I love me some Yanko Design. But I have looked at these five different chairs for unwinding after a long day at work and I have to say, I dunno. I mean, these chairs are cool:
But I would have to sit in them before deciding it was comfy.
As for this:
Well, it looks great. But comfy? I can’t imagine.
Let’s check out Design Milk and this easy chair that can turn into a bed or a sofa:
Yep, it looks more comfy. Good colors too.
Tagged chairs, decor, design, designmilk, furniture, Yanko, yankodesign
I am not sure how practical they are, but these pieces designed to look like blind contour drawings are cool. Also cool is this simple but smart furniture, shown below:
Finally, how cool is this: people are using these lego construction blocks to build homes…
I recommend you click on all the link and see a lot more.
Comments Off on I thought these three designs were very cool
Tagged decor, design, designmilk
I love this: Ikea and Marimekko have teamed up to create a collection of home goods at affordable prices that are also beautiful. They range in prices from this low cost bag at $2:
To this lovely side table with a tray for $79:
They even have clothing, like this robe for $40:
Amazing. Over at Chatelaine they have their 15 favorite from The Ikea Marimekko Bastua Collection. The three seen here were plucked from their list. Go to Chatelaine for more. Go check it out.
Chatelaine has a recent piece out, The Best White Paint Colours, According To Decor Experts, and the best white paint colours are mostly Benjamin Moore paint. Despite that, Cloud White, 967, OC-130, is not on the list! How can this be?
I mean really?
At first I thought that maybe the paint company no longer makes it. But nope,it still exists. Still looks great too. (See image above.)
Sure, White Dove (OC-17) is fine (see below):
But to my mind Cloud White is still the best White.
Who knows, though? Maybe cloud white has become passe. It was a big thing with designers a decade ago. Maybe the new ones want new whites.
That all said, I do know that if you want white, you can’t go wrong with white from Benjamin Moore. So check out that Chatelaine piece or the other pieces on my blog and see what I mean.
Comments Off on How can the best white paint colours for 2023 not include cloud white?? :)
Posted in decor
Tagged benjaminmoore, Chateleine, decor, paint, white
Yeah, the Sova Lounge chair is ergonomic and comfortable, but it’s also made from sustainably sourced wood. Oh it’s also gorgeous.
At some point most if not all the things we buy will be made from sustainably sourced material. As it should be. Here’s to more things like the Sova.
For more on this beautiful and smart chair, head over to Yanko Design for more.
If you love the work of Philippe Starck as much as I, then I recommend you head over to Uncreate and search on his name (or click here).It turns out he’s still doing cool stuff. Not surprising.
For example, this is cool: B&B Italia x Philippe Starck Outdoor Sofa. It reminds me of the great furniture he did for hotels like the Royalton in the 80s:
And this LaCie Blade Runner Hard Drive reminded me of how at the names of his older furniture often were borrowed from Philip K. Dick novels:
Love it! I wish I could find one of those hard drives. They look awesome.
Speaking of awesome looking, check out this, the Aeklys by Starck Payment Ring:
Finally these Phillippe Starck Log Knives are very gift worthy:
Nice to see one of my favorite designers is still creative, and creative in many different ways.
Here’s a good piece on how the ubiquitous IKEA Råskog trolley (seen above) has become famous as the TBR (to be read) cart on social media. Move over bedside table: IKEA is bringing on competition.
That trolley is old and good. What’s new and good from IKEA is the VINDSTYRKA smart sensor (seen below) which monitors air quality inside your home:
It’s interesting that IKEA continue to make forays into home devices that are not necessarily furniture (e.g., home speakers). I for one am here for that.
Comments Off on Two good pieces on two good pieces from IKEA
Tagged airquality, Books, decor, design, Ikea, socialmedia, storage, yankodesign
When I think of minimalist decor, I often think of rooms like this:
It’s beautiful, but it has a show room quality to me. It looks like a room one passes through, instead of lives in.
So I was pleased that in this list of top 10 minimalist projects for 2022 from Design-Milk.com, there were also rooms like this one:
And an addition like this one:
Indeed there were a number of projects that still had the qualities I associate with minimalism but also felt like places you would want to reside in, instead of look at and admire. It showed me that you can still aspire to a more pared back living space, but still have it livable.
To see the entire list, click here. Minimalism can be good!
I suspect that living in smaller and smaller spaces is going to be the rule rather than the exception, as more people move to expensive cities. I think if that’s true, we need to think about how such spaces should be furnished.
Traditional furniture assumes a certain amount of room to move about. Those assumptions need to be challenged.
For example, this piece envisions a massive piece of furniture that combines a bed, storage and seating area into one (see below):
![](https://design-milk.com/images/2022/10/Gradient-Space-Apartment-WOON-Chung-Yen-1.jpg")
Or take this piece, which imagines everything within reach (see below):
I know, it’s not for everyone. But it may be the way things are going for many urban dwellers.
As I get older I get more attuned to this way of thinking: Why I Don’t Want a Bigger Home – Benefits of Small Space Living. Maybe in the near future we will all have smaller personal spaces and larger and more varied public spaces. If so, we will need different furnishings to accommodate this.
P.S. The links have many more images showing how these pieces of furniture look. Worth checking out.
I love the site Yanko Design. They highlight some amazing designs, especially when it comes to furniture. Here’s some of the ones I’ve been collecting from them that I thought were really good.
First up, I thought this was a cool chair. It reminds me of the old telephone tables people used to one have.
Something that would go really well with it is this very cool coffee table.
If you want to get something really amazing for your walls, I would suggest this beautiful but very high end (Raf Simons) shaker furnishing. Or this thing: an odd device to help you relax. It’s hard to describe: you really have to go to the piece.
I love that crazy but beautiful shelving you see above. It’s incredibly modular, too. Over at Yanko Design they have a variety of configurations showing what you can do with it. Quite a lot!
P.S. This is not Yanko but good if you are interested in 4k TVs . Hey, TVs are furniture. 🙂 Finally, this from the New York Times: Have You Seen This Table Lamp? If You Eat Out in New York You Will. It’s a cool lamp. Good for restos, but good for you too.
If you are decorating a space and you don’t know what to get, consider plants with really large leaves, like this here licuala grandis. It’s practically sculpture, but easier on the eyes and the wallet.
For more on this, check out these 12 houseplants with obscenely large leaves. One of those could be just what you need to liven up your place.
While generally not a fan of the recipes at this site, this piece at Tasty on how to cook in a small kitchen is jam packed with good ideas. Even if you have a much bigger kitchen, you could learn a lot from this piece. By the time you are done applying these ideas, you’ll be a much better and much happier cook.
(Image: link to image at tasty.co)
As a result of the pandemic and CafeTO, many restaurants have put up these GRIPBlock reusable walls outside their establishments in the warmer months to draw in customers. It’s a good thing. Here’s one nearby in my neighborhood:
A good idea like that works indoors too. This Blokaloks modular system lets you build walls or even rooms inside, like this:
Smart. You can click on the link to see more designs. Would be perfect for lofts and other open concept spaces that need better definition.
While many of the furnishings of the 1970s should stay in that decade and never be revived, these shelves are an exception. As Designmilk.com explains, these shelves date
… back to the 70s, when Pierre Paulin was commissioned by President Pompidou to design furniture for the Elysée Palace’s private apartments, (but they were not) …. officially launched to the public until 2009 …
They make me think of the 70s, but they don’t scream it. They would work wonderfully with contemporary furniture today. Also highly expandable. Perfect for book collectors like myself.
For more on them, see: From a Palace to Your Home: The Elysée Shelving System.
That’s what I was thinking when I read these two pieces:
IKEA, for a large part, is DIY furniture. But for many reasons, there is a limited range of furniture pieces to choose from. I wish there were better alternatives to them that offered more thoughtful pieces, like the ones found in those Yanko Design articles.
Anyway, it’s likely not going to happen soon. But I think there is a market for it. We just need the right business leaders to build it.
(Image from the first article.)
If you’re like me, your work desk could use an upgrade. Maybe it’s too cluttered. Maybe your tech is looking a bit shabby. Either way, I recommend you go see these top 10 desk accessories to level up your work from home productivity over at Yanko Design. For example, the organizer above is a nice way to get things off your desk.
And this keyboard below looks like it would be an improvement on the one you currently have:
Hey, new stuff isn’t everything, but it could be just the thing to make you a bit more productive and happier when you sit down at your desk to work.
I love all three of these pieces of furniture. First there is this table that also functions as a bookshelf:
Then there is this table /desk that has tons of storage:
A few years ago when I was making furniture, I made something similar. I could definitely see someone good at DIY/carpentry making the above two. As for this one below, I love that desk but it’s not for your typical DIYer! Fabulous though:
They remind me of the old telephone tables people used to have. They used to have a particular function, and they had special storage as part of them.
All three links lead to Yanko Design, where you can find out more about each of them. Worth a look.
There are topics on this blog I write about frequently because they are near and dear to my heart. And then there is this topic: crazy cat furniture. I just find it fascinating how designers go to great lengths to design furniture for their cats. For example, most cats would be happy with any old cardboard box, but this designer took that a step further and made this cardboard cat house (see above).
Then there’s this minimal wooden cat scratcher that doubles up as a cozy chilling spot for your pets! My belief is that the only way the cat will settle in any given spot is either a) it’s warm b) to annoy the dog you have.
Finally there’s this!
Yes, a wall mountable cat bed that gives your cat a place to lounge up high while saving you space. They even put shelves on the wall to make it easier for the cat to get there!
Ok, that’s it for me. For now. 🙂
(P.S. All images and posts from Yanko Design, the good people who keep me stocked with all these ideas to post. )
Sure we all know IKEA furniture, some of it not so great (don’t get me started on my now-in-the-trash Standmon armchair :)). While that armchair gave me grief, many other pieces of theirs have been really good. (No, not you, Billy bookcase. Wait, maybe you have such a bookcase and you like it…in that case it is good). Regardless, if you are unsure about the quality of Ikea furniture, I recommend you read this: Ikea but like the *good* Ikea.
Speaking of good IKEA…this is a good deal! See: You Can Rent a Tiny IKEA Apartment for Less Than $1 a Month
P.S. Speaking of good IKEA, I wrote about that elsewhere on this blog. Links here:
(Image above is of another really good thing from IKEA: the Stockholm rug. A classic.)
This tiny black cabin you see above is built from felled oak trees acquired from a home’s construction waste. The company responsible, Studio Padron, did a fantastic job of recycling, take all this waste wood and making a glorious living space.
Looks great inside too
For more, go to the Yanko Design link above and check it out.
Philippe Starck has been tied to my life since I was a young man in the 80s, staying at his hotels and buying what i could afford of his. Chances are you have sat in some of his chairs or seen his hotels and didn’t even know it.
He and I parted ways some time ago: my hotel staying days died down and I settled for more modest chairs. I would occasionally wonder what he was up to.
Turns out he is still making great things. Case in point, those wooden armchairs that fit together brilliantly. The chairs are…
…The first collaboration between designer Philippe Starck and Spanish furnishings manufacturer Andreu World … Their Adela Rex walnut and oak plywood armchairs are made from three molded shapes that fit together without hardware. (Take that, IKEA.) Part of World’s 100% pure wood project, the chairs are FSC Certified.
Beautiful. Perhaps one day I’ll have a chance to relax in one.
P.S. I am happy to say that not only is his career continuing, but so is his web site. It used to be a bit of a disaster from a UX perspective, but it seems to have improved. Here’s a link to part of it: Royalton hotel, New York. That hotel, like many he designed in the 80s, no longer sports his designs. But at the time it was a dream to visit and stay in.
Pop over and take a look. Perhaps the next hotel you stay in will be one of his.
P.S.S. More things on this blog about Starck, here.
On twitter the other day I had a brief discussion about the good and bad aspects of the TTC’s interiors. This got me thinking, and led me to this site and post on it: juliekinnear.com. I really encourage you to click that link to see a good photoessay on all the beauty of the TTC’s stations. Here are two images from that post, but there are many. The TTC doesn’t have anything like the Oculus in Manhattan, but it has many beautiful spots of it’s own. You can see them in person, or do the next best thing and read that piece by Julie Kinnear.
Now here’s an unusual recipe. Instead of it being to cook something to eat, you use the ingredients to make your house smell better! To see what I mean, check this out: How to Make Your Home Smell Like a Williams Sonoma Store – Williams-Sonoma Taste
If you ever have been into a Williams Sonoma store, you know how good they smell. Especially around Christmastime. You might think you have to buy some expensive product to make them smell good but you don’t. Just get some simple ingredients.
If you are still working at this date, you are either working desperately to finish or you are killing time until the end. If you are the latter, these are for you:
(Images of this cool bike from Yanko)
Comments Off on Nine great design/decor links to kill some time with :)
Tagged decor, design, smallspaces, storage, Yanko, yankodesign
Then check out these ideas from Apartment Therapy: The 8 Best Stylish Small Space Ideas from Apartment Therapy House Tours in 2021
Sometime the first thing you need to do is get rid of anything that is not a must. After that, get smart about using your space by following those ideas.
(Image from the article.)
Comments Off on If your small space is feeling…well… too small….
Posted in decor
Tagged apartmenttherapy, condos, decor, smallspace
I love lamps and lighting. I have been known to have too many lamps in a room just because I can’t decide on one. If you are the opposite and in need of some lighting inspiration, I recommend this: Bring your home to life with these minimal 3D-printed Gantri lighting designs! – Yanko Design. That piece features quite a few different lights, including the one above. Simple and beautiful.
You may not be able to find these specific lamps, but they may lead you to some you might, be they at IKEA or some high end lighting place.
Not sure what the purpose of this post is, other than offer up a snapshot of how people live in NYC in all extremes, from this 400-Square-Foot Brooklyn Studio with a weird layout:
To this somewhat bigger One-Bedroom in Brooklyn with a Smart Layout:
To this lifestyle of the rich and famous home of director Paul Feig’s on Madison Avenue:
They are all very New York in their own way. Nothing is big though they try to look it. Brooklyn is now the place for the young to live: once affordable Manhattan rarely is. It’s all fascinating, at least to me.
P.S. Not NYC related, but I also found this fascinating: The dingy apartment of my 20s left an indelible mark on me. Many of us start out living not in places like above, but in crappy little dives. It leaves a mark on us and shapes us in a way. Recommended
Here on the ole blog I like to feature overly well designed furniture for cats! (For example.) Why? Who knows. I find it amusing, is all. The latest thing (shown above) is a modular cat-tree that can be any shape/style you want, with a customizable design that’s like IKEA for cats. I kid you not.
You know you love your cat if you will actually buy this and spend a good part of your day assembling it.
That said, it is well designed. So if you love your cat and want such a thing, go to that article in Yanko Design and check it out.
Here on my blog I love to highlight furniture designed around cats. So when I saw the piece above, I had to share it. I mean ostensibly it is for humans, but the way it is designed, it’s really for cats, although humans can share it. If that’s not the best definition of what it can be like to live with a cat, I don’t know what could be better.
Found here at Adafruit.
It looks like minimalism has had it’s time and now it’s time for maximalism to take over. At least that’s the sense I get, reading this:More Is More: The End of Minimalism | The Walrus
My thoughts are this:
For more on maximalism, here’s some other pieces I wrote. I also wrote more on minimalism too. 🙂
(Image via vinterior.co …I love it)
Ok, that’s not going to happen. I suspect most audio-visual equipment is going to look more like computers and less like furniture for the foreseeable future. Most, but not all. Take the bluetooth speaker above. Yep, that’s a bluetooth speaker! The tech is modern, but the enclosure is a throwback to midcentury modern. I love it.
For more on it, see: Hifi Case Aura 2 Speaker | Uncrate
And that thought is this: no matter how much of this piece of furniture is devoted to your cat, the only place your cat will want to go is where you are sitting!
I honestly think this furniture is insane, but I am sure for some cat lovers, it is a dream come true. To each their own.
For more on this piece of fantasy furniture, go here: This furniture design is a functional piece for you and a playful landscape for your cat! | Yanko Design
It looks like Gap is expanding into home decor like other companies like Zara and HMV. As Apartment Therapy explains:
Gap Home is a new brand of over 400 home essentials including bedding and bath, kitchenware, and general home decor like curtains, pillows, and bathroom necessities, with prices starting under $16. The brand plans to release seasonal and special lines throughout the year, so get ready to add a bunch of goodies to your holiday decor collection.
For more on it, see Apartment Therapy.
For fans of beautiful bookcases, beautiful desks, or both, check out these two from Yanko Design:
Stunning. I wish I had both.
For fans of minimalism and cats comes this minimalist cat tower. I mean, it looks great. The tower, I mean. Of course the cat looks great. 🙂
I’m not sure what the desk or workstation of the near future might look like, but these two articles are providing some ideas:
With the pandemic still ongoing, the thought of going back in the office seems remote, but when we do, I expect things are going to start to look different. They might even look like these designs.
I love small spaces, but a lot of mainstream furniture are not suited for it. That’s why I was glad to see this piece: Tiny home-friendly foldable furniture designs that are the modern space-saving solution we need! | Yanko Design
There’s some brilliantly designed furniture for small spaces, including the desk above. Click on over to Yanko Design and take a look.
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Tagged decor, design, smallspaces, yankodesign
While generally I don’t like promoting devices on Kickstarter, I make an exception for the beauty above. As Yanko Design says, this steampunk radio, speaker and clock comes with a display made from real nixie tubes!.
It’s very cool. Over at Yanko Design they have lots of beautiful pictures of it, plus links to the Kickstarter.
Love it.
I love these playful modular cabinets that put a quirky spin on storage by using geometric shelves found at Yanko Design. You can mix and match the pieces to design the best storage for your room. And if you get tired of it, you just have to reposition things and you have a whole new look. Fantastic.
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