All About Sage Green

Image via Studio McGee

Muted colors are coming in like a warm blanket to give our interiors an ultra-calming vibe, and none are looking more popular for 2023 than sage green. This soothing, slightly dusty hue works for contemporary and antique design styles alike, pairing beautifully with just about everything — including black, white, and natural wood tones.

Finding Meaning

This past year was dominated by eclectic, maximalist interior design trends, with designers buying all kinds of attention-drawing objects to place on clients’ their tables and shelves. As we move into 2023, the process of choosing those objects is becoming more intentional. Instead of random trinkets, people are choosing items that resonate on a personal level for their homes. Perhaps that’s an antique passed down from a relative, a gift from a friend, or an object that reminds you of a favorite memory.

Arches and More Arches

Image via Vaunt Design

Hallways, doors, shower niches. Arches are coming back in a big way in 2023, building on the curved furniture trends we’ve seen in previous years. More recently, they’ve taken over luxury commercial spaces like hotels and designer retail stores. We’ll soon see homeowners renovating their interiors to achieve a similar effect.

Multi-Use Rooms

Modern life can change in the blink of an eye, so we could all use a little more flexibility. Perhaps one day you want to use that little corner of your living room as a music listening area, and the next day you want to use it as a home office. Perhaps your extra room needs to work for both yoga practice and a guest space. Adaptable furniture and multi-use setups are a top priority nowadays, so it’s time to get creative to make the most of our spaces.

Natural Stone

Image via Lynn Byrne

Bold, textural, and evocative of nature, natural stone is never really out of style, but be on the lookout for interiors using it in a whole new way next year. Designers are using stone slabs with interesting colors and patterns as backsplashes, countertops, bathroom floors, and even ceilings.

Small Luxuries

Maybe you can’t afford that one-of-a-kind sculptural sofa on 1stDibs, but it’s not as much of a stretch to save up for an amazing table lamp or an original work of art. These kinds of small-scale luxuries can make a big impact in a space, especially if you make them a focal point. When possible, it’s nice to invest in higher quality and handmade pieces instead of mass-produced “fast furniture” objects and decor, most of which fall apart after just a few years.

Restoring Thrift Store Finds

Image via A Ray of Sunlight

Thrift stores are full of items that have tons of potential, if only you can see past their current condition. Sometimes all it takes is a little elbow grease, polish, paint, or new hardware to give a junky-looking piece a whole new life. The process can be a lot less involved than you imagine, even if you don’t have a lot of experience. Pinterest is packed with DIY thrift store furniture projects you can browse for inspiration.

A Balance Between Minimalism and Maximalism

Minimalism was king for a long time before maximalism swung in like a wrecking ball to shake things up. But the reality is that most people’s preferences lie somewhere in the middle, and we’re starting to see that reflected in higher-end interior design, too. That means one thing you’re doing is on-trend without you even trying. Congrats! In the coming year, we’ll likely see a lot more professional examples of well-balanced spaces to give us inspiration for our own homes.

The post Top 8 Interior Design Trends to Refresh Your Home in 2023 first appeared on Dornob.

The architects have created a little slice of paradise in the city by building artificial streams that curve through the property, almost making it feel like the residents live in a much greener Japanese version of Venice or Amsterdam. The placid body of water squeezes through the spaces between buildings, leaving slices of lawn for picnic benches, café tables, and beautiful blooming cherry trees. The precise edging and perfectly laid sod make it clear that it’s a man-made feature, but the effect nonetheless remains. There’s just something so relaxing about gazing out at the water from inside.

Take a glance at the photos of the warm wood-lined interiors, massive sliding glass walls, and natural daylight, and you might think to yourself, “yet another luxury home that’s unattainable for the vast majority of people on Earth.” That’s usually true with projects like this, but Awazuku House isn’t a private home — it’s a series of rental houses sharing the tranquility of this setting with a broader range of people, not just the wealthy owners. Set on the edge of the city, the complex offers a peaceful place to live with close proximity to the perks of the city.

“Four houses for rent in Koda-Cho, Nukata-gun, Aichi Prefecture, located in an area far from the city center with an impressive landscape of beautiful woodlands, temples, fields, curving paths, streams, and hedges. How could these locational elements be connected to life? At the same time, the real estate agent told us that the rental stock in this area was already saturated with regular apartments and condominiums,” the architects explain. “So, we began to conceive that we could rent out a comfortable life here, taking advantage of the rich environment, which spurred the idea of ‘lending.’”

“Lending a room — lending a building — lending with land — lending an existing well, lending a field next to the main building — supporting the farm work of the parents of the main building, then ‘renting the environment,’ which eventually led to ‘renting the environment’ including human relations. Each wing of the building has a loft, and the windows of every floor have a view of the back mountain. The height and position of each building and the direction of the roof slope are determined so that the views do not overlap with each other and interfere with the line of sight from the loft floor.”

The architects repurposed stone from an existing stone wall once piled up around the site as soil retaining walls. A pillar and beam from the home that already existed on the property has now become a series of benches along the waterways. Hedges help regulate the flow line of the water and ensure privacy. The water itself comes from the old well, which is no longer in use as potable water. Now, it’s both a beautiful visual feature and a source of emergency water supply in the case of a water shutoff.

The post Artificial Streams Run Through This Rental Home Complex in Japan first appeared on Dornob.

Set along the Marra Marra Creek in New South Wales, Australia, this off-grid cabin draws from the area’s fascinating history and makes smart use of a plentiful local material: repurposed 200-year-old electrical posts made of ironbark timber. From the outside, the cabin’s square, window-covered facade and large awning give it a modest and understated appearance. But not only is the inside a study in minimalist beauty — the whole project is an exercise in respect for the land, its history, and the Darug People to whom it traditionally belongs.

“In 1788, Captain Cook and his fleet entered the delta of the Hawkesbury and the sheltered bay of Sydney,” the architects explain. “At the entrance of the Dyirabun (Hawkesbury) River, he was first welcomed by the Darug People who had been living on these banks since the beginning of times. Not long after, the British colonized the Australian territory, building a network of roads and electrical lines across the vast country. The electrical posts were made of some of the finest local hardwoods. Later on, these posts were slowly replaced by steel posts.”

“The small community of Marra Marra Creek was established by settlers in the early 18th century, most probably using inmate labor to cultivate the land. However, the electrical network never reached the creek, and the community remained ‘off the grid’ and only accessible by boat at high tide until today. Marra Marra Shack is built on the land of the Darug People. We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which the house is set, their rich cultural heritage and deep connection to the country, and pay our respects to their elders past, present, and future. Always Was, Always Will Be Aboriginal Land.”

The architects augmented those 200-year-old electrical posts with spotted gum timber that grows in the Darug region for the beams of the ceiling and floor. In other parts of the space, repurposed turpentine timber from an old jetty built by settlers on the creek bank has become furniture and other small details. The cabin steps down along with the slope of the land, resulting in an interesting terraced interior around the home’s single large north-facing window. This window can also be lifted up using counterweights to open the space to the fresh air.

The only elements of the shack that aren’t made of timber are the thin fire-resistant fiber cement sheets on the facade. Instead of using energy and labor-intensive concrete footings, the architects pinned the footings to the sandstone bedrock. Best of all, both solar energy and water are collected on the roof, making the home entirely self-sustainable.

The post Repurposed Off-Grid Cabin in Australia Pays Tribute to the Native Darug People first appeared on Dornob.

When a Swedish newspaper publicized a year ago that there were more than 200 electric scooters lying at the bottom of the Malmö canals, four designers banded together to solve the problem, creating a company called Andra Formen, or “Second Form” in Swedish.

“We let others’ bad decisions inspire us and take our starting point in mistakes when we start a new project. How could a material, a place, or a phenomenon be made differently? Could [it] be done better?” the team writes on their website.

They started by enlisting the aid of two brave divers to fish abandoned two-wheelers out of the murky water. “Some of them had barnacles growing on them,” co-founder Christian Svensson notes. The designers estimated that many of electric transporters hadn’t even survived a year of usefulness before being ditched in the seaway.

After giving each scooter a good scrub, the team took them apart and laid out their inventory of components, looking for design revelations. The result is a collection of desk and floor lamps, a chair, a hydroponic planter, and a grill, all under the name “E-metabolism.”

“Our mission is to turn toxic waste in the form of electric scooters from the bottom of the canal into pieces of art,” adds Oskar Olsson, who designed many of the pieces himself. He adds: “We tried to stay true to the shapes of the scooters. Some even have dents and scratches, and they tell a story about the life it had before.”

Olsson and Svesson, along with partners Jingbei Zheng and Peder Nilsson, used the original parts as much as possible: a dead battery for the base of the floor lamp, handlebars and decks for the chair legs and seat, hubcaps as a base for the desk lamp, and handlebars for the lamp neck and head. Connector pieces from the cast-off scooters fashion the furniture together, with a few bits of 3D-printed material here and there tying it all together.

The aesthetic of the pieces has a colorful modern feel with an air of recycled chic, keeping the original hues and branding from the salvaged Voi, Bolt, and Tier scooters. While the playfully quirky furniture would be difficult to scale up based on the limited supply of scooters from waterway graveyards, the intention behind the work is a helpful reminder of our responsibility to preserve natural resources.

“We wanted to show that you can actually do something with waste,” says Svensson. “It doesn’t need to go to the dump.”

The group adds that “With this project we want to challenge our contemporaries to look past environmental degradation and see how today’s materials can be resources tomorrow.”

All the repurposed products in the E-metabolism line are on display on the Andre Formen website, with prices ranging from $200 to $800. Interested parties must fill out an email form for potential purchases.

The post Sunken E-Scooters Get New Life as Recycled Furniture first appeared on Dornob.

With a mind toward producing less waste while also creating new, useful, and beautiful things, repurposing has become an important part of how those in both fashion and design have come to reevaluate their respective industries.

Awards like the Design Prize recognize such efforts through their “Social Impact” category. Since 2017, this annual award has helped shine a spotlight on extraordinary design achievements that make an impact through thoughtful and eco-conscious projects.

This year, the Design Prize 2021 for social impact was awarded to Bangkok Project Studio, a Thailand-based firm led by Boonserm Premthada. Primarily based in Thailand, Bangkok Project Studio is known for their outstanding nuanced designs that often underscore the importance of nature. Past projects include an elephant museum made of upcycled bricks (themselves created from elephant dung), “The Walk,” an elevated walkway meant to highlight the importance of the often-overlooked natural world beneath our feet, and an observation tower at “Elephant World” in Thailand.

The latest project, and the winner of this year’s social impact Design Prize, is yet another feather in the cap of the Thai firm, this one in the form of a nine-meter rice tower. While this in itself may not sound very exciting, there are several things about the project that stand out and make it award-worthy. Located in a zoo in the country’s northeastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima, the imposing nine-meter tall rice tower was constructed through the intentional repurposing of five timber barns that were set to be demolished. The firm, led by Premthada, took apart the existing barns and reassembled them into something new, with an “[aim to] give new architectural language to the word ‘barn’ or ‘rice storage’ commonly found and used after the harvest season,” according to designboom.

This rethinking and reimagining of existing structures or objects has always been an important consideration for the firm, who often aims to merge their structures with their natural surroundings and connect them in some way. Here, the rice tower was created using the wood from the deserted barns, maintaining the overall essence of the their original purpose. Rising up from the ground in a new and exciting form “connecting the ground and the sky,” the tower is a testament to the importance of rice in Thailand, specifically in this northeastern region, which produces the best quality rice in the largest quantities. The repurposed wooden spire is also a monument to rice farmers, who nurture, grow, and harvest the crop while acting as its caregivers.

Through a mindful repurposing of dilapidated rural barns, Bangkok Project Studio “was inspired to give new language to the wooden barn,” creating a structure that’s multipurpose in both its messaging and practical uses. Serving as a playground for children by day and a habitat for local birds and animals at night, the structure is truly meant to be welcoming to all. Now, one of the area’s most signature features has become something new and impressive that’s not only symbolic, but symbiotic, working in tandem with its natural surroundings to create something beautiful and useful.

The post New Rice Tower in Thailand is Made from Repurposed Barns first appeared on Dornob.

Every year, about 250,000 tons of eggshell waste is produced around the world, and most of it ends up in landfills. Ng developed a new way to incorporate them into a composite formula base design that acts as a bonding agent. Up to 3,000 eggshells go into every square meter of tile, laid out in designs that draw from East Asia’s traditional eggshell inlay art. The shells are cracked, roasted, colored, and laid out by hand to produce distinctive organic patterns, colors, and textures, some of which closely resemble snakeskin. The way the shells interact with the specific dyes, some crushed so small you can’t even tell what they are anymore, produces an effect that’s truly one of a kind. They’re also smooth and easy to clean, so they can be used in demanding places like kitchens and bathrooms.

“We tend to associate eggshells with fragility, but they’re actually very strong and naturally UV-resistant,” Ng told Wallpaper. “They also absorb natural colors sustainably in fascinating ways, making them a wonderful building material. We use natural dyes, such as indigo, madder, and chlorophyll.”

Eggshells are just the latest natural material to be transformed into beautiful tiles by Nature Squared. While some are more conventional, like bamboo, leaves, vines, mother of pearl, capiz, and other seashells, others are equally surprising, like feathers, bone, and skin. The use of animal products can be controversial, but Nature Squared notes that these materials are byproducts of the food industry, coming from animals like chickens, cows, and fish, and would otherwise go to waste. But while the pieces from those collections make the sources look identifiable, with a more literal result, Carrelé is decidedly more abstract.

Prior to this eggshell tile project, Nature Squared worked more on custom projects rather than reproducible products. Their furniture, wall panels, and mirrors are frequently installed in places like private jets, superyachts, palaces, and villas for some of the world’s richest people. Co-founders Lay Kool Tan and Paul Hoeve brought in Ng to help create new methods and products that can divert larger volumes of waste away from landfills and broaden the potential for the company to make a difference with their circular design strategy. If you’re interested in any of their designs, contact Nature Squared directly for more information.

“Bespoke work doesn’t usually involve repeat processes, nor does it maximize an existing supply chain or natural materials’ potential, which limits the amount of natural waste that can be used,” says Ng. “With eggshells, for example, most people see waste, but I see an endless playground and limitless resource.”

The post Nature Squared Turns Your Unused Eggshells into Stunning Sustainable Tiles first appeared on Dornob.

For his recent collection Art from Factory (AFF), Kang worked with a Korean business to fashion furniture from some custom metal molds and the company’s own assembly equipment. Hot plastic in vibrant hues oozes out of nozzles, layering back and forth on itself as it fills out into the rough shape of a chair or stool. The effect is a stunning, multi-colored seat that looks like it could have been squeezed out a tube of toothpaste.

The project began when the company, which generates plastic-coated steel piping, including grip stands for all the buses in South Korea’s capital city, emailed a plea for help in managing their waste. Their plastic by-product was accumulating at the same rate as their finished output, according to Kang. The solution was art. “After observing its system closely, I decided to create a design out of the remaining materials to pursue the virtue of my art: seeking wit from everyday life,” he says.

On his Instagram account, Kang explains his thought process with AFF: “Since the development of industrialization, art and design have been divided into black and white, and the boundaries between industrial and artistic products have become clear. However, this clear line only separates everything from what is considered as practical and what is not. To me, factories were the opposite concept of art, operating mass production systems. Through this project, I wanted to find a way to produce something using plastic waste in these hard, uniformed gray spaces in order to achieve a variety of results. I think this is the process of trying to find values that can reflect the present in the boundaries of today’s art and design.”

With the transformation of machine-made dross into pulled-taffy-like fixtures, Kang was able to achieve a synergistic union between industrial functionality and artistic form. He allowed his passion for fashion to run wild with this initial compilation, using red, white, and black as the basis for his “Nike Air Jordan” chair. Kang also crafted one in the traditional colors of Reebok merchandise, a nod to his previous collaboration with the company.

A green stool with one red leg Kang labeled “red-eyed tree frog.” He also experimented with a traffic cone shape called ‘NO PARKING’ that has already been sold to a fellow Korean designer Joonghyung Cho.

Kang has been on the art scene since 2006, when he graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Masters in Studio Design. Before that, he studied at the Seoul National University. Other recent creative ventures have included his Collection 1.3, stools made of metal pipes and rope, and the “Oddly Bookshelf,” a metal see-saw that holds books in place with a wooden orb.

His AFF furniture compilation is currently under development for post-COVID 19 exhibitions and collaborations. Items for individual purchase will be available soon.

The post Korean Factory Waste Resurrected as Eye-Popping Furniture first appeared on Dornob.

His latest is yet another tea house/treehouse amalgamation, blackened on the outside in a traditional Japanese process called “yakisugi.” The wood is intentionally charred to carbonize it, giving it natural protection against insects and weather and a dramatically crackled appearance. Simultaneously, the structure’s curving shape, pointed roof, and rounded windows lend a bit of softness to the effect.

A narrow 19-step metal staircase leads to the entrance. Inside, a U-shaped wooden bench wraps around a table used for tea ceremonies. Irregular cutouts in the oak-paneled walls reveal gridded leaded glass windows, adding to the organic and seemingly sentient qualities of the house with an effect that’s almost like eyes.

The Ein Stein House’s (“One Stone House”) location is almost as notable as its architecture, standing on Europe’s first permanent NATO missile base, Hombroich Rocket Station, which was abandoned before being purchased in 1994 by art collector Karl Heinrich Müller for use as a museum and outdoor art gallery.

The Museum Insel Hombroich, set in the German town of Neuss in North Rhine-Westphalia, features over 62 acres of meadows and woods. Now dotted with a collection of outdoor installations, the property was once so secretive that Neuss wasn’t even noted on maps, guarding stored warheads for cruise missiles and rockets. When he renovated and adapted the site, Müller wanted to embrace its history while infusing it with art and culture, leaving the storage facilities, hangars, observation tower, and bomb-shelter systems in place.

A description of the project on architecture site Metalocus explains that the “stone tea house and other architectures were developed together with the Japanese architect. The selection of projects focuses on the tea houses he has planned, in particular the Ein Stein tea house designed for the Hombroich rocket station and its creation. The tea houses — like other buildings and furniture shown — are shaped by the use of natural materials and their relationship to the surrounding landscape.”

“Karl Heinrich Müller, the founder of Museum Insel Hombroich, was particularly interested in the tea ceremony and in objects and works of art from the context of this centuries-old tradition. The foundation’s collection includes numerous tea bowls and other vessels that were used in ceremonies. A selection not previously shown will be exhibited.”

Inside the converted rocket station building on the grounds of the museum, visitors can take in the rest of the “Ein Stein Tea House and Other Architectures” exhibition, which features large black and white murals of Fujimori’s other works and an exploration of Fujimori’s creative process. The natural components of “Ein Stein House” are also highlighted, enabling a close examination of the “yakisugi” siding and the logs used to support the structure.

The post Terunobu Fujimori’s New Tea House Built on a Disused Missile Base first appeared on Dornob.

The California-based Rareform is the result of two brothers with a passion for the environment. When one of them, Alec Avedissian, was living in El Salvador, he observed the locals using old billboard advertising materials as roofing tarps, and the signs couldn’t have been more clear: billboards made for a terrific durable and waterproof material.

With product ideas churning in his head, Alec headed home to secure his brother’s help in creating a surfboard carrying sleeve. The two then began calling billboard companies who were more than eager to ship truckloads of used billboards to their home.

Knowing that the typical billboard only remains roadside for an average of a month or two, Rareform can count on a consistent material supply. Plus, turning a usable material into something useful is a business model that gives the vinyl billboards new life instead of just sending them out with the trash.

Six years after the brothers set off on their venture, manufacturing has moved out of their parents’ house and the product line continues to grow. Production in their plant is almost completely streamlined, beginning with the sorting and washing of hundreds of billboards daily. The materials are sorted by thickness and color in order to match the a wide array of preferences for different products. Pieces are then hand cut and inspected before being sent out for final stitching. Even the smallest scraps are incorporated into manufacturing, resulting in minimal waste. Once stitched, each bag is individually photographed for an accurate representation of how the pattern lays out in the final product.

To date, the brothers and their team have converted 2,710,252 pounds of billboard material into one-of-a-kind backpacks, duffle bags, crossbody bags, messenger bags, and briefcases. Unique totes and purses come in a variety of options, with a new lunch tote being the most recent addition to the lineup. The good news is that when it comes to using up all those scraps we mentioned earlier, a ton of products fit the bill. Choose from wallets, toiletry bags, wristlets, pouches, and even fanny packs. Planning on traveling sometime soon? Pick up a passport holder, luggage tag, or key chain. If you’re looking for something more casual, just grab a fun tee or hat.

Rareform may be all about sustainability, but they still realize we live in a modern world, accordingly churning out heaps of laptop sleeves and iPhone cases. Don’t worry though, Alec’s passion for surfing hasn’t waned one bit, and his initial long and short board surf bags are still considered staple products six years later. They also produce change pads, which are perfect for handling the wet and sandy conditions the beach provides.

While Rareform continues to pick up vinyl billboard waste (and we salute them for it!), the newfound spotlight on the ad industry’s bad habits is causing some changes around them. More specifically, new technology in printed billboards allows makers to reduce their carbon footprint with the use of water-based adhesive vinyls and 100-percent recyclable paper. On top of that, many billboards are now digital, taking away the waste but not the resource consumption. Digital billboard signs do create a host of other environmental problems though, including energy consumption, light pollution, and disposal at the end of usable life.

The post Rareform Converts Old Billboards Into Unique Bags first appeared on Dornob.

Japanese architecture and design studio Waterfrom Design did just that for “Ideal Gas Lab,” the new Taiwan offices of Jing He Science, a company selling high-tech gas. They set out to break the stereotypical idea of what an office looks like while emphasizing the company’s branding and keeping everything simple and budget-friendly. Naturally, they started by focusing on elements frequently associated with gas: steel cylinders and pipes.

Used primarily as the supports for the desks, the tanks are painted a vivid orange, simultaneously highlighted by the black and white walls and softened by the mint green tint of the wood floors. Their origin and original purpose are immediately evident, but there’s not a logo in site, and the effect doesn’t feel overdone. The tanks reference a recognizable corporate identity, and upcycling them in this way extends the timeline of their usability.

The studio explains: “With pressure of environment and change of temperature, the substance can be transformed into different states: static solid state, fluent liquid state, and gaseous state which is both static and fluent. This is not the opening remark of a physics class. It is the start of [the] design of a brand-new office, a technology company which sells high-tech gas. When the inspiration is based on ‘science’ instead of ‘office.'”

“We rely on the laboratory, which is most associated with products, factory, daily test tubes, cast iron, black iron, gas pipes, and unique steel cylinders which carry technological gas. Unified orange on steel cylinders, lake water color on solid flooring, and gradient baking finish from bright to dark colors and from orange to black show the existence of gas at different temperatures. We consider one stem and one leaf as the micro-world of change of substance. The cycle resembles the transfer among solid state, liquid state, and gaseous state of substances in nature.”

This approach can also be used to liven up designs that might otherwise fall prey to the insidious bland sameness of cultural homogenization. All over the world, cities are developing at a rapid pace, which often means demolishing old structures and interiors to make way for the mass-produced new. But a city that’s virtually indistinguishable from any other has lost its soul, and interiors full of nothing but IKEA furniture are painfully uninteresting.

Preserving or reclaiming a few contextual elements into design might mean upcycling objects in an unexpected way, like Waterfrom Design did here, or referencing local cultural traditions and motifs. Either way, it roots the aesthetics of a space within a specific place, history, or purpose, making it a heck of a lot more memorable in the process.

The post Steel Cylinders Repurposed as Furniture for “Ideal Gas Lab” Offices first appeared on Dornob.

Crosby Studios is a creative agency that works on a wide variety of projects, including fashion collaborations, graphic designs, and interior design for hospitality and residential spaces. In fact, this isn’t even the first time that Crosby Studios has created a product like the Balenciaga-stuffed sofa. Their website also features some furniture that celebrates sneaker culture, including a transparent armchair filled with Nikes.

Nuriev and Balenciaga first unveiled the couch at Design Miami 2019, a yearly fair that aims to provide both designers and consumers with commercial opportunities and serve as a platform for cultural and artistic collaboration.

The sofa’s daring aesthetic is supposed to be both visually and mentally stimulating, though Nuriev hopes hopes it can also inspire customers to be more aware of the negative impact consumerism has on the planet. While the design is reminiscent of a large, overstuffed sofa you might expect to see in an average family home, this couch has a lot more going for it. The materials are much more unique, mostly sourced from “damaged or otherwise unsellable garments and off-cuts from obsolete stocks of Balenciaga clothing,” according to MR magazine. The final effect is a couch with a bold and mixed pattern of all conceivable colors.

While the materials that went into making it would normally not be suitable for any other means, Nuriev has repurposed them into what the fair calls “environmentally conscious design, giving generations of garments and other materials another life.” And while it may be a think piece first and foremost, the furniture is still functional, even including a pillow and recliner if you want to get a bit more comfortable.

The eco-friendly sentiment here is appreciated, but Nuriev is not the first to bring this concept to life. Companies such as Tradesy, The RealReal, and Poshmark also attempt to give clothing multiple lifetimes by reselling old pieces so they can be enjoyed by several new owners for decades to come.

Earlier this year, Balenciaga also launched an environmentally-friendly clothing line. The company’s goal with that collection was to practice sustainable fashion and bring awareness to threatened species and the need for conservation. Even better, the company put their money where their mouth was, donating all proceeds from the collection to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Attitudes toward sustainability, conservation, and eco-friendly design may vary, but seeing retail giants like Harry Nuriev and Balenciaga moving in the right direction is massively encouraging. Recognizing the responsibility designers have in protecting the environment is a necessary step forward for the whole planet.

The post Balenciaga Unveils Colorful Repurposed Sofa at Design Miami 2019 first appeared on Dornob.

In cases like this, it can be helpful to bring in the old “what would aliens think” trope, attempting to remove all of our preconceptions to set our imaginations free. But it’s also worth remembering that scarcity drives innovation, and people without a lot of access to resources can be some of the craftiest among us.

For a new series called “The Misused,” Taiwanese designers Liang-Jung Chen and Shue-Yuan Yang found inspiration within their own communities. They discovered elders in the countryside of Taiwan creatively improvising daily necessities using objects that could commonly be found laying around the house, transforming old tires into hanging planters, using funnels as shades for hanging lamps, and making drying racks out of hangers and wire baskets.

The designers say their collection “aims to re-fulfill the potentials of everyday metal hardwares by misusing them with a twist of humor.” With each creative “misuse,” you can see how everyday objects have a lot more potential than we typically see in them. They may seem specialized, but if you try, you can probably find all sorts of ways to employ them in your home, too. As we collectively work to move beyond our era of disposability and pollution, finding new ways to creatively reuse objects that already exist will only grow more and more important, so it’s a good skill to pick up now.

For Chen and Yang, the experiment proved that even “misusing” an object can produce something that really and truly works. Their fun creations include a table mirror made with a magnetic door holder, a marble jewel box made with a door hinge, glass wind chimes made with an S-hook and turn buckle, a notebook made with grill mesh, a rattan stool made with hose clamps, glass hydroponic vases made with floor drains, a magazine rack made with a braided hose, plywood bookends made with corner brackets, a cork side table made with steel cable ties, and more.

The pair adds: “As product designers, we always prioritize the logical user experience of a product. Somehow, in countryside Taiwan, we are often awed by how local grandpas and grandmas improvise homewares with existing objects creatively. The grass-roots humor originated from their earlier frugal life due to the lack of resources. They had motivated us to leave the stereotype of ubiquitous metal hardwares behind, and to re-imagine their functions according to their clever structure.”

“Each long-existing hardware has been refined by people all over the world [so many times] that they have become the universal modules for assembly. It is this collective anonymity that makes the hardware design so impeccable. Keeping the philosophy of misusing in mind, we paired 11 industrial metal hardwares with different crafted materials. The outcome is a series of homewares repurposing various kinds of metal hardwares, including a door holder, floor drain, door hinge, hose clamp, [and] S hook.”

The post Objects Made of Misused Hardware Celebrate Creative Improvisation first appeared on Dornob.

A Modern Glam Mantel

Some branches from the outdoors, a few eye-catching decorative elements, and a restrained color palette make this mantel by Modern Glam an elegant way to celebrate the season. Mix natural materials and cozy textures with graphic spooky shapes and objects like a ceramic crow sculpture from Pottery Barn, a moon phase lamp from Urban Outfitters, black pumpkins from Ballard Designs, and a spider cut-out garland from Any Occasion Banners on Etsy.

Here’s a tip from Ashley at Modern Glam:

“One of my favorite things to do is to take the decorations that I already have and try and use them in a new way. Something I haven’t ever tried before. This is a challenge, but a fun and creative one! So, take what you have and rather than put it out each year in the same spot, try something new! Rearrange, repurpose, and reinvent the items you already own. And mix in items that aren’t necessarily for the holiday. For this neutral Halloween mantel, I repurposed my vintage champagne bucket to hold the tree branches. I love the antique spin it gives this vignette.”

A Witchy Apothecary

Spells, specimens, and curious collections — this witchy Halloween decor theme is easy to cobble up using many items you already have. Got an old witch costume you’re not wearing this year? Thread some clear fishing line through the tip of the hat and hang it from the ceiling for an eerie floating effect. A wooden broom propped in the corner makes a big impact, too. But of course, the star of the show is a display of mysterious glass vessels filled with who knows what.

This style works particularly well in homes with lots of antique and vintage elements, so pull out your weathered wooden trunks, dusty old books, possibly haunted mirrors, and dried roses. You can easily reuse glass bottles straight from your recycling bin, fill them with props and colored liquids or gelatin, and cap them off with wax. If you want to invest in pieces you can use year-round, check out Pottery Barn’s collection of clear glass apothecary jars.

You don’t have to be an artist or a calligrapher to pull off those custom labels, either. You can find printable designs all over the internet, like these ones by Lia Griffith, which read “toadstool clippings,” “feathers of the crow,” “snake venom,” and more. A framed “Salem Apothecary” sign by AllChristmas on Etsy is a nice touch, as are black bat cutouts for the wall by TheVinylTree, also on Etsy.

A Haunting Table

Set the table for a feast fit all your favorite ghouls and goblins — and all without a single paper plate in sight! Many of your favorite home decor retailers have items for sale that will send a chill down the spines of your guests, and some of them are perfectly appropriate to use year-round, too.

Matte black flatware from West Elm takes on a sinister look when it’s surrounded by creepy decor, but it makes for a beautifully minimalist table otherwise. Magnolia’s simple black taper holders won’t spook anyone too much when they’re used with white candles, but with a set of black tapers like these from Colonial Candle, they’re just right for a touch of fright.

If you’re in the mood to splurge on your favorite holiday, Williams Sonoma also has some gorgeous pieces for your Halloween party, like a cauldron-shaped serving bowl and a skull-topped decanter.

The post Step Up Your Halloween Game With These Spooky Decor Pieces first appeared on Dornob.

Transforming shipping containers into housing is a trend that doesn’t seem to be slowing down, but are shipping container homes really a good — or even humane — solution?

Durable, portable, stackable, and plentiful, shipping containers are pretty easy to come by. There are approximately 36 million of them in the world, with about six million in active use at any given time. They’re only used within the shipping industry for a brief period before they’re decommissioned for quality control, too, so of course it makes sense to find ways to reuse them.

Architects and builders have turned so-called “cargotecture” into an industry in its own right. The novelty factor and apparent eco-friendliness of their incorporation into hotels, shops, restaurants, greenhouses, schools, libraries, and other types of buildings tends to get them a lot of attention, too. Because they’re made from strong materials like steel and aluminum and easy to move to new locations as needed, shipping containers are also a popular choice for emergency housing.

But in our rush to sing the praises of shipping container architecture, we might be failing to consider a few key points. First and foremost, there’s the fact that in order to be truly livable, they have to be modified quite a bit. They’re not insulated, not very good at resisting wind, and tend to build up a fair bit of condensation inside.

Once you do insulate them, you reduce a significant amount of the already-small interior space, and even then, energy-consuming air conditioning is often required to make them comfortable in summer. Interesting stacked arrangements look good in renderings, but the reality is that containers can only be stacked directly on top of each other as intended without needing a lot of extra fortification.

Used shipping containers tend to be a bit worse for the wear, not only in terms of scratches and dents, but also rust. The exteriors must be repainted every few years to keep them in good condition. Then there’s the fact that they’re often made with potentially toxic materials like chromate, lead-based paints, arsenic, and chromium, or used to transport toxic goods.

If you’re willing to put in a lot of effort, used cargo crates can still be a good choice for structures that people won’t be living inside. But the real problem comes in when they’re used for affordable housing. It’s worthwhile to remember that they aren’t always the best (or even cheapest) choice, never mind the fact that their overuse is altering the look of some cities for the worse.

Architect Mark Hogan of OpenScope Studio says that when architects propose shipping containers as a feasible solution to a major problem of housing shortages around the world, they’re not really thinking through what it’s actually like to live inside them.

“I know you’ve seen all the proposals, often done with an humanitarian angle (building slum housing, housing for refugees, etc.) that promises a factory-built ‘solution’ to the housing ‘problem’ but often positioned as a luxury product as well… housing is usually not a technology problem. All parts of the world have vernacular housing, and it usually works quite well for the local climate. There are certainly places with material shortages, or situations where factory-built housing might be appropriate — especially when an area is recovering from a disaster. In this case, prefab buildings would make sense — but doing them in containers does not.”

Hogan goes on to note that if you’re going to go through the trouble of prefabricating a structure, you might as well build them out to dimensions that are more appropriate for human habitation.

Dr. Richard J. Williams makes similar points in a recent editorial in The New York Times, saying we should all remember that shipping containers were made for things, not people.

“…The harsh landscape of the shipping container is a terrible shorthand for modernity. It’s not just the now-inescapable connotations of the migrant crisis. It’s that the people who’ve most celebrated the container form are precisely not the ones who’ve ever had to live in one: they can always go home, to a proper building somewhere else. And it’s that the shipping container suggests a world in which everything is contingent and temporary, and humans are doing little more than camping. That’s not the way to produce good offices, or housing, or cities.”

The post Shipping Container Architecture: Hot New Trend or Violation of Human Rights? first appeared on Dornob.

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“One day, I entered a large sporting goods store, where a large number of wheels were displayed in the bicycle department,” recounts Antinori. “As a daily cyclist, I was fascinated by that vision, so I decided, almost instinctively, to take three (wheels) of different sizes.” This was an example of an impulse buy with a creative purpose that was not fully formed. At first, Antinori had no idea how he was going to repurpose the wheels, but felt like there still must be some way he could use them. Then something happened that had nothing to do with cycling that gave his creative instincts a clear direction.

“A few years ago, the first high-capacity LED strips began to appear on the market, so the idea of associating a known object — a wheel — with a new emerging one — the LED — led me to the first experiment,” he adds.

When you bike to work everyday like he does to his studio, you form a personal connection to it — or at least more so than you would to driving or taking public transit. This closeness is undoubtedly another part of the inspiration that helped Antinori realize his vision.

“I have always loved (Marcel) Duchamp’s art, so perhaps it was my subconscious that guided me there,” he reveals. “The fact remains that all the people who came into the house and saw this strange object — an illuminating wheel — hung from the ceiling, were struck by it.”

The positive feedback that he received from friends, family, and associates soon got him thinking more in commercial terms. He recounts: “I understood the potential of the idea, and so I started to think of it as not only an extravagant object — a unique but approximate piece in the realization — but instead as an object that had all the characteristics of a product to be reproduced in series, of high quality, which could be part of the large family of lamps.”

To go from having an inkling of undefined inspiration to thoughts of productization is the path that many successful entrepreneurs take. It is proof that a simple idea born on a day that you were not expecting can quickly put you in front of customers all over the world, like at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in New York, where I had the pleasure of meeting with Antinori in May of 2019.

It took Antinori two years to develop the technical aspects of the lamps. In case you were wondering, the wheels themselves are stationary and cannot spin. He also came up with the marketing campaign for the lamps, which in turn got him thinking about his idea in broader terms. “I created an image and a communication strategy, (which included) conceptual films, the website, and graphic design,” he explains, “until I found myself creating a brand that could contain these curious objects, named CYCLAMPA.”

A trademark brand of his company Kaleideas, CYCLAMPA resonates with customers because of its relationship to the environment. It would be wrong to create a product that blends energy-saving LED technology with a zero emissions bicycle, only to wrap and ship it in an excess of plastic. For this reason, Antinori only uses plastic for a few components, but the majority of the packaging for the lamps is recycled cardboard. “The bicycle (and the light) become a cultural object,” he explains. “Watching it stimulates us to return to environmental issues, where sustainability can marry beauty.”

Along with their environmental significance, these lamps also carry an emotional meaning for Antinori. He says: “These lamps represent for me the desire to look beyond (the usual), and to discover everyday objects, like a banal wheel, that can still suggest something new.”

The post CYCLAMPA: The Upcycled Bike Wheel Lamps Born from a Trip to the Local Sporting Goods Store first appeared on Dornob.