estudio

Some materials carry a distinctive character simply by their very nature. Rock is hard and unmoving, wood is warm and tactile, and paper is light and flexible. Some materials even stand diametrically opposed to each other, but just like many things in nature, sometimes complement each other so perfectly that it almost feels like they were made for each other from the start.

The Talla Lamp is a gorgeous design born of that duality, combining the ethereal fragility of glass with the timeless memory of marble. One feels like it would break at the slightest force, while the other would break other things instead. And yet the spherical glass sits calmly and gracefully on top of the marble prism, fitting snugly in each other’s embrace. The small bulb inside creates an otherworldly light that shines through the tinted glass and casts eerie shadows on the marble stand, illuminating and mesmerizing at the same time.

The glass half of the lamp has its own story to tell. It is made using free-blown techniques that make each piece truly unique. That complements the marble base, made using more mechanical methods, whose patterns also differ from block to block. As such, each Talla lamp carries its own character and story, a subtle nod to the personal stories we ourselves make every day in our life’s journey.

The post This glass and marble lamp creates an air of mystery and harmony with contrasting materials first appeared on Yanko Design.