Tag Archives: Wooden Furniture

This minimal desk’s special design element is inspired by pianos!

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I played piano for a decade and I was so used to reading with my book upright on the music shelf (the little fold-out flap where you keep your music sheet) that I started to keep my textbooks for school upright too – it just felt more convenient! The Piano desk gives that traditional design a nod by incorporating it into your familiar wooden desk with some additional inspiration from the Standard chair by Jean Prouvé that elevates the minimal piece.

The Piano desk created so the designer could experiment with a hybrid material selection and play with interesting visual contrasts. On the one hand, we have metal which is a cold material that is beautifully balanced by the warmer wood. On the other hand, the same metal which allows for a slimmer silhouette is given the sturdiness with the addition of wood. The key factor in the briefing was to design a product with a democratic approach. That is how the minimal desk without any complex production processes was born while still featuring a small design element that other minimal desks didn’t have – the dipped shelf!

It has rounded corners on both wooden and metallic parts which smoothly connects both shapes and materials visually. The choice of discarding drawers led to a different conceptual solution that came from looking at the way some piano players hold their music notes, hence the name. The metal stand is perfect to hold books and documents and it is a fair substitute for the drawer in some cases. You can also add some decor like a succulent or your favorite bobblehead! The Piano desk is perfect for your home office with its pleasing CMF, evergreen character, and improving its integration within the space in the most eloquent way.

Designer: João Teixeira

This minimal wooden desk elevates your furniture functionality with a minimal all-black aesthetic!

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Working from home has turned us all into desk connoisseurs if you will. We have a newfound appreciation for furniture design and this all-black wooden piece is the one we’ve been swooning over. The Ark desk was designed for a client who wanted to increase the functionalities of his traditional table/desk – a need we have all realized during this pandemic. Ark is minimal in its design yet maximizes its surface area.

The interesting thing about Ark’s design is that it can switch identities between the writing desk and the dressing table. The mirror is an optional feature for the desk, you can move its position based on what you are using it for. One of its sides is a downwards flanging cabinet included to increase storage. It provides a space for keeping cosmetics during dressing, books, or work-related files which ensures that the desktop space is clutter-free. The cabinet also keeps the items stored hidden from the front view which makes the overall visual of Ark a very clean and pleasing one!

The design of the Ark desk is based on the customer’s need for optional additional functions of the table. The starting point of the design is that the table can switch identities between the writing desk and the dressing table. The mirror is an optional item for the table, you can move its position according to your requirements during use. The side down flanging cabinet is designed on the basis of storage, which provides a space for temporary storage of cosmetics during dressing, and further saves the occupation of desktop space. The desk interprets the beautiful combination of function and form with a simple and neat modern shape.

The desk interprets the beautiful combination of function and form with a simple and neat modern shape.

Designer: Pengcheng Wang

Wooden furniture designs with hidden details that are an upgrade to your usual MUJI pieces!

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There’s something about a well-crafted piece of wooden furniture that can add an aura of warmth and calmness to any space! Wooden furniture is often simple and minimal, but when crafted with care and precision, and amped with smart detailing, they can truly liven up any room, while also emitting a zen-like sense of peace. And, this collection of beautiful and intricate wooden furniture designs do exactly that! Designed with extreme attention to detail, overflowing with love and care, and not only aesthetically but functionally pleasing, these furniture designs will be an invaluable addition to your living space, making you feel truly at home.

The Triforce details of this side cabinet by Deniz Aktay are absolutely exquisite! The triangular edges add a touch of intricacy to a simple and raw piece of furniture. Sometimes the simplest woodwork is truly the best!

Soft Baroque designed the 005 Coffee Table for Vaarnii. The humbleness and sturdiness of pine are reflected through this delicate coffee table. The joints used to built traditional Finnish log houses were added for a decorative effect to this furniture piece.

This beautiful dressing table by Wood Effect is a minimal and warm piece, fitted with several storage sections and drawers. The simple woodwork of the piece brilliantly shines through in the detailing!

The Bowater Drawer by Jan Hendzel Studio is an exploration of British timber. Crafted from olive and baked ash, the ripple at the centre of the drawer is the eye-catching detail of this piece!

Designed by Josh Carmody Studio, the central joint of this three-seater dining table is a simple expression of three structural elements supporting and interacting with one another. It is a metaphor for the daily activity of a family on a dining table.

This chair is an amazing display of nostalgia and minimalism through furniture design. The designer wanted to incorporate our inherent ways of interacting with nature into a chair. Stubby chair was inspired by these environmental settings that combined the love for interiors with an element from the exterior world.

Designed by Anthony Dain, the 396 Side Cabinet is a wooden furniture piece with marvellous detailing! The rippled woodwork on the sides and at the bottom of the cabinet have been crafted with extreme precision and attention to detail.

Crafted from American oak and walnut, this adorable shoe rack by Albura Wood Designs features some intricate wood and joint work.

The folding mechanisms that fill out Fold Shelf also allow the unit to shrink down to nearly half its size compared to when it’s fully opened and ready for use. The designers say that Fold Shelf was designed as a Swedish cabinetmaker’s, or journeyman’s piece, requiring the incorporation of a pull-out drawer, hinges, veneered surfaces, and joints.

The ‘Pallet Thief’ is certainly no ordinary piece of furniture, but then again, it’s a vision and a proof of concept for designer Anton Brunberg, who aimed at showing the potential this recycled pallet wood has in the furniture-design world. It comes with hundreds of pallet planks joint together before the seat is carved out of the central mass.

Bobby Berk would approve of this modular, wooden cabinet inspired by the phases of the moon!

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I love modular, easy-to-assemble furniture that is designed to adapt to your space – big or small. Right now IKEA is the biggest player in this arena but if you dig a little deeper (or just follow Yanko Design, we do the digging for you) then you will find gems like the MOON cabinet – Bobby Berk will 100% approve of this!

This timeless looking piece is crafted from solid wood finished off with rounded corners that give it an organic form. “We got the three elements from deconstructing traditional wooden cabinets and immovable system furniture,” says award-winning furniture designer Chuang. MOON allows the user to have a flexible lifestyle as this one cabinet serves many different purposes thanks to its modular build. You can combine, assemble, and deconstruct it to fit your space or transform it from storage to seating. Just like the phases of the moon, the shape of this cabinet changes to fit different needs – in fact, it has a little circular cutout detail to symbolize that. I love that you can stack it up or take it apart to change the height of the piece as a whole.

It has open storage, cabinet doors as well as closed drawers so you really get every type of compact storage solution in one single furniture design. When not being used for storage, it can serve as a seat and a table too because it has been constructed to bear human weight! MOON is an evergreen, universal, and functional furniture design that maximizes flexibility through minimalism.

Designer: Chia Chun Chuang

These foldable, modular furniture designs are the space-saving solution every home needs!

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I have ordered the white plastic chairs off of IKEA and Amazon and while they look great in the patio, it’s only going to last a couple of months because it can’t withstand weather changes, kids, or dogs. And you can’t keep those indoors – they just look ODD. We finally have an alternative to it – wooden foldable chairs with an upgraded minimal aesthetic and a longer life! Even though they might look visually similar to the IKEA ones at first glance, these wooden chairs actually work with indoor settings too unlike the usual patio seating. They are classier and can be used in any room/interior setting.

The first wooden chair has strings that form the seat and the backrest, it may make you doubtful of comfort but the strings act like fabric and contour around your body for maximum comfort. The string tension also makes sure that you are well supported. The second chair is like a classic window transformed into a chair with one swivel motion. Because it is a smooth, singular vertical plank when closed, it is easier to stack/store. Another favorite from this furniture range is the fold-out table with storage, it is ideal for small urban apartments or for a kid-friendly room to keep things tidy and packed away. Speaking of kids’ rooms, there is another piece which is a shelf with a chalkboard panel that transforms into a small bed – this is a wonderful way to encourage children to own and take care of their space in a playful manner. Now when it comes to adults, we all know there is never enough storage so instead of shoving plastic or cardboard boxes under our beds, there is a simple box frame that has multiple drawers and when closed it seamlessly turns into a base for your mattress. It keeps things neat and reduces the storage bins you have to buy.

I have always had a personal library, but having lived in crowded cities like Manhattan, you have to choose between a bookshelf and a table to eat your food. I wish I had this ladder-shelf table piece at the time, it saves space and ‘serves’ food as well as food for thought! Given our population growth and the crowding up of cities, millennials will need these furniture designs to add fun and functional element to their home. Afterall, wooden furniture is timeless and one can never go wrong with these minimal multifunctional pieces.

Designer: Jon 117 SP

This A-shaped wooden studio is built using the Bahareque method and Ecuador’s local resources!

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I wish I was an architect so like David Guambo I could also build myself a cozy, wooden studio! The architecture student made Kusy Kawsay, a small hut-like housing that rests on stilts in hilly rural Ecuador with a straw roof and wood framing. Kusy Kawsay means ‘passionate life’ in Kichwa (a dialect of Quechua, a language used in the Andean region), and the tiny house reflects it wonderfully.

Guambo studies architecture at Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica (UTI) in Ambato, Ecuador and like most students, he just wanted a space for him to do projects while listening to loud music – that is how this tiny studio was born! To build his dream focus pod, he worked under the guidance of Al Borde, a local architecture studio that successfully completed the renovation of a deteriorated 18th-century house (!) in Ecuador. The main purpose was to be able to play loud music without disturbing the neighbors so Guambo used a traditional construction method known as ‘Bahareque’, a building system that involves weaving sticks and mud to construct compact walls, to make it sound-proof. Even though the exterior reflects the traditional design technique, the full glass window gives it a modern touch.

The hut has a gabled roof that has been layered with grassy straw. The walls pack dried mud tightly between wood framing to make it sturdy. One of the most beautiful features is the whimsical triangular window in the front of the studio that allows plenty of sunlight in while giving you a view of the natural landscape. The crisscrossing wood beams turn it into a studio on stilts and there are cut-up wood logs form several rows of bench seating underneath the unit where passerby can sit in the shade for rest. The interiors are simple yet warm, the roof structure is exposed and the floors are covered with wooden planks. It is furnished with a minimal wooden desk that is aptly placed in front of the large window along with a chair, the set is crafted from leftover logs.

“I’m making a study room, with wood, with straw, and everyone made fun of me because I am constructing with a traditional system. This is because we don’t value what we have, they prefer to do foreign things, thinking that they will save money. But what I believe they don’t know is that you can reinterpret with the things we already have, to do new things, you have to change the mentality of people with this project that I’ve done,” says the resourceful, wise, young designer and we agree – good design doesn’t have to be expensive or hi-tech!

Designer: David Guambo

This kitchen cupboard’s detailed design will please Marie Kondo and Bobby Berk!

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We all want a cupboard or a wardrobe that will take us to Narnia because dealing with the White Witch seems easier than dealing with this pandemic. While magic furniture may not be something we can order online, we sure hope we can get the Muzhi cupboard to make the extended hours in the kitchen more magical! Yen-Hao, Chu is an award-winning designer who has created the Muzhi cupboard for storing all your kitchenware in a way that will make Marie Kondo proud of your organization skills and Bobby Berk happy with your sense of aesthetic.

The cupboard is made of three main parts that the owner can assemble or disassemble according to their needs. The upper part of the cupboard is semi-open where the right side can be used to store tableware and the left side can be used for potted plants as it is open on three sides which allows for ample sunlight. The middle area is an open spacious section that can be used as a sideboard, a small bar counter, or a place to keep small and medium-sized appliances like a kettle, coffee maker or a toaster. Meanwhile, the lower section has a partly glazed left-hand drawer to let the owner see what’s stored inside and the large tray area on the right-hand side can be used to store pot covers or everyday utensils. Details like the solid timber handrail and hanging rails were added to provide a neat place for towels and wine glasses.

Muzhi comes in two finishes and has a simple yet elegant design that blends clean lines with the warmth of wood – a piece of evergreen furniture that will always be useful. It also makes the kitchen look more airy and spacious with the partially-open components. The modular build of this piece makes it the right fit for any kitchen but especially smaller ones that need to optimize space. Having Muzhi is definitely better than a bunch of bulky cabinets, it adds a timeless touch to your kitchen and you never have to fumble to find your dishes again.

Designer: Yen-Hao, Chu

This modular furniture creatively reduces waste and assembles like a giant LEGO project

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We’ve said this before and we’ll say it again, flexible lifestyle is the future and it is amazing to see how product designs are pivoting to be more modular to suit that change! Furniture designs are seemingly leading this game. The Un-Lim collection was specifically created so you can switch up the function and form of your furniture to fit your needs instead of going out to buy a new piece every time something changes. Un-Lim stands for unlimited and that truly shines through this set.

“Unlimited imagination and unimaginable needs of people could be contradictory to the limitations of our planet and our capacities as human beings. The consumption patterns we have adapted have led to global warming, polluted air, soil, and water while putting pressure on people, both in working conditions and a psychological obsession to gain more without answering the real needs,” says designer Ariyan Davoodian on what inspired him to create modular furniture for every space. The aim was to reduce the unnecessary (and constant) buying by using creativity and sustainable development to meet our furniture needs that also work for our environment.

Un-Lim is an ageless collection that can be molded and changed over time – think of it as redesigning your own furniture using the same pieces to create a whole new form and function! It comes with 8 different parts that you can combine to match your space and needs. Turn it from a bed to a table to a chair seamlessly. The separate modules come with a notebook that tells the story of its production timeline from the furniture’s point of view! It also includes a piece of wood from the tree that was used and a shoutout to all wood craftsmen who worked on your set.

Think of it as a running LEGO project that you can actually sit on without getting poked. The designer wanted consumers to have a long-lasting relationship with the pieces that are a part of their home and use them to express their creativity while saving natural resources and reducing waste. It teaches you to find happiness with what you have instead of finding it in a new product every other year.

Designer: Ariyan Davoodian

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How many tools does it take to assemble luxury furniture? None!

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Furniture curation is my new passion, maybe it is so because I am spending so much time home but there is no denying that well-designed furniture is art. As I explored the internet for easy assembly furniture that looked good, I came across the sleek LAVA bench. This beautiful piece of furniture looks like a high-end piece of art you bought from a gallery and I cannot pick between the matte black, deep green or matches-with-everything sand shade.

The LAVA bench is crafted from wood and the design has a Scandanavian influence. It has a very simple visual aesthetic and minimalistic form – the rounded curves of the top surface complement the angular bottom in a poetic contrast. The bench comes in two models, the L is the longer one and the S is a smaller one. The best part is that these benches require no tools for assembly and fit like Lego. Who knew you could put three pieces together and have a bench that looks like it was hand-delivered to you by Architectural Digest editors?

The L shaped bench is something I imagine is used as an added piece in the living room or the entryway of your home while the S bench serves as a side table and is will fit in more places. For furniture to be so basic in its build and still radiate so much elegance is what drew me to the LAVA bench, it brings a touch of subtle luxury to the table if you know what I mean.

Designer: Rostyslav Sorokovyi, Andrii Kovalskyi and Mudu Design

Phillipe Starck’s Broom – A sustainable chair that swept away industrial waste like magic

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Here is some food for thought – what if our leftovers could be turned to functional furniture that looked food? I mean good, that looked good! Phillipe Starck is a French designer which means he eats really good food and has managed to turn the leftovers into some really good chairs called the Broom for Emeco. Global food waste (aka leftovers) is twice as high as predicted reports CNN but leftovers don’t necessarily mean just food – it is any waste that ends up in the trash and the solution to waste management lies in creative, sustainable design. The Broom is a fine example of just that! Recycled, recyclable and designed to last – this is where rubbish becomes responsible.

The relationship between Phillipe Starck and Emeco is what turned the company from just a US Navy supplier to a coveted furniture design brand. “Working with Emeco has allowed me to use recycled material and transform it into something that never needs to be discarded – a tireless and unbreakable chair to use and enjoy for a lifetime,” says Starck who believes every creator has a duty to the society. Emeco uses recycled aluminum, recycled PET, reclaimed wood polypropylene, eco-concrete, and cork. In fact, the Broom chair is made of 90% reclaimed waste polypropylene and wood fiber that would normally be swept into the trash – hence the name!

Broom is the ingenious result of a design collaboration that both avoids and eliminates waste. It is made from a compound of industrial waste from lumber factories and industrial plastic plants – 75% waste polypropylene and 15% reclaimed wood that usually ends up in the trash. It checks all the boxes for sustainable furniture with its three-fold environmental impact – less energy, less waste, and less carbon. “With the Broom chair, it is about less and more. We chose less – less “style”, less “design”, less material, less waste, less energy. And so, the Broom chair became so much more” says Starck when talking about the design process to make a chair that does more than being a surface to sit on.

The Broom comes in 6 colors, can be stacked easily, perfect for outdoor use and very low maintenance (honestly, just clean with soapy water and wipe with a soft cloth).  The wood particles create a speckled texture that gives the surface a warmer, more natural touch, each chair will have its own unique textured pattern. Wood is good, polypropylene is not so good, but the combination made from the two gives us a material that lasts like synthetic but has the spirit of nature. This is sourced from woodshops and plastic producing worksites, it is then cleaned, compressed and transformed into a wood composite that works for the environment instead of harming it.

“Imagine”, says Philippe Starck, “a guy who takes a humble broom and starts to clean the workshop and with this dust he makes new magic” and we bet JK Rowling will agree that brooms are truly magic.

Designer: Philippe Starck for Emeco.