By Rain Noe - Feb 12

After Living in Tiny NYC Apartment, Australian Industrial Designer Invents Folding Stairs (and Furniture)

As a furniture design student living in New York City, Zev Bianchi found the space constraints rather different than what he was used to in his native Australia. This "living in high priced and confined conditions," Bianchi writes, "was where I developed my passion, partly out of necessity, to design

By Rain Noe - Feb 12

A DIY Desk With Hidden Laptop Storage

…made from reclaimed pallet wood, but without that "pallet wood look"

While I'm not a fan of working with pallet wood, I understand the appeal of free raw materials. Here Brad from the Make It Youtube channel harnesses the stuff to create a desk. He not only manages to avoid the typical rustic pallet wood look, but also adds a nifty

By Rain Noe - Feb 08

A Variety of Marble-Topped Baker's Tables: Ugly, Attractive and Mysterious

A Variety of Marble-Topped Baker's Tables: Ugly, Attractive and Mysterious I've been looking at marble-topped baking tables out of general curiosity, and am surprised at how dowdy the aesthetics are: This one went for a modern look and came out rather awful: I did, however, find these handsome Lostine Marble

By Emily Engle - Feb 05

IKEA Will Begin Testing a Furniture Subscription Model

Perhaps an upgrade to raiding the 'as is' section

Remember Kamarq from last year's NYCxDesign? If not, here's a dramatic refresher. Besides all the sneaky copying, Kamarq was onto something with their furniture subscription service geared towards city-dwelling millennials... Now, less than a year later, IKEA will be adopting a similar furniture leasing program as they aim to move

By Emily Engle - Feb 04

Sponsored Post: Some Light-Up Cacti to Make Your Winter a Little More Tolerable

You can't kill what's already dead

The other day it was 6 degrees here in NYC, and today it's 59 degrees. These fluctuating temperatures combined with the crippling darkness of winter are starting to mess with my mood, so I've been doing a bit of lighting research to see if adding a little more cheer to

By Emily Engle - Feb 04

Our Favorite Pieces from Jamie Wolfond Studio's First Collection

Currently on view at Stockholm Furniture Fair, Wolfond's designs continue their playful nature outside of Good Thing's umbrella

Last month we announced the end of Good Thing's reign as an independent company—Good Thing products will now exclusively be sold by West Elm. The good news is that this transition opens up the creative floodgates for Good Thing founder and designer, Jamie Wolfond, allowing him to focus on his

By Zach Andrews - Feb 01

A Hotel Lamp Obsessed with Digital Detox Could Determine What Price You Pay for Your Stay in Sweden

A coiling snake-like lamp in Sweden is waiting to judge you or reward you greatly for your self control on Valentine's Day. It won't judge your overpacking, and it won't reward how well you've laminated the itineraries. No. This bedside-lamp connected to WiFi cares about one thing—human sacrifice, in the

By Rain Noe - Jan 28

Mojow's Seating Designs with Inflatable Cushions

You can flat-pack most furniture, but you can't flat-pack the cushions. Unless you're French furniture brand Mojow, who uses inflatable materials for the soft bits: Intriguingly, the valves are large enough that you can fill the cushions with solid matter as a means of personalization: It would be

By Rain Noe - Jan 24

Pommel Horse Seating to Encourage Office Chatting, Yea or Nay?

The last time we saw equestrian-inspired seating, it was chiropractor David James France's Workhorse Saddle Chair for posture improvement. Now we're seeing another horse-based seat design, the Sitzbock Pommel Horse, designed for a different reason: Intra-office communication. "Nowadays, a big challenge businesses face," writes German furniture manufacturer Willkahn, "is to

By Rain Noe - Jan 21

Unusual Vintage Furniture Design: Swedish Wall-Mounted Bar Cabinet

You know that joy you feel when you see a piece of furniture of a type you've never seen before? Check out this mid-century era wall cabinet from Sweden, which folds out into an impromptu bar surface: This is one of those pieces where I actually like the little flairs

By Rain Noe - Jan 17

Hilarious Video of Snooty French Designer Telling Client to Design Their Own Furniture

You know you've always wanted to do this

As a designer, think of all the things you've wanted to say to clueless clients, but couldn't, as you'd like to continue earning a living. Well, here's a bit of wish-fulfillment fantasy where an avant-garde, I've-had-it-with-all-of-you French designer instructs his clients on how to design and build their own goddang

By Rain Noe - Jan 16

Thors Design's Furniture Made from Decommissioned Wharves

It takes incredibly tough wood to survive life as a Danish dock

For maximum sustainability, we ought be making our new products out of our old garbage. The problem is that most garbage is, well, garbage. So what would be ideal, is if we could find a discarded material that was still sturdy, workable and attractive. Designer/builder Carsten Thor has found one

By Rain Noe - Jan 15

Tom Dixon & Ikea Announce Modular Delaktig Bed

The rail system allows you to snap in different headboards, side tables and lighting

Last year a collaboration between Tom Dixon and Ikea yielded the Delaktig, a sort of open-source furniture system built around a day bed/couch/seating platform. Now they've expanded the line to include a proper bed, Queen-sized, which features the same aluminum construction and snap-on, snap-off system of accessories (in this case

By Rain Noe - Jan 10

A Japanese Desk Lamp Designed for Sketching, Based on No-Glare Surgeon's Lamps

Balmuda's The Light offers no shadows nor glare, features on-board drawing utensil storage

I prefer sketching on paper, but one undeniable benefit to sketching on a tablet is that you don't have to worry about the light source. Back when I worked in a design office, the position of my desk lamp was a constant, if minor, irritation. I had a swing-arm with

By Rain Noe - Jan 09

Industrial Design Professor's "Minimal Chair" Folds Flat, Assembles in Seconds

TJ Kim teaches by example

With their educator's workload, it would be easy for any industrial design professor to stop designing themselves, occupied as they are with evaluating student work. Not so for TJ Kim, an associate professor of Industrial Design at Purdue University, who has managed to squeeze in the time to design a

By Zach Andrews - Jan 07

This Luxury Design Retailer Has Nothing to Hide

On the third day of 2019, the new direct to consumer furniture company Dims. sent out a family letter that may just be the greatest piece of literature I have ever read from a capital-seeking entity – in this letter, the luxury design retailer announced major price cuts from two

By Rain Noe - Jan 02

Notable Furniture Design Innovations (Both Good and Bad!) from 2018

The established furniture forms have been around for centuries, but that never stops designers from messing about with them. Some innovations are useful, others are gimmicks intended to boost soft sales, others are experiments from artistic types, still others aren't innovations at all, but feature elements brought back from the

By Rain Noe - Jan 02

Our Favorite Old-School Furniture Designs Spotted in 2018

A good industrial designer learns as much by looking backwards as forwards. Here are some of the best old-school and vintage designs we saw in the past year:

By Rain Noe - Dec 20, 2018

How Christmas Lights are Made

…and why one bad bulb doesn't prevent the rest from getting power

We didn't have much money growing up, and I remember at least one Christmas where a single bulb had burnt out on the tree, interrupting the circuit and ruining the entire strip. We left cookies out for Santa but apparently he couldn't be bothered to rewire our lights. It was

By Joel Moskowitz - Dec 19, 2018

Tools & Craft #120: The Future of Furniture, Part 2 - Goals

What kind of furniture will furniture makers make in the future? Before we can reasonably predict the future of furniture, we need to understand the goals and values of the furniture's makers. Is it to build something practical? Engage in creative expression? Work practically within time and money constraints? Are

By Joel Moskowitz - Dec 12, 2018

Tools & Craft #119: The Future of Furniture, Part 1

As certain rooms in our house become obsolete, will furniture keep suit?

Here are four links to articles in the New York Times that set me pondering. The first says the antique furniture market is collapsing because nobody wants the old stuff, but the article gives hope for modern makers. How Low Will Market for Antiques Actually Go?. The second says nobody

By Rain Noe - Dec 11, 2018

Freezing Cold Shop Space? Here's How to Create a Heated Shop Chair

Laura Kampf raids an auto junkyard to salvage a heated car seat

Here's a fantastic project where Laura Kampf demonstrates what we consider solid design thinking: A combination of analysis, problem-solving and outside-of-the-box thinking. Here's the problem she faced, and how a more conventional thinker would have solved them: Problem: Laura works in an unheated shop. The shop is massive,

By Emily Engle - Dec 07, 2018

Sang Hoon Kim Uses Materials & Processes From His Family's Foam Factory to Create Colorful Furniture

The collection is currently on view at DesignMiami

This year, we've watched the foam-as-furniture trend emerge and develop at shows during Milan Design Week and NYCxDesign. The use of foam blocks is intriguing from an artistic choice standpoint, but within the white hallways lined with brightly colored furniture at this year's DesignMiami lied something even more intriguing—a furniture

By Rain Noe - Dec 06, 2018

How to Refinish & Repair Mid Century and Other Vintage Furniture for Profit and Edification

Dashner Design & Restoration has documented their numerous step-by-step fixes

Whether you're an industrial designer, an ID student or a homeowner with a less-than-perfect house, learning how things are put together is of paramount importance. One way to learn this is by taking things apart. Disassembling something, then successfully reassembling it, will sear construction methods into your brain in a

By Rain Noe - Dec 05, 2018

Timothy Wilmots, Designer/Builder of That Incredible Transforming Shop Cart, is Quitting Furniture Making

He's going into a different...field

Well, this just stinks. Furniture designer/builder Timothy Wilmots is the guy who invented the incredible transforming shop cart we looked at last year. He maintains a YouTube channel in which he reveals both his creations and his workshop efficiency tips. Shortly after posting the videos on the shop

By Rain Noe - Dec 05, 2018

Space Saving for Urban Living: Ori's Mechanized, Collapsible Walk-In Closet and Disappearing Bed

Sadly, a safety feature prevents you from "accidentally" smushing your annoying roommate

Remember Ori, the mechanized transforming apartment system designed in a collaboration between Yves Béhar and MIT Media Lab? It caused a stir (okay, a design blog stir) when the concept debuted in 2016, and we gave them a Core77 Design Award in 2017. But selling an entire apartment system is

By Rain Noe - Dec 03, 2018

Flotspotting: Leslie Montes' Minimalist Kumiki Furniture Collection

A winning combination: Minimalist aesthetics, fastener-free knockdown design, honest use of materials

Two furniture trends we've been seeing: 1) Mid-century modern knockoffs, 2) Upstart designers attempting to make things that are different, just for the sake of being different. So it's a breath of fresh air to see industrial designer Leslie Montes' back-to-basics Kumiki furniture collection. Here's why we

By Rain Noe - Nov 27, 2018

New Ergonomic Chair Design Based on Horse Saddles

A chiropractor's Workhorse Saddle Chair aims to fix your posture

As you read this, you're probably sitting in a chair. And the general consensus appears to be that, for the sake of your back, you oughtn't. This consensus led to the standing desk craze. More recently acupuncturist Esther Gokhale conducted and compiled research showing that folks from developing nations who

By Rain Noe - Nov 21, 2018

Here's a Cheap, Rickety Card Table to Seat Your Unliked Relatives at on Thanksgiving

You can't go full Hunger Games, but you can make them uncomfortable

Looks like it's your turn to get into the barrel this year, and you've been selected as the unlucky host for your family's 2018 Thanksgiving gathering. It's a burden, a hassle and an imposition. But luckily for you, we've got a great, passive-aggressive way in which you can unhealthily vent

By Rain Noe - Nov 16, 2018

Innovative Old School Furniture Designs: Combination Chair-Tables

Transforming furniture from centuries past

Here's an innovative vernacular piece of furniture popular in past centuries: A chair that doubled as a table. It speaks of thrift, ingenuity, and a scarcity of materials or space. While the ruling classes undoubtedly had both the room and budget for separate tables and chairs, a commoner family

By Rain Noe - Nov 16, 2018

Innovative Old-School Furniture Design: A Hygienic Hog Slaughtering Table

Pop the handles

At a local antiques market I spotted this table. While the design initially appears unremarkable, something that jumps out at you is that the top appears to be in much worse shape than the base. While the latter is clean and with straight components, the former is both battered and

By Emily Engle - Nov 14, 2018

Tuft + Paw is Not Your Grandma's Cat Furniture 

The brand offers luxury, modern furniture for cats, including a wooden litter box credenza and a wall-mounted scratching post

One of the main reasons why I don't want a cat (besides being allergic, which is a pretty big reason) is the ugly furniture cats require. I'd rather not invade my apartment with fragrant litter boxes, tan carpeted climbing posts and whatever else cats need so stay content with their