With the bee population dwindling around the globe, Auckland, New Zealand native Rowan Dunford , developed a product to bring beekeeping to urban environments. With bees being critical to the world’s food supply, creating products like the Urban Beehive could help stabilize the problem by easing the beekeeping process. Dunford wanted to eliminate any fears that might come with starting your own hive, like cost and complexity. Perfect for the beginner, the modern hive is simple and designed for flat-pack shipping and assembly
It’s up north to Canada for this week’s Friday Five , spotlighting designer Lukas Peet , who grew up in the small town of Canmore, Alberta, situated in the heart of the Rocky Mountains (an hour west of Calgary). Peet opened his studio, Lukas Peet Design in Vancouver in 2009, after returning from four years in the Netherlands where he studied industrial design at Design Academy Eindhoven. Peet’s first product was a series of three lights called the “Rudi” for the New York based lighting company Roll & Hill, which was launched in April in Milan during the Salone followed by the North American Launch in May during the ICFF in New York.
simplehuman is a California-based company that produces top-notch household products that they call “tools for efficient living.” The line is made to make your life easier and with touch-free sensor soap pumps (goodbye germs!) and trash cans with lids that open with the wave of a hand, you’ll never look back. While widely known for their stainless steel trash cans, their simple design principles have spread through the kitchen with dish drains, canisters, and paper towel holders, all the way to the bathroom with shower caddies, plungers, and hampers.
When it comes to creating the most relaxing environment inside ones bedroom there is a lot that needs to be accounted for in regards to the furniture such as; colors, shapes, styles, and size. Putting a relaxing and stylish bedroom together takes something that most people look past, traditional bedroom furniture.
Traditional bedroom furniture is more than just the average bedroom set; it is bringing old world charm in and turning it into new world design. There comes a time where not all bedroom sets need to be placed in the same room, sometimes a mixture of one set and another is ideal for many reasons. Mixing and matching different bedrooms sets will give off a more relaxing feel as well as spread ones dollar further.
Before buying bedroom furniture think about these few things. How much furniture do you need? How much space do you have? What color, shape, size, and style do you want? Once you can answer these three questions you are ready to pick out your new bedroom furniture.
Here are two tips about buying bedroom furniture that will surely help you out.
Feel free to buy outside your comfort zone – Most people only buy what they have bought before and this is why style never changes in some households. Spend more than normal, buy a different style such as contemporary bedroom furniture, use different colors; these are all ways to change the style inside your bedroom.
Mix styles not colors – For the longest time mixing colors was very popular but now mixing styles such as traditional and modern or contemporary and antique.
Buying bedroom furniture is a fun experience, just remember, bedroom furniture is like buying a new car, if you don’t love it at the store you won’t love it in your room.
Korean design duo THE:Zoom is behind this clever series of furniture called Project ZIP:PER that was inspired by, you guessed it, zippers. They took your everyday zipper that’s normally seen sewn into fabric and incorporated the idea of it into these playful pieces of furniture. The stark white color of each piece let’s the quirky form shine through with the illusion that each design is being zipped (or unzipped) up.
Ed Ward is a designer and developer who has worked for clients such as Established & Sons, Habitat, and Mathmos, and also founded All Lovely Stuff . His office works on product design, including sourcing and product development, interior projects, as well as commissions. Since last year, All Lovely Stuff has been developing a collection of objects that offer a smile along with good function, affordably. For this week’s Friday Five , Ward shows us what lovely and functional objects make him smile.
Gothenburg, Sweden-based design studio, Design Stories , set out to create a collection made of industrial waste material produced by local companies. Working in collaboration with a group of producers and artisans called Returhuset , Merry-Go-Round was born. The pieces are made from materials that would normally be thrown away as trash and the results are a charming collection of lamps and tables with an interesting story to tell
What I wouldn’t give for a modern workspace like the Hully, shown above.
Orange isn’t my color, but that’s ok because they come in plenty of other desirable colors. I’m also loving that the tabletop has a sleek wooden top – its such a chic little accent.
The best part is, if you’re not using the table-top you can flip it down and make it into a seat – so you either have two chairs, a desk and a chair – or two desks if you’re really smart and productive like that. As someone who works from home, these would be awesome. I could work right from my living room by day and then transform them into a seating area by night – or when people drop by.
Hully is made by a company called Design You Edit, a company that was created by two Italian companies that came together to create furniture that is completely editable. Seriously, they have so much awesome stuff that I could purchase it all and completely redo my home into a modern wonderland. I would even get a refinance mortgage if it meant that I could do it!
What do you think of Hully and the concept of editable furniture?
One of Artek’s most popular designs is turning 80 this year , and to celebrate the Alvar Aalto designed Stool 60 , they’re featuring the stools with colored tops that were the colors used in one of Aalto’s architectural designs at the time. They’re also partnering with architects and designers on a series of special edition stools (above) throughout the year. Completed in 1932, the Paimio Sanatorium was designed by Aalto to be a tuberculosis sanatorium in Paimio, Finland and the tops of this series of stools were inspired by the colors he used there. The yellow is from the floors, the green from the walls, turquoise from the handrails and walls, and the orange, black, and white are from the furniture. The classic 3-legged stool was the first of its kind because it was made of wood instead of tubular steel
