Core77

In the 'States the perception is that design is something that happens on the coasts, and trips through the hinterland do little to dispel this notion. Which is not to say companies in the interior aren't trying: Chattanooga-based SmartFurniture.com specializes in modular storage for home, office and retail environments, and the company's fast growth indicates they may be onto something.

Borrowing a page from Ikea, SmartFurniture's storage systems are user-assembled, though designed in such a way that it's all done by hand and without tools. The additive factor, literally, is that all of SF's systems are designed for infinite expansion, a feature that surely appeals to Americans and the rapidly expanding size of their homes.

U.S. houses have roughly doubled in size since the 1950s, reaching an average of over 2,300 square feet. Why? Google "American house size" and you'll receive a host of opinions and in-depth articles, like NPR's take on the subject from '06. "We know that when everyone stands up, no one gets a better view," writes Cornell prof. Robert Frank, discussing the arms-race/keeping-up-with-the-Joneses mentality. "We know there are all sorts of situations where individual choices that are perfectly rational add up to a total outcome that none of us likes very much. This is one of those."