Every apartment, condo or house needs a way to wash dishes, but without space for full-sized dishwashers, some of us have a tendency to pile tableware into sinks in an endless (non-rinse, non-dry) cycle. Dishwashers are a luxury in small kitchens, so sometimes it seems like sinks full of dirty dishes waiting for a reluctant hand-washing are just a fact of life. Thankfully, a new wave of technology from appliance manufacturers could change that sooner than you think.

Thus the FlashDry(R) from KitchenAid, since discontinued (perhaps due to its outrageous price), but a still a brilliant example of integrated design solutions for small-space living, and one that might inspire new designs to take its place. This compact dishwasher fits seamlessly in one side of a double sink, saving space under the cabinets for all-important kitchen storage.

The lid doubles as a draining board, and the unit comes with a snap-on cutting board custom-fitted to the top to further enhance the usability of this surface area. It is well-organized inside with a larger-than-average silverware basket, capacity-expanding capabilities for larger and awkwardly-shaped pots or pans.

With room enough too accommodate up to five place settings at a time, this relatively tiny device also uses 50% less water than a typical washer for similarly-sized loads, can run a full cycle in 20 to 30 minutes, and the lid pops open at the end to release internal steam and pressure.

Space-saving countertop dishwashers do exist, and are easy to find at big box stores like Home Depot, but the way they fit into the space is a little less elegant. While those of us making do with compact kitchens wait for new versions of this awesome in-sink dishwasher to make it onto the consumer market, perhaps we’ll just have to daydream about all the things we’ll do instead of (procrastinating on) hand washing the dishes.

The post This Compact Dishwasher Fits in Your Kitchen Sink first appeared on Dornob.

They may not be the most useful designs, but there is a seed of functionality and spark of inspiration behind this tableware concept.

The Infinity Set includes: “Cantor fork :: now you can pin a single kiwi seed. Twice in a row. Recursive spoon :: it will never let you spill a drop of soup. Ever. Koch knife :: to delicately cut hair-thin slices out of an egg. A raw egg. The Infinity Set :: the set includes itself. As a subset.”

They boast “limited quantities” but “unlimited price” as a bit of a play of sets, series and the fact that this is simply an idea, or perhaps a proof of sorts (at least of concept).

The post Impractical Fractals? Mathematics-Inspired Silverware Set first appeared on Dornob.

For some of us, showers are sufficient, but if you want a more spa-like experience, or at least a full bathtub, space can be a serious factor in urban settings.

Designer Dominik Chojnacki has a vision for a fold-up tub that provides the amenities you want but that takes up the same space as a shower.

Potential problems of this prototype, though, are clear: drainage when you tilt it up, robustness of the mechanism and of course … why doesn’t it double as a stand-up shower when not being used as a tub? Still, a neat concept nonetheless.

The post Fold-Up Bathtub Concept Designed to Save Space in Style first appeared on Dornob.

How many pieces do you really need to make a chair? And how much hardware is required, too, for that matter? Perhaps not as much as you might think.

This project on Instructables by Jesse Hensel shows how very simple the process can be if your tools are few and your needs straightforward – two cuts on one board and one cutout on the other and you have a seat that sitting in makes even more sturdy.

The one part that could perhaps be simplified even further is the slot required in the vertical board – cutting in from the side would be easiest, and if done right may be just as stable, too.

This kind of design is often referred to as a “viking chair,” perhaps erroneously, since most surviving Viking chair designs are actually quite a bit more ornate than two pieces of wood slotted together. But there was a type of chair known as a “stargazer chair” that’s almost identical to this particular DIY project.

The above example by Muddy Duck Workshop on Etsy is just a bit more refined than Jesse’s version, providing an example of what you could achieve with just a little bit more effort. Of course, some might argue that that defeats the purpose.

Here’s how the maker describes it:

“The design of this chair has been invented, reinvented, passed down through generations and generally comes out the end as what it is. It’s two pieces of wood that fit together, you can sit on it.”

“I burn the crap out of it, (that makes it look all historical and whatnot) which repels insects. Well, if there’s nothing else to eat, then it doesn’t. If this is your only chair and the wood eating insects around you have no other option, then they will eat burnt stuff. Which means if you’re in a desert and you have only this chair with you, it might be eaten by insects. Yakisugi is the Japanese name for it. I oil it to make it even more waterproof(ish).”

The post Simple DIY Viking Plank Chair first appeared on Dornob.

This colorful Eureka Tower Carpark signage by Axel Peemoeller is either brilliant or distracting, or perhaps both.

From the right angle, messages emerge from seemingly-random lines scrawled along the walls, telling one where to go in, up, down or out as they drive or walk through the structure.

When out of sync, they add a decorative edge to what would otherwise be just another boring white-and-gray concrete box visitors drive into, back out of and forget as soon as they are gone.

The post Weird & Wonderful Wayfinding: 3D Parking Garage Signage first appeared on Dornob.

It does not hurt to dream, though most of us might have trouble finding room for such a luxurious bathroom setup.

Duravit Inipi has a series of white, wood and glass sauna-and-shower combinations that can slot right into existing open spaces, like lofts lacking a master bath, for instance.

Intimacy is high on their design checklist, and privacy low, so again: it requires the right area in which to work, but would be a lovely way to relax if one had such a house or condo.

The post Dream Bathrooms with Saunas & Showers, Space Permitting first appeared on Dornob.

Too often, doors are more of an afterthought for designers, even though they are the first piece of a home we are confronted with, and the last impression when we leave.

Dubbed Hidden House by Teatum+Teatum (images by Lyndon Douglas), there is a stark austerity to this structure, making the decorative perforations in the butterfly-winged pair of front doors all the more apparent as a decorative touch.

Limited windows and a light well bring in illumination from above and behind, but to maintain privacy the side openings, front and back, are dotted with small openings in larger steel panels.

The structure itself acts as neutral infill between two older buildings, deferential and dark while also comfortably modern.

“Using the left over spaces of the city, Hidden House is formed between existing buildings. The house makes an opportunity of its dislocation from the street. It turns its back to the city and responds to its location by creating an architecture that is internal and intimate.”

“The house is organised over two levels and structured around a seven metre high internal light well. Living spaces interface across the central light well, allowing bedrooms and living areas to overlap and connect. This interface between spaces seeks the opportunity for programmes to infect one another. The connection to the exterior is formed through high level skylights that bring daylight into the bedrooms and the central light well. By removing external views the sense of interior is reinforced, creating intimacy and a focus on light and materiality.”

“The rear elevation, a black shining surface, embedded with silica carbide particles acts like a mask in that it engages the viewer without expressing or revealing the space behind. The steel butterfly doors are laser cut to reflect the pattern of rain on a cold window. Internally, the laser cut pattern allows shards of light to extend into the hidden spaces of the ground floor interior. Hidden House provides a way for the city to create more housing on existing sites providing unique spaces at low cost. “

The post Perforated Steel Doors Mix Light & Mystery first appeared on Dornob.

In our endless quest to simplify and slim laptop computers and other portable devices, sometimes functionality gets sacrificed in the name of sleek efficiency.

Instead of suggesting you add more USB ports to your ultra-thin device, Gonglue Jiang proposes you simple stack more USB devices into a single port.

A color-coding system helps keep track of which cord is running which extension, though beyond three of four this otherwise-brilliant solution could start to seem a tad awkward. A neat extension (no pun intended) of this idea would be to have the first in line be a storage device – something you might leave plugged in much or most of the time anyway, and that wouldn’t add another cord to the mix.

The post Stackable USB Solution Lets You Do More with Just One Port first appeared on Dornob.

Flat-pack, lightweight, a perfect way to carry your kitty if only it had a hole in the handle – alas, it lacks that little detail for now. Still, that absence doesn’t detract from the lovely simplicity of this peaked-roof design.

It would, for instance, make a great guest home for those with infrequent feline visitors – you can collapse it back down when not in use and button it back up quite easily, too.

This so-called Milk Box from the Chinese company MOISSUE is also made white not just in reference to milk but as a baseline for do-it-yourself decor via drawings or stickers.

The post Pop-Up Milk Carton Cat House Design Would Be Cool Carrier first appeared on Dornob.

Instant coffee has gone from jars to single-use bags, but there are still a few missing elements: hot water and cups on the go. This nifty design addresses the latter, at least, bringing us one step closer to fully-mobile travel coffee.

Young-an Seok, Young-woo Choi & Se-ryung Nam created an essentially flat-pack cup with the grounds already inside, a tear-and-serve strategy that fits neatly in a bag.

While it is bio-degradeable, this itself is nothing really new – a paper cup is too. The mobility (assuming it manages stability) of a cup that displaces no volume when packed, however, would be a big step forward itself.

The post Coffree: Flat-Pack Instant Coffee & Cup for Mobile Freedom first appeared on Dornob.

One piece of metal wraps and twists to form what may be the lightest and thinnest garbage can in the world – not even a can so much as a means of holding up a plastic trash bag.

Thanks to its less-defined shape, it can suitably hold all kinds of recycled bags without seeming over- or under-sized to the task. No need to worry about color clashing with the simple reflective steel, either.

The natural flexibility of the malleable material makes it easy to add and remove bags as well. Li Jianye is a Chinese product and systems designer who has worked in Beijing and Hong Kong; he regularly publishes side projects and concepts on his blog.

The post Flexibin: Wonderfully Minimalist Wireframe Trash Receptacle first appeared on Dornob.

Designers have a difficult time making walk-in tubs look anything but, well, ugly. There are a lot of requirements (like size) that lead to a default solution that seems clunky in an otherwise-nice bathroom space.

This solution by Su Pin Chia works around these issues in a few interesting ways. First, its strong horizontals and divided sections break up the monotony of the megalithic form. Second, when not in use, it is simply much smaller since the sides can remain down rather than up. Finally, the use of two materials – one hard, one soft – make it seem more like two elements than one.

So how does it work? Instead of folding up, it fills up – the sides are inflatable via the water-propelled jacuzzi mechanism already built in. Whether it would work in reality is a good question, but the concept is quite cool regardless.

The post Sleeker Inflatable Solution Reinvents Basic Walk-In Bathtub first appeared on Dornob.

It is common knowledge in earthquake-prone places that a door may be your best bet for nearby safety if you cannot get to more-solid ground. Since doors are basically everywhere, it is a good place to start. That is where this unusual emergency shelter design begins, but not where it ends.

Taking that everyday idea and reinforcing it, Younghwa Lee (MA Design: Product and Space design student at Kingston University) created a prototype door that anchors to the frame at the base, but folds down to provide protection from above on demand.

The slope both provides a table-like overhang and deflects debris due to its angle, rather than allowing it to gather (and potentially buckle the shelter from) above. Each doorway is designed to shelter up to two people if needed, and comes complete with a small cabinet with emergency items like flashlights in the event of power failure and for dealing with other post-quake contingencies.

Here’s some more info on how it works, from Science Daily:

“‘My starting point was the inherent strength of a door frame within a wall — they often remain standing when many of the supporting walls fall down. Also there are more doors inside most homes than there are people so everyone in the house should be able to find a door,’ Younghwa, who is studying on the MA Design: Product and Space course, said.”

“‘Once an earthquake starts there are usually up to 15 seconds of relatively ‘safe’ vertical vibration before the destructive horizontal vibration starts,’ Younghwa explained. ‘The guidance for building occupants during an earthquake is to remain inside the building and take shelter under a strong table. My door is designed to be stronger and more stable than a table and — as it isn’t a flat surface — most debris will slide off it.'”

“Younghwa, 31, based her research on Istanbul as the US Geological Survey has estimated there is a 70 per cent chance the city will be hit by an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the richter scale before 2030, potentially killing as many as 150,000 people. She believes her doors could be inexpensively incorporated in many of the city’s homes.”

The post Door Doubles as Emergency Earthquake Shelter first appeared on Dornob.

Cats are fickle creatures, but you should not have to sacrifice some sense of style to accommodate them – at least not when they will be purr-fectly happy in something that fits your aesthetic and their functional needs.

When it comes to pet houses, dogs tend to have all the fun. But cats love to have shelters all their own, too, especially if they have shapes that are similar to their beloved cardboard boxes. This design for a modern DIY cat house is so simple, yet so practical and cute.

The Cathouse by Leo Kempf features a sheltered front stoop made of scratch-friendly cardboard and a second floor with a sheepskin rug and removable plexiglass front window. It’s like giving your cat their very own hip loft from which to gaze out and judge your every move.

The interior of the cute modern cat house (accessible via a discreetly hidden rear ramp) even has its own oddly adorable decor;  miniature cat portrait paintings adorn the wood grained walls, all within a neat and tidy Modernist white box. Imagine how great it would look on the front porch of a house built in a similar style — or just in your own living room, regardless of what kind of decor you might prefer.

Here’s what the designer has to say about his pet friendly creation:

“Leo Kempf designed this cat house in 2008. Olive the cat enters through a door in the bottom side and then ascends a ramp, which boosts her to the upper level. The front wall is plexi-glass, the floor is 2.5 inch thick old sheepskin rug, and Rachel Kempf hand painted some art that hang on the walls. There is a large cardboard scratching porch. Cats love to scratch and relax on cardboard. The top is removable and the glass slides out for maintenance.”

The post DIY Modern Cat House with a Loft first appeared on Dornob.

If you have ever drafted by hand for work or pleasure, you know that straight lines are hard to sketch or trace by pen or pencil without something as your guide – and laying down the ruler, triangle or square each time takes, well, time. What if you could just snap something onto your drawing tool instead?

But this concept goes beyond simple enabling linear effects – from drafting to simply underlining more neatly in books – it is envisioned by product designer Giha Woo as a way to measure while you draw as well, and display the results in realtime on a digital readout.

These days there may not seem much need since computers can draft for you, but any creative person knows there is something about putting pen to paper (or stylus to pad, at the very least) that gives you a more visceral connection to your creation.

Woo also designed this cool tool called the Ellipser:

“We have a tool to draw a line, a compass to draw a circle and a tool to measure an angle. However, we have never had any tool to draw an ellipse of a desired shape in human history. He had to draw an ellipse using geometrical construction. The advent of computer graphics resolved this problem so easily. However, the fact that there has never been an analog method to draw an ellipse is a stimulant to a designer like me.”

“I wanted to know the definition of an ellipse before contemplating a way to draw it. It seems that if I know the definition, then I will be able to find out the rules. Then, if I know the rules, I believe that I will be able to discover a method. Finally, if I know the method, then I will be able to create a tool.”

“As everyone is well aware of the definition of a circle, it is a group of points located at an equidistance from one point. However, the definition of an ellipse is a bit more geometrically complex. An ellipse is a curve on a plane surrounding two focal points such that a straight line drawn from one of the focal points to any point on the curve and then back to the other focal point has the same length for every point on the curve.”

“I discovered the rules through the aforementioned definition and found out a method for drawing an ellipse. And I designed a tool that can be used to create ellipses more easily and freely.”

The post Device Helps You Draw Perfectly Straight Lines first appeared on Dornob.

A living flower seems to sprout right out of the surface of a wooden table in this fun project – and it’s actually even cooler than it looks at first glance.

While the perfection of the single daisy featured in these photos might lead you to believe it’s a faux flower that’s simply attached to the underside of the table somehow, it’s alive. An incredibly simple DIY will let you copy this invisible bud vase idea.

Couched as an IKEA hack, this is the kind of do-it-yourself trickery that will work with any table or surface you are not too attached to – specifically: something you are willing to drill a hole in and make other permanent modifications to. But the hole’s so small anyway that if you ultimately changed your mind, who would even notice or care?

The steps to make this DIY “invisible” bud vase are simple and process should take only a few minutes to complete – you drill a hold down for the plant, screw the lid of a jar up from the bottom, fill the jar with water, screw it into place, and you are done.

The effect is striking: a plant, without a vase, but fully alive, sprouting right from your table – a great single-stroke centerpiece or creative way to deploy living greenery all around the surface of a table, desk or counter. It’s especially ideal for people with cats that tend to knock objects off tables (as long as they’re not plant chewers.)

Designed by Tomokazu Hayakawa, and bonus points for the curiously creative integration of the creator in the background of one of the finished-piece photographs.

From IKEA Hackers:

“Materials: IKEA VIKA FURUSKOG 2000×600

Description: Flower vase in the table as if flower comes out from VIKA FURUSKOG. 

1. Used Mayonnaise bottle lid on the under surface of table with screw. 
2. Drill a hole in table and lid. 
3. Fill water on the bottle. 
4. Screw bottle. 

Only 5 minutes.”

The post Invisible Vase: DIY Table-Top Planter first appeared on Dornob.