Like a VIP

It's game day and you're in your comfy chair with a beer in your hand and the television remote well and truly under your control, no one is taking the game away from you and if they step in front of the TV during play time they risk ultimate death. 

But there's something not quite right. You're wishing you could be there, wishing you could smell that fresh tennis ball scent and feel the sweat running off your brow as they debate whether it was a penalty or not. Well if you had yourself a Sportstyle chair from Paolo Lillus then you'd feel so immersed in the game you'd struggle to remember you're not LeBron. 

Paolo Lillus' Sportstyle chairs are awesome feats of design; made to look like practically every iconic sports ball you could think of; be it the tennis ball, the basketball, the football, the golf ball, the baseball or the old pig's bladder they used to kick around back in the day. Each of the Sportstyle chairs are made with intricate and immaculate detail, completed to a high standard using an aluminum base, leather skin and tennis felt. You can chose to have a 4 spoke base on your seat and stool or a rotating circular base; making the seat suitable for any environment. 

These lounge room Sportsyle chairs would be perfect for sports fans and teenagers alike, and wouldn't look too foolish in a games room either. Imagine having one of each of these chairs seated around the dining table; bringing great craftsmanship and entertainment to dinner. 

Lazy Basketball

With society like it is it's a given that someone would come up with a way for people to play sport without having to move. And that product is the Lazy Basketball chair by Campeggi; a seat designed to allow you to shoot hoops without having to move an inch (well, depending on your shot to miss ratio). 

The metal structure of Lazy Basketball is covered in a synthetic net that catches the ball the minute you score a shot, and rolls it straight in to the arms of your friend in the other chair, ready for a game of back and forth free throwing. Lazy Basketball is colourful and would make a great garden game for both able bodied and disabled people alike. And although some may argue that Lazy Basketball will breed a, well, lazy generation, I'd argue that you're more than likely to miss the hoop altogether and end up running after the ball; as well, isn't it better to be sitting in the garden or house having an interactive game of Lazy Basketball than to be cuddled up in your room with your computer under your nose? 

Lazy Basketball is a great and fun invention and for roughly £600 you can get your hands on one of your own, ace for adding a new flare to your games room and getting your arms moving. 

Wave after wave

There's something almost tranquil about looking out to the ocean or staring down at your reflection in the water of a lake, and artist Gaetano Pesce seems to have captured the movement and beauty of the water in his aqua inspired table series. 

Using a range of plastic materials; like rigid Polyurethane foam, PVC, epoxy resin and soft urethane resin; Gaetano Pesce creates these beautifully artistic tables with blue and green hues so true to life that you'll have to look twice to make sure the table isn't liquid. He seems to get the surface of the water - with its ripples, flows and reflections - just right, also giving the pool of water a neighbor in the form of shrubbery and sea defense walls. 

These tables would make amazing statement pieces be it either for decorative use or for functionality as an actual table; they're true to life and deep blue, with natural forms and landscapes to make them appear more tangible. In the collection there is the; Lagoon Table, Lake Table, Ocean Table, Pond Table, Puddle Table and the River Table, all offering unique coloring's and styles that'll make you wonder and want to wander. 

Spin on Spun

Just looking at Spun Chair you can see what inspired the design; and after extensively researching the process of metal spinning and the creation of circular metal objects such as timpani drums, the Heatherwick studios created this gorgeously symmetrical chair that looks a bit like a large spinning top. 

The bucket shape of the chair provides ergonomic seating from whichever angle it's rotated and seated at, whilst the bottom of the chair is designed with a flat pivot at the bottom which allows for it to be set stable, or stilted on to its axis for spinning purposes. 

Asides from being practical, this chair is just good old fashioned fun, allowing for you to tilt and turn and definitely set to put a smile on your face. Spun is made from rotational moulded polyethylene and is suitable for both indoors and outdoors; as was demonstrated in the many outdoors installations set up in city's to get people spinning.  Spun generally comes in four solid colours; Grey, Purple, Red and White. Though special Amber and Grey polycarbonate models were available, and unique metal Spun Chairs were demonstrated and sold at Haunch of Venison. 

Like a King

Canvas Furniture is a series of two dimensional hanging furniture pieces that let you feel like someone worthy of being immortalized on canvas. These clever pictures slash chairs can either be hung like regular canvas' or lent against the wall to provide opportune seating for guests who'll ooh and aah at the genius of it. 

The aluminium and wooden framework of Canvas Furniture is covered by an elasticated fabric that allows for comfortable seating when the need arises. The chair and sofa printed fabric makes it even more suitable as you lean into the portrait, defying convention by doing your best to deform the canvas. Canvas Furniture comes in three styles; a stool, a chair and a sofa which all allow for cosy seating that tidily hangs back on the wall at the end of the night. 

No more dog chewing your sofa to shreds, or loose change going down the back of the sofa. It's the beginning of a new age where everything - TV's and sofa's alike - hang on walls. 

Ideal Home Show

Every year the Ideal Home Show rolls in and designers, home owners and buyers alike are all inspired by the amazing products and show homes on display; and this year was no exception. It was a cacophony of noise in the shopping area as sellers displayed their new kitchen tech, cleaning products and exotic foods (even I succumbed and ended up with two cheese mills). 

Six of Britain's horticulture colleges battled out for the Young Gardner of the year competition displaying some beautiful sustainably friendly new concepts that you can't help but love; such as recycled tire and rubber mixture floor, scaffolding board walls and a watering can waterfall. 

The show homes this year were targeted towards 'gap' houses and Eco friendly living with a house designed to fit between number 11 and number 10 downing street, and another house full of more green energy solutions than you could possibly think of.

A display of awesome new art was available in the home-wares and interiors section; showing works from budding new artists who use a variety of creative mediums to create their pieces such as Kevin Bandee, Dale Bowen and Kealey Farmer. Bandee and Farmer of whom both use mixed media to create abstract, three dimensional, glossy surfaces whilst Bowen focuses more on colourful animate artwork with 3D stuck on aspects. All three artists offering art work that I'd love to have decorating the walls of my house.

There were several company's that really stuck out to me with their fantastic products, Jam Jar Lights being the first with their upcycled jam jars fitted with electrical lights and fabric cable of your colour choice and in clusters of your demand. The hanging jam jar lights look gorgeous in clusters and would fit well in a rustic kitchen.

Another designing company that particularly sparked interest in me is The Fire pit Company, who specialize in handmade custom fire pits for your garden out of cast iron and intricately cut designs. You can either buy from their collection - which features designs such as that of the globe, a forest scene and a fairy ball - or you can go for a bespoke fire pit made in a choice of your design and materials.

And last but not least, the crazy amazing designer behind these upcycled oil drum creations; Think Outside who are responsible for the ee-i-ee-i-o collection of cute farmyard sculptures. They're cleverly crafted and made using the multicoloured oil drum metal in a mish-mash of bits and pieces; each sculpture different from the other. The ee-i-ee-i-o collection features a bull shaped ice bucket and a hot air balloon hanging, as well as my favourite The Three Blind mice who are sold in a trio of cute metal intended as garden creatures.

So all in all a good day out, packed with things to see and to draw inspiration from. Note to self: don't wear heels next time ;)

Bookniture

Have you ever needed a handy side table or table to eat at whilst out and about or at the park and thought that carrying around an actual table is too difficult? Well then, the Bookniture is your perfect companion, as with just a flip you turn a book into a solid table. 

Bookniture gives you really compact furniture; allowing you to store the book on a shelf or carry it around when not needed, and then quickly expand it to become a table in no time at all. It's light, portable and classy in either a simple brown or black colour. The Bookniture uses the ingenious technique of honeycomb paper structure and book binding to create a sturdy surface that can support over 170 kilos of weight.

It's comfy and durable and comes with a laser engraved felt top that acts as a table top, which can similarly be rolled up and folded away when not in use. Bookniture is currently on Kickstarter and for roughly £43 you can own a black Bookniture with a dark grey felt top; this is an especially great gift for any quirky designer out there or student who likes to get away to study. 

Duffy London

For the contemporary furniture of the future look to Duffy London and their amazingly bizarre yet desirable pieces which challenge furniture norms. 

The Milli Chair is a smart reversible chair that takes a twist on the conventional chair by adding many legs and placing them at jaunty angles to imitate the form of a millipede. By tipping the chair onto its back, you suddenly have a chair with a curved edge for your legs; both changing the appearance and and comfort of the chair. It's excellent for those who want to switch things up every now and then and keep the room fresh. 

We all love a good swing now and then, and with the Dr. Strangelove Swing Bar you can drink, eat and socialise whilst swinging to your hearts content. This playful design has a space inbetween the swinging circle where you can set up a bar or service area; perfect for any host to put on a show. Not only is this appropriate for adults, but you could also drag the kids away from their play and keep them at the table by letting them swing as they eat (it's also a great homework motivator).

Now by a landslide The Abyss Table is the most visually stunning piece by Duffy London. This table looks at depth by portraying glass and wood in a mersmerising geological cross-section of the sea. The mix of whorls and sink holes make it beautiful and defintley a conversation piece.

Home (dis)comforts

OWO is an e-design catalogue that sells only the quirkiest and most modern articles of furniture and housewares out there, and these examples are no exceptions.

Easing in slowly, this rag-a-tag armchair, the Sushi Chair, designed by the Campana Brothers company looks a little like a fabric sample collection gone wild. Strips of multi-coloured, multi-textured fabric are layered up around a wide tube to create this ring shaped seat that opens up naturally into a corolla shape perfect for sitting in. 

The Campana Brothers are a duo best known for their stuffed toy collection of 2002, where they took stuffed animal toys (leather as well as plush) and fabricated them to create a sturdy surface to act as a seat.

This next piece of furniture is an iconic piece from the 70's, full of psychedelic promise and with the ability to bring the outdoors in. The grass styled stalks of the Pratone move to conform around you as you sit so that you're swamped in the grass of foam and free to lounge.

Although not entirely practical, this foam seater does look quite quirky and with the puzzle cut edges it allows for multiples of them to be attached together to create a mass lounger. 

For a statement rug, this Global Warming Rug is a great piece that communicates an important message. In the vast expanse of a blue rug, this tiny patch of white imitates a small iceberg to reinforce the importance of our polar icecaps. And with the little white polar bear in the midst of the iceberg, our hearts can't help but melt in compassion for the ice flight. 

The polar bear is a nice touch and definitely makes the rug a one of a kind, 'ask about my rug' piece.

Upcycling: Tyre Chair

I'm big on making the most of what I've got so when a couple of old tyre's were chucked my way I decided to make the best out of them for my A-level project. Cutting periodic holes through the rubber tyre, I painstakingly spent the time of threading string to create a spirographic mesh for seating. The legs are made from old metal foot pedal guards from machinery and the screws and washers are all odds and ends pieces.

The chair is the perfect mix between retro and futuristic and it's sturdy material makes it suitable for outdoor use. What I love most about this project is that I've been collecting odd tyres from the side of the road every now and then and threading string through them to make seating for the garden; just chuck the strung tyre on top of a stack and you're good to go.

Whale, whale, whale, what have we got here?

Have you ever wanted to sit on a whale but found it inhumane? Well now with these animal chairs from designer Maximo Riera you can! This amazingly talented designer has created a range of animal kingdom themed seating; from mammals, to insects to reptiles and each look freaking spectacular. 

What I love most about these chairs is the texture which is so life like that you may feel as if the animal your sitting on is in fact real. Maximo Riera has tastefully taken segments and details from animals and formatted them to comply with the shape of a chair. 

The classic black colour of the pieces make them sophisticated rather than child-like and each chair is a centre piece in it's own right. They're high end pieces of sculpture and I can just imagine these chairs making a public space like Trafalgar Square come to life. Maximo Riera meshing of animal and chair is outstanding and has set the bar for future furniture design. 

3D Design: Unit Final

First things first, this project took me a lot - and I reiterate the word 'a lot' - of time both to construct the idea and then to manufacture a working prototype, so I'd appreciate a pat on the back or something. 

Without further ado I introduce to you my 3D printed model of a CNC routed, Gothic bed frame (that's a lot to say in one mouthful). The bed frame is designed to be made from vertically placed pieces of individual ply which have each been laser cut with the same pattern and then adhered together to form the main structure of the frame. Also the bed comes with a series of different sized draws; some that stretch only half way beneath the bed and other that span the whole length, which would allow for the bed to be pressed up against the wall. 

Because of the small size, I wasn't able to print the cylindrical draws that would go in the headboard of the bed that would act like storage canisters. I'd also planned to have several of the draw fronts being digital clocks, electrical charging stations and lights, which would allow for the consumer to pick and choose attachments for an all in one storage solution. 

SolidWorks nearly broke me in the process of working out measurements and building up a miniature replica of my concept, and it took a whole 12+ hours of printing in the 3D printer, but after all of those hours of banging my head against the key board, I came out with this killer example of Gothic/Contemporary furniture.

But if you think it ends there, than you are sorely mistaken. To compliment the Gothic bed frame, I also produced an accompanying table and chair set made of ply that follows a more haunted theme, seen in the skeletal shape of the chair and table legs. The aim of my project was to design articles of furniture inspired by gothical influences. For ease of storage, the table and chairs can be diassembled, by taking the glass panes out of the table legs, removing the centre wedge and sliding the table legs off of the binding ring that holds them together; therefore providing an easier size for storage and transport. 

Because of the amount of ply the design would use in practical application, I tesselated the design in such a way that I made use of as much of the material as possible. As a result of this, I designed a smaller version of the legs and produced cross sectioning candle holders which easily slot together and reduce the amount of waste material on the ply sheet.

Flexible Love: Expanding Chair

Flexible Love Chair

The designers of Flexible Love have hit home how important it is to find furniture that is both convenient and a great use of space with their expanding chair design. When folded down and compacted away it appears as nothing more than your conventional chair, but when pulled apart it expands to seat up to 8 people, and now with new editions they can seat up to 16!

Made from recycled cardboard and two woodern frames, the chair is organic and offers the consumer the chance to play and experiment with how they could manipulate the chair.

I want to Write my Bicycle!

This may just be a concept example of font art, but I really can't wait to see something like this being built and customised and on the market in the very near future. Juri Zaech is the Swiss typographer who created these amazing displays of bike fonts where any word can be manipulated into making up the frame of a bicycle. 

His genius illustrations have left many people frustrated that these drawings are just that: drawings. Especially considering the fact that with the current "eco" world we're living in, bicycles are becoming an increasingly popular alternative to motors, and with the unique customisation this concept offers, there is definitely a niche in the market for personalised bikes to be introduced.

Watch out for the Worm Holes





The Worm Hole Chair Igor Lobanov



The WormHole is an ingenious new concept for flat packed seating which requires nothing more than having to zip together two flat pieces of worm hole like two cupping 'C's to create a sturdy and reliable seating. It's so inventive and is a convenient type of folding chair with a simple and easy to use design.



Interconnecting zips keep the pieces held together where all the support of a chair is needed and because its made of a flexible form of reinforced plastic, it is reasonably light weight and easy to move around with- perfect in my opinion, in use as a travelling accesory that can be quickly assembled and disassembled and chucked into the boot. It's still early days and they're still working on the concept, but I've fallen in love with the simplicity of the design and the futuristic 'WormHole' innovation with the printed pattern as well as where they've manipulated the seating so that it can support weight.



Stand up, Sit Down, Keep Moving



The Stooler



 

Andreu Carulla is the genius behind the 'anything's a stool' stool with his new design 'The Stooler'.  With this inventive set of straps and legs, you can turn any item into a stool by simply strapping them around the bundle and tightening to make a make shift stool.



The Stooler





   Not only does this give you the opportunity to be functional about your seating, but you can also be creative with it and try to find the weirdest item to make a stool out of. In this way you can reuse and recyle any object into a comfy stool.

Any size, shape or form.

Also because of its adaptability, you can take it wherever you go as a stool that you can literally throw together out of nothing.