Many times in life, minimal thinking and/or design could get you maximum results. Meaning, you don’t need the biggest to make a statement.

The Cutter Mini-Wardrobe is an excellent example; it’s a stylish coat rack and shelf combo, that despite its modest size, incorporates a hanger rail, four hooks and a hat shelf. With top quality pieces of furniture like this one, providing great storage space while taking up minimal space – who needs a closet? Continue reading →

I have a small herb garden, just outside my kitchen, which I am very proud of. Thyme, Basil and Oregano are just a few of the plants I have successfully managed to grow, and which are now being pruned and added to various pasta recipes and different sauces.

You can imagine my surprise when I first saw Eethuis – a vertical garden containing an actual house with living walls and roof packed with delicious vegetables, fruits, herbs and edible flowers. It is both a house and a garden which attracts visitors to taste, touch, harvest, weed, sow and smell. Continue reading →

For many people, fine wine is an essential part of life that needs to have a place in our daily routine. The Wine & Bar Set, by Normann Copenhagen, has everything you need to enjoy your wine to the fullest. This is a complete set of useful wine-related products in a very stylish and warm cork design.

The inspiration behind this unique set, as well as the main theme, is cork, which was used to seal the bottle. The collection features wine stoppers, pourers, drip rings, a bottle opener, foil cutter, and a cork screw. What a great gift for wine lovers. Continue reading →

Designers Harris Hine and Emily Visclocky from the design firm “Reclaiming Brooklyn” collect their raw material from the streets of New York. Felled branches and tree limbs are transformed into one-of-a-kind lamps and lighting fixtures.

The idea originated after one of the tornadoes that hit New York in 2010. Amongst the debris they found a beautifully shaped branch, by adding to it a spun aluminum shade, some metal shims, a cord and a light bulb that created this naturally elegant lamp that is both original and eco-friendly. Continue reading →

What do you feel like doing? Sitting, sleeping, lounging or entertaining, the German-made Ludus Sofa can be arranged to do all that. Designed by Patricia Hopfer for the Mobilia Collection, the Ludus consists of only three cushion parts: a seat cushion, a back cushion and an optional corner back cushion – and a lacquered MDF back part that is also a library.

The system is modular and very easy to re-arrange, it can be a sofa, a bed, a large sleeping area or recliner. The back / shelf unit is a practical storage solution for books, magazines and decorative items you want to keep nearby. The Ludus sofa is an ideal solution if you have limited space or don’t have the budget to buy several pieces of furniture but still want the option of having guests sleep over. Continue reading →

Here’s a Do-It-Yourself project for you: Take a few stainless steel tubes, some plastic cable ties and a rubbery material, mix them together, and Ta-Da! You’ve just created a chair. Well, I wish it were that easy… But not for the creative guys at Recession Design – an international DIY design collective based in Milan – this group of creatives are up to some wonderful product designs, and one of them is the P3 DIY Chair. Continue reading →

Ferm Living Tea Towels bring the best of Scandinavian design into your kitchen. The tea towel is the product of 18th century England. It was a special linen drying cloth that only the mistress of the house used to dry her precious and expensive china (the servants weren’t trusted to do such delicate work). Even though we’ve come a long way from then and I now own a dishwasher and disposable towels, I still find myself drying my collection of old china dishes (roses and gold leaf) by hand.

The Ferm Tea Towels are ideal for this job, they are made of 100% cotton so they don’t scratch the delicate patterns and they don’t leave scuff marks on the flatware. As with other Ferm products, the prints on the towels are oh-so-gorgeous. Continue reading →

Alessi is famous for their approach to design, producing practical everyday objects that combine functionality and a powerful sense of style, almost poetic and usually with a humorous twist.

Once again Alessi has come up with a novel idea and developed a series named “Miniature” – perfectly reproducing the shape and the material of the classic Alessi products that have become design icons. Eleven “best-sellers”, carefully chosen from the very top of the range, the most successful projects created over the course of the last 60 years, from the “Bombé” teapot by Carlo Alessi (1945) to the “Mami” saucepan by Stefano Giovannoni (1999).

Thanks to this series, I can now afford to add to my collection of Alessi items, or at least add “samples” of them. Continue reading →

Marli means butterfly, in the Australian Aboriginal language. The meaning of butterfly, in many respects is freedom. When we look at the Marli Collection by Alessi, we can see that the meaning of freedom in this unique collection is the freedom to think, to imagine, and to give an entire interpretation to the word butterfly.

For Alessi, Marli has become a family of aerodynamic objects, serving from fruit bowl to key chain, wall hook and wall clothes hook – Marli is the linking concept behind them all. One butterfly, multiple usage. Continue reading →

This cool minimalist clock takes the concept of DIY to a whole new level. I’ve seen many clocks that you can custom make, but they usually consist of an element (the clock and “hands” mechanism) that you can attach to a designed surface of your choice, most common being of course the old LP records!

Designer Kouichi Okamoto, along with ceramicist Daniel Jo, has come up with a new concept that lets you create your own custom-made time piece using water and any vessel you choose. Continue reading →