Tag: Furniture

behavior · brain · creativity · design · environment · happiness · health

Grassy PicNYC Table brings the picnic feeling indoors

Beth Kelley

With Memorial Day weekend right around the corner, it’s time to think about getting outdoors and dining al fresco. But what if you live in a place that is rainy all through Memorial Day weekend (not pointing fingers, Seattle!), or you don’t have a lot of green space to play with? Fear not! From Inhabitat:

Haiko Cornelissen‘s lush, living PicNYC Table is a brilliant plant-growing furnishing that brings a taste of the outdoors to every meal. The aluminum table is deep enough to double as a planter bed, and it can grow everything from grass to herbs and flowers. We caught up with Haiko at this year’s Wanted Design exhibition during NY Design Week to ask him about his inspiration and snap some firsthand photo.
Getting some greenery, even with something as simple as a grassy table, can work wonders for picking up mood and feeling refreshed. Even having an indoor plant on your desk has been shown to improve productivity. Bon Appetit!
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children · creativity · design · learning · play

Designs for Children Showcased at ‘Play In Progress’ During Milan Design Week

Beth Kelley

Happy Friday! I hope you get a chance to go out and play this weekend. Speaking of play, here is another great find from Milan’s Design week (remember the edible mini furniture from earlier this week?). This exhibit of design focused specifically on children’s spaces, with a focus that was very playful, creative, and also a great idea for grown-ups to incorporate into their own environments.

From Inhabitat:

Students from the HDK master program Child Culture Design created an exhibit to explore new ways of bringing play into everyday objects to help foster imagination and creativity. Dubbed “Play In Progress“, the exhibit was one of our favorites at the Salone Mobile.

Johanna Larsson‘s cool table features transparent color plates that can be arranged and rearranged to create different tabletop scenes that push imaginative thinking.
At first look of Hide||show appears to be nothing special, but just put a kid in front of one of these and you’ll realize that there is definitely something more to this cabinet. The cabinet features two pairs of handles — one ordinary set for adults and a pint-sized set of hole-like handles for children. The variation indicates different accesses to function, and give children the feeling of exclusivity in their own world.
Inspired by the game of “hide and seek”, Behind the Curtain blocks out part of a white curtain with color to create a secret space for a child to be alone in his/her world.
Griet Boucique has designed an ‘Alternative Playground’ – a landscape of soft seats – that questions what is a ‘good’ play environment for a child? The design considers material usage, its impact on the environment, and how different textiles can the way a child engages in play.

Check out more great designs at Inhabitat (I love the block table, for example!)

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creativity · design

Furniture for Breakfast

Beth Kelley2 Comments

On this blog we often talk about the importance of being more playful and fun. Two great ways to be more playful are with design and food. One designer decided to combine both!

As covered by Design*Sponge:

I was glad to see that this year’s [Milan Furniture Fair] show offered more tongue-in-cheek pieces that played around with the idea of furniture in a fun and fresh way. This “furniture tasting” waffle iron is from Ryosuke Fukusada and Rui Pereira, and it allows you to produce, essentially, a completely edible collection of dollhouse living room furniture. Is this a super functional design? Perhaps not (although you can eat what you make), but it’s a clever way to play with design while bringing up the topic of mass production. Although I may have to be in favor of mass production if it means plates full of tasty furniture-shaped waffles. Click here for more information and details over at the 2DM Magazine blog. Thanks to our resident foodie, Kristina, for the tip.

Photos via 2DM

Just another excuse to play with your food. 🙂

What other examples of fun food design have you seen lately? Share them in the comments below.

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Mental · psychology

Design*Sponge best of: Offices

Beth Kelley

Grace Bonney at Design*Sponge is creating a design book, but as a business owner also appreciates the need for your own creative/productive space. Hence, two blog posts (and hopefully book sections) dedicated to creating spaces that are good for productivity and innovation:

…there are over 20 amazing offices in this final group, ranging from simple, minimalist desks to colorful offices that will wake you up with bright paint and hot pink piping. Visit here for Part One.

[image above: i love the matisse print above d*s editors (and horne owners) ryan and alissa’s beautiful home office in philadelphia]

[image above: i love all the green (and the cute paris print!) in julie murphy’s home (founder of jack and lulu)]

more at DesignSponge » Blog Archive » sneak peek best of: offices part two.

architecture · Social · technology · writing

Booklust of the week

Beth Kelley

I am a little worried it was supposed to be released more than a year ago and I can’t find any updates, but…

Play All Day documents a collection of the most vibrant, stimulating and engaging design products and concepts for children. This book sets a new standard of design for children with fascinating examples of innovative and well-designed toys, playgrounds and play environments, room decorations, wall coverings, furniture and kindergarten architecture. In addition to these products, it also presents illustration and photography as well as new and original ideas offering playful solutions that talented designers and creative parents are designing for and with their kids. It is an inspiring reference for design-savvy parents and other professionals.

more at the Play All Day publisher’s website.