While necessity is the mother of invention, creative vision takes things even further, expanding our horizons and forcing us to view our surroundings in ways never thought of before. Today’s link roundup connects us with inventive pieces of furniture floating around the web, and in some cases, into our homes as well.

First, Design*Sponge shares a sweet DIY painted glass tabletop inspired by Kara Paslay Designs (above) and the process it took to make it. Then, Uncrate recommends we cozy up to the Wegner Papa Bear Chair, a reproduction of a mid-century modern classic available in nearly every kind of upholstery imaginable:

Inhabitat spotted a student collaboration with Herman Miller at the IFCC design expo this past month and were so impressed they thought they’d show the world. Check out Cranbrook design student Kyle Fleet’s rocker, perfect for blocking out the world and whiling away the hours on a laptop or absorbed in a book:

Elsewhere on the web, Furniture Fashion shares a roundup of 10 brilliantly upcycled coffee tables…

…and lastly, House Beautiful nourishes your inner bookworm — and aesthete — with its gallery of gorgeous libraries, chock full of seating and shelving worth drooling over.

Happy browsing!

Photo credits: Design*Sponge, Uncrate and Inhabitat

 

In most contemporary furniture, the clean lines and minimalistic nature of the form doesn’t make you think of a creature-like identity. Korean designer, Jinyoung Choi has redefined the term “scary” with a modern twist in the ‘Monster Chair’. Creativity meets contemporary styling in this seat that looks as comfortable as its unique, melding black metal and animal-like proportions.

If you never thought you’d be attracted to a piece of furniture that morphed its identity from the idea of an evil creature, think again, the Monster Chair may surprise you.

Besides its form, the chair actually has a multifunctional personality that makes it more than just a resting place to read a book.

“It is called the Monster Chair because of this chair form. It has a hole on the front which looks like a monster mouth. The short legs make you think of a little monster. The black color of this chair might be identical of an evil thing. But, this chair is an interesting piece of furniture, and besides its practical use, as a place to seat it may also become a place to deposit things.”… Furnipure

The functional area is where the ‘mouth’ of the chair resides. Use this area as a coffee table to store books, paper, or even hold your purse that you don’t want to rest on the floor. When designers have the ability to interplay a whimsical nature along with a utilitarian purpose to their decorative pieces, this is design in its purest form.

‘…This “underlines the existence of furniture itself and the person sitting on that,” as Choi puts it…’ Furnipure

Whether you are looking for a conversation piece for your living room or you enjoy having contemporary furniture that looks as good as its story, the Monster Chair is for you. This chair is created for those who enjoy a little whimsy in their everyday home.

All photo credits: Furnipure

There’s generally nothing awesome about a file cabinet. The term itself brings to mind images of three or four thin metal drawers stacked atop each other with predictable rectangular silver label placards and drawer pulls.

Perhaps that’s why, even though flat file cabinets are equally utilitarian, the mere fact that their dimensions are different makes them somehow more visually compelling.

Perfect for small item storage, particularly when paired with interior organizers, flat drawers are just satisfying to open and close; the smooth push and pull contrasts nicely with the metallic clang of the old-school tall cabinet. As well, the broader swath of surface space leaves more room for display or even an extra desktop area for jotting down notes or keeping items that simply won’t fit on a main table.

Calling to mind advertising agency boardrooms and professional artists’ studios, the flat cabinet carries with it a certain air of creativity while keeping its owner organized and orderly — a perfect dichotomy indeed.

Photo credits: AM Radio/Etsy, 1st Dibs, Design*Sponge and Apartment Therapy

Confession: we’re a little obsessed with furniture and home decor around here. Such a statement probably comes as no surprise, given the fact that we post musings on the topic multiple times a day, but since we’re in a confessional mood, we’re making today’s link roundup all about the current objects of our affection.

First things first: HSN and House Beautiful have teamed up to launch a national “Pin to Win: Build Your Dream Room” contest in which the most creatively detailed and beautifully designed pin board featuring inspiration points for a dream room will garner someone a $5,000 HSN gift card to help make that dream a reality. There are, of course, smaller prizes as well. Happy pinning, and good luck!

The folks behind Australia’s Adore Home Magazine are gushing over their love for the Nolitan Hotel in NYC, but we can’t stop staring at its customized seating-and-shelving configuration in particular:

Decoholic shares a roundup of amazing living room designs, and we’re a bit transfixed on the interplay of color in this room, most notably the curves of this warm gingham chair contrasted with the houndstooth wall beyond it:

Elsewhere, Furniture Fashion checks in with its daily ten roundup and offers some sweet modern crib ideas for new parents…

…Decorology shares a swoon-worthy Nordic space that makes brilliant use of spartan design, simple shapes and pure personality…

…and last but not least, straight from the world of celebrity, CasaSugar dutifully clocks in with a report on Justin Timberlake’s latest project: HomeMint, a collaboration with designer Estee Stanley that promises to pair limited edition art and exclusive home decor deals with editorial features on a new design artisan each month. (Author’s note: frankly, if Justin Timberlake came over to hang out at our house, we’d let him do whatever he wanted with it.)

Photo credits: House Beautiful, Adore Home Magazine and Decoholic

Not long ago, we did a little feature on the art of using colorblocking techniques in the bathroom, as inspired by a gorgeous Martha Stewart shower curtain in fruit-drenched hues, and today, we’re showcasing a few inventive uses of the approach in hard furniture as well.

Making the leap from wardrobe to furnishings never looked so good. In fact, the future’s so bright, your might want to invite visitors to wear shades when they walk into your home.

Above, the technique can be seen in the orange and red contrast blocks in a seating arrangement punctuated with perfunctory white buttons.

Next, Johnny Egg cranks the contrast up a notch with his black and hot pink dresser, presented in high gloss.

My Old Country House softens things up a bit but sticks with the bright pink theme, painting the backing of a set of vitrine shelves in the bold hue while leaving the rest of the piece white and lighting it from within, completely updating a piece that would have otherwise been dated and dysfunctional.

Iannone takes a literal approach to colorblocking with its collection of occasional furniture, featuring pale blond wood and a warm palette balanced with white and grey. Subtler still is the suggestion Better Homes and Gardens makes beneath it, contrasting simple white wall-mounted shelves with a blue wall behind it.

As with any design trend worth its salt, this one in particular can be dialed up or down to suit the tastes of anyone along the spectrum from classic to mod, quiet aesthete to daredevil.

What seems finite is actually quite endlessly adaptable, which means although it may disappear from runways by the fall, we can still enjoy it in our homes for years to come.

Photo credits: Design Boom, Johnny Egg, My Old Country House, Iannone Design and Better Homes & Gardens

 

For most people, the idea of relaxing in a comfortable chair and enjoying nature around them is the perfect end to a hectic day. What if I told you that you could enjoy a sitting area that doubles as an eco-friendly terrarium to enjoy growing plants within the same piece of furniture? Designer Fiore Arcangelo has designed the innovative ECOO terrarium chair made from clear polycarbonate so you can see nature unfold under your own seat, literally.

The beauty of terrariums in general is the ability to house a small ecosystem for plants to thrive and grow beautifully in miniature. The ECOO chair combines a relaxing spot to enjoy nature and provide an eco-friendly way to beautify your interiors with greenery, but in life-size.

Most terrariums are miniature and hung in small containers or even light bulbs as a decorative display at a windowsill or even at a home office desk. If you could bottle this same ingenuity in your furniture, how fabulous would that be? Arcangleo designed the chair that would answer this question.

Arcangelo comments on his multifunctional terrarium chair, “ECOO is… perfectly adaptable to each type of ambiance, thanks to its elegance and clean form, and is conceived in the category of medium-large seating, with a red steel frame base.” …Fiore Arcangelo via Treehugger

How does the chair work? The upper part of the seat is where water and air are brought through, while the lower area houses the growing plant. The cornucopia shape of the chair allows the plants to reach larger sizes as well as keep the occupant comfortable in a sitting position.

Arcangelo has proved once again that eco-friendly innovations for the home are created everyday to house multiple functions beautifully, just like nature.

All photo credits: Fiore Arcangelo

Today’s roundup is all about furniture whose designers see the importance of building pieces that don’t have a negative impact on the world in which we live. Although the global observance of Earth Day doesn’t take place until April 22, it stands to reason that one day a year isn’t nearly enough time to spend being conscious of the future of the environment.

So this afternoon, we’re strolling around the web and sharing links of eco-friendly interest.

First up is Furniture Fashion‘s roundup of ten stunning eco-friendly benches, from the fluttery beauty of the Ortensia Bench they found at Eco First Art (shown above) to masculine hunks of reclaimed wood fashioned into something sublime.

Intrigued enough to fall down the rabbit hole, we did a little window shopping at Eco First Art itself and found a bevy of cool and conscious pieces, like this bubble club sofa from featured artist Benjamin Rollins Caldwell:

The ever-earth-minded crew at Inhabitat shares a great piece on Classified Moto, a company that upcycles old motorcycles into furniture and home accents that double as industrial works of art:

The thoughtful souls at Vermont Woods Studios are actually sharing a helpful preview of what’s up next from their fellow Vermont woodsmiths at Copeland Furniture — right neighborly of them, if you ask us — and share an image of a classic walnut dining set called “The Catalina…”

…For a limited time, InMod is offering up to one-third off the cost of some of its most popular eco-friendly pieces, from beds and lighting to chairs and coffee tables…

…and we round out today’s link roundup with an interesting take on the future of both programming and handmade design; here’s an intriguing write-up by Good.is on the programming scholarship Etsy is giving 20 women to attend this summer’s Hacker School to help narrow the gender gap in the programming industry — and probably create a spike in handmade furniture sales through the mega-boutique to boot.

Photo credits: Furniture Fashion, Eco First Art and Inhabitat.

It’s been said that being spoiled for choice isn’t necessarily a good thing; that having too many options can actually catapult us into a state of anxiety or even apathy. When trying to decide how to redecorate a space — what colors to add, subtract or switch over to — clarity can arrive in a rather meta fashion indeed when we end up opting for no color at all.

Ideal for condos in tall high-rises with floor-to-ceiling windows, clear glass and acrylic furnishings let the view be the star of the show, while their integration into more suburban abodes brings an element of clean, crisp modernity when used in proper measure.

Small accents like this side table from Zuo Modern can add functionality to a room without competing for the eye’s attention.

A modern classic that can’t be ignored is the Louis Ghost Chair from Kartell, presented here in clear acrylic and also available in a wide range of tints to complement multiple palettes. Paired below with a transparent dining table, the effect is chic, sparkling and clean — come to think of it, nothing to be anxious about at all.

Photo credits: Alibaba, Oliver Yaphe, Zuo Modern, Kartell and Decor Pad.

With Easter right around the corner, instead of indulging in chocolate bunnies and various sweets, we thought we’d take an afternoon this week to immerse ourselves in egg-inspired furniture designs.

Perhaps the most well-known (or, dare we say, only well-known) piece of egg-inspired furniture is that of Arne Jacobsen, who was commissioned by the SAS Royal Hotel in the late 1950s to design his now-famous Egg Chair, the original series of which still stands in Room 606 as part of the aesthetic that gave the Copenhagen property its designation as “the world’s first designer hotel.” The Egg chair has been replicated many times over and is a relevant piece in the mid-century modern revival and beyond.

A lesser-known egg chair is that of Peter Ghyczy, who created the Garden Egg Chair in 1968. What started as a convertible suitcase that also behaved like a chair became an egg-shaped canopy chair and ottoman, encased in white with a palette of bold upholstery options:

And for those who have all they need in the way of chairs but can’t seem to find the perfect little cave for answering correspondence or otherwise diving into work in a quiet corner at home, there’s this egg-inspired desk shared by French by Design… it’s truly an introvert’s dream come true, and perfect for, say, addressing thank you notes to the Easter Bunny (or a thoughtful friend or relative) for bringing over a basket of chocolate eggs.

Photo credits: SAS Royal Hotel, Arne Jacobsen, Garden Egg Chair and French by Design.

What do you get when you try to push a seat cushion into too small of a frame? Believe it or not a comfortable chair that is inspired by Cinderella and the wicked step sisters squeezing their foot into a too tight glass slipper. The Too Tight Stool by Avihai Shurin is a whimsical and practical idea for a cute chair that can go everywhere and add a unique look to any interior space.

If your home is looking for furniture that won’t be found in every other living room, look to the Too Tight Stool to turn your guests’ heads.

“The center button, borrowed from the upholstery world, completes the unique design, and helps the pillow “pretending” that it’s the right one for the metal frame.
Just like in the story of Cinderella.”…Avihai Shurin

Simplicity is often the heart of good design, and the fact that a stool could be made from such a simple concept and relate to a childhood fairytale is ingenious. The feminine details of the plush seat cushion marrying up with the stark and very simple legs of the stool further display the beauty in the details.

One of the most important details being the disproportions of the cushion to the bottom frame, it goes to prove that once combined, they create a fusion of a wonderful seating element.

“..the original size of the pillow is not suitable size for a stool top, but the metal frame helps squish the pillow down to the right size.”… Design Milk

The Too Tight Stool proves anything is possible… just like the perfect foot for a glass slipper; the perfect stool awaits your seating preference. After all, if all stools were created equal, life would be too boring!

All photo credits: Avihai Shurin

What can we say? We love a good piece of furniture, and it’s link time, so off we go on a journey through pieces we just can’t resist clicking on again and again.

First up, Design Milk thrills as always with a set of chic B-Line stackable chairs (above) fresh from Italy and just in time for summer gatherings spilling over with unexpected guests…

And speaking of timeliness, Furniture Fashion addresses our ever-shrinking budgets and living spaces with its roundup of ten surprisingly grown-up — and even chic — twin-sized beds. Who knew? (They did, apparently.)

Aptly enough, The Contemporist shares a contemporary new series of shelves and tables from Alessandro Busana called, appropriately, “Cutline”:

Softening things up for a moment so we can all get a little cozy, The Nest rather sweetly shares an interesting piece about designing a his-and-hers bedroom that he and she will both love. Viva la equality in decorating!

And lastly, a moment of Zen: Vosges Paris pauses for a moment to meditate over its annual selection of “the perfect picture.” While we agree that this year’s choice is indeed a beautiful shot, we have to admit, last year’s has our vote. With a dog, an Eames chair, a black and white photo within a nearly black and white photo, and a gorgeous floor-to-ceiling window with black steel between its panes, you really can’t go wrong. Don’t you agree?

Photo credits: Design Milk, Furniture Fashion and The Contemporist.

Lots of us have fond memories of the furniture we had as kids, from our tiny little bunk beds and miniature desk sets to the pieces we used for lounging in our family dens and rec rooms.

One staple of childhood decor is the bean bag, popularized in the late 1960s and early 70s by an Italian design firm called Zanotta, whose pear-shaped “Sacco” chair is widely recognized as the progenitor of all the bean bag chairs to follow.

Fast forward several decades, and the bag has taken on various shapes and a multitude of textures and finishes. Perhaps the most sumptuous interpretation comes from Restoration Hardware, with its beautifully topstitched leather (shown top) and faux fur iterations, made all the more luxurious with accompanying faux animal skin throws.

Coast New Zealand simplifies the concept into an oversized floor cushion with enough malleability to form an upright chair of sorts and offers it in a host of colors, including a soft charcoal version:

And likewise, the indelicately-named but tightly-branded FatboyUSA has expanded the theme into a variety of shapes and sizes, including this comparable bluejean seat:

But the most abstract — and likely uncomfortable, albeit artful — rendition of the rec room classic comes to us from designer Rick Ivey, who has released a series of steel — yes, steel — bean bags for $4500 apiece.

Cozy? Not in the slightest. A conversation starter? As evidenced by this article, absolutely.

Photo credits: Restoration Hardware, Donna Moderna, Coast New Zealand, Rick Ivey and FatboyUSA.

Whether your outdoor home is a small terrace off of your urban loft in the city, or you have a sprawling estate out in the country, enjoying the outdoors in comfort is essential. Choosing all-weather seating for your patio or outdoor area can be a challenge. From the different colors and materials to choose from to determining how much space you have to fit individual pieces the options can be mind boggling.

Here are tips to help you choose outdoor furniture that will last year round for your outdoor enjoyment.

• What type of outdoor space do you have: Before you get too excited about the chaise lounge chair you saw in your favorite magazine, ensure you have enough space to accommodate it. Measure out your patio, porch or terrace area and then shop for furniture that will fit comfortably without having to trip on it to comfortably move around your outdoor area. For smaller porches, consider bistro sets and wrought iron furniture that take up less space and still look beautiful.

Photo credit: Desire to Inspire

• Lifestyle and material options: Another important factor to consider is how you live and entertain in your outdoor home. Choose furniture that reflects your relaxing style and will accommodate friends and family comfortably. Two chairs and a umbrella table will not be sufficient for a family home that has many kids, and close relatives and neighbors coming over every weekend. Next, choose all-weather materials that can handle the elements in your geographic area. Teak and cedar wood and resin wicker are good options for most moderate climate locations. Check with your local outdoor furniture vendor and ask what materials do well in your local.

Photo credit: OKB Network

Now that spring is officially here, create an outdoor home that is inviting and will stand up to Mother Nature and her elements. Choose all-weather furniture that you will be happy to invest in. Ensure you have enough space for your vision of your outdoor oasis and bring on the bright sun and relaxing days ahead.

Photo credit top:  Architecture Outdoor Spaces