Posts with tag furniture

If you're looking to give your home a bit of an update, it's easy to look in showrooms and catalogs and decide you want it all. Paying for it all, however, is a little more difficult for most of us.

Rubie Green believes that natural doesn't mean boring, and that your home's interior is what makes it yours. And so, they've created a line of upholstery fabrics that are made of 100% certified organic cotton, which they whiten without using bleach and print in the United States.

Lots of guys enjoy spending time in outdoors, testing their ingenuity and skill in the oldest pursuit: hunting wild game. You may or may not want to join your Dad at five a.m., sitting in a duck blind. Fortunately there are many other ways for you to show that you support his enjoyment of this hobby.

The world of camouflage is vast and wild -- you can find everything with a camo print, from duct tape to crock pots. You can go a step further, with antlers and hooves decorating your choice of furniture, lamps, and grills. And then there are the clothes. Explore the vast range of hunting gifts for Dad in the gallery.

You probably know about B&B Italia. But have you heard about Maxalto? It might lack in name recognition, but for 25 years, Maxalto has been renown as a woodworking specialist, operating under the B&B umbrella. The collection still features expertly worked woods as beds, sofas, chairs, tables and more.

Now, MaxAlto's first, domestic, freestanding boutique is ready to open in Chicago's Riven North neighborhood, at 309 West Superior Street, next to Luminaire, where the collection has been represented for two decades.

Antonio Citterio oversees Maxalto, drawing inspiration from French designs of the 1920's through the 1940's. Anyone in Chicago would be wise to stop by, maybe even check the launch party tonight for a cocktail and gear up for Neocon 2008.

Similar isn't always the same. Consider Mario Bellini's chairs for Cassina and Heller. Similar shape, similar style, but completely different feel. The main, noticeable differences are found in the finish and material. The original Bellini Chair, like it's subsequent updates for Heller, is a single cast of plastic, an injection mold. UltraBellini comes in a high gloss, and BelliniTouch features a matte, charcoal finish.

Then, look at Bellini's Bull Chair for Cassina. Instead of plastic, the frame is enameled steel, covered by leather. It's essentially the same chair in terms of the shape but actually an entirely different experience and aesthetic. It's a tactile sensation that's much more noticeable in person. Comparing to fashion, Marc Jacobs makes a trench coat in his own collection and an trench coat for Louis Vuitton. Is one better than the other? In this case, one could say they're equally great.

Struggling to find the right piece for your living room that's both modern yet comfortable? Trendy yet unique? Stop wasting your time scrounging for thrift "mid-century" pieces at over-priced boutiques, and check out the Droog Hit Chair.

People laugh at Patrick Dempsey in his spandex biker shorts. Shock. [Page Six]

Check out Gwyneth Paltrow as a porcelain doll on the May issue of Vogue. [ShinyStyle]

Etiquette Checker -- never have bad breath on a date again! [productdose]

Gasp! The fashion industry uses sweatshops! New documentary will make people freak out, wish they were doing something about the problem, then forget about it on their way to buy cute designer knock-offs at Target. [Catwalk Queen]

The only way to wear white tennis shoes. [Hypebeast]

Dudes: read this before picking out your spring jacket. [Refinery29]

Don't gain weight ladies, you'll never fit into this chair, perfectly molded to some model's butt. [Gizmodo]

France might outlaw "inciting thinness." [AP]

There are some decent options out there for environmentally conscious home decor. But really...some of them are kinda beige. Or cookie cutter same-same, or just too burlap-ish crunchy, you know?

Relax, you have options.

For one-of-a-kind decor, in the words of 1stdibs.com, "Do the planet a favor, buy vintage."

When you're looking for affordable, stylish furniture for your home, apartment, dorm room -- wherever really -- IKEA is your store. They've managed to bring fun modern styles to all of us who can't afford to drop $5,000 on a designer kitchen table. But even if you're totally obsessed with the store's streamlined solutions for modern living, you wouldn't want to live there -- right?

Probably not, unless you're this guy. Mark Malkoff was having his apartment fumigated, which meant he needed to find a place to stay -- bummer. He's a comedian and filmmaker, and all his starving artist friends didn't have room in their tiny studio apartments for a guest. Instead of blowing money on a hotel, Mark had a novel idea -- why not just stay in one of those display apartments in the local IKEA?

Seems crazy, but for some reason, the store actually agreed to let Mark take up residence in their New York location. He lives on the shop floor, eats all his meals at the cafeteria (hooray, Swedish meatballs!), and showers in the back offices.

The best part is that if you'll be New York this week, you can actually visit Mark. He'll be at IKEA through January 12th (after which he'll be heading home to his apartment). Everyone else can check back on Mark's website for daily videos about what life is like instead the home style mega store.

Really, now. You graduated from college over 10 years ago and you're still hanging onto that crumbling piece of foam on a rickety frame aka a futon?

While I understand the practicality of a futon (I have never in my life, ever appreciated a futon) because it's cheap, it can be used as a bed, and well, it's cheap, it's time to upgrade to something sleeker and a little more "adult." The Duo from Apt-NY looks like an ottoman when it's folded up and covered, but when you remove the "dress," it unfolds into a sleeping mat! Granted, it's not as comfortable for an overnight guest as say, your bed, but it's definitely better than that dying futon.

The Duo is $298 and comes in 10 colors.

This chair looks like something you'd see in those too-cool-for-school clubs that cater to people who wish their lives were more like liquor commercials. Just looking at makes me want to give some girl a flirty look, whisper something sexy in her ear, then casually remove the glass of Captain Morgan from her hand and drink it with a wry grin.

Clubs like this are stupid, and, chances are, you'd look stupid if you put this chair in your house.

But it does have a very interesting feature that might just make it worthwhile. The chair actually changes colors as it interacts with people -- becoming a darker shade of red depending on the weight of whoever is sitting on it.

I love that the mood of a party could be constantly shifting based on who's sitting or standing. However, the obvious drawback is that most people would be too nervous to use the chair, for fear that it'd turn dark red and draw attention to their weight -- so make sure you have confident friends before buying a few for your funky modern pad.

If you're a design and decor freak and you happen to live in Los Angeles, you'll be happy to know that the NYC-based Moss has made its way out here. The new store opened last week at 8444 Melrose Avenue at North Croft.

Not familiar with Moss? To get a feel for what kind of cool, beautifully and well-designed stuff they have, pop on over to their online store at www.mossonline.com and browse through their stuff, like a spherical copper lamp shade for $545. It's not just lighting and furniture either. They have gadgets, things for the kitchen and tabletop, and even books.

At first, the idea of a table embedded with hundreds of glowing lights sounds tacky -- like bright, blinking Christmas decorations, a lamp shaped like a body part, or any other gimmicky piece of modern furniture.

But if the photos are any indication, this LED table seems surprisingly tasteful.

And the best part is that it's interactive. When there's nothing on the table, the lights dimly twinkle, but they become brighter when they sense motion. So, when you move your arm over the table, the lights underneath that arm become brighter (like in the photo).

This might seem a little out of place if you're design aesthetic is based on the "rustic" look, but if you're a fan of the modern home, the table could be an incredibly cute touch.

The only drawback is the price. At $2,800, those twinkling lights would have to be really worth it.

Are you into pseudo-cheap modern furniture created by hip Scandinavians? Then, chances are, you're into Ikea. Those of you lucky enough to live within striking distance of an Ikea location have probably noticed (even if you haven't been inside) that the stores are shockingly enormous. So big, in fact, that I have no idea how a person could make it through the entire place in one day.

That's exactly what they were thinking at the Ikea location in Oslo -- so the company came up with a solution: when closing time comes, let the customers stay overnight, and finish their shopping in the morning.

The sleeping arrangements are mostly dormitory style, with many beds stacked up together. However, there's also a bridal suite (complete with chandelier), a luxury suite (where you get breakfast in bed), and a family room for parents and kids. Everyone gets breakfast in the morning, and it's all absolutely free.

So now you can shop 'till you drop. Sleep. And then shop some more.

[via Boing Boing]

Summer is here, which means it's time to move the party outside. As we've discussed, the first step is to get yourself a grill -- but finding the right furniture for your al fresco get together is equally important.

Enter Douglas Homer, and the AfterGlow patio chair. In the daytime, this looks like your everyday Adirondack. But in the dark, the chair has a surprise -- it glows. Not only would this serve the practical purpose of keeping people from crashing into your furniture all night long, it'd be the talk of the party (and would make anyone who sat in it look magic).

As an added bonus, the chair was constructed from 100% post-consumer goods -- high-density polyethylene, to be exact, which means it was more or less made from old milk jugs.

So now you can barbecue 'til the break of dawn -- and look cool doing it.