Ever heard of a spork? Now you have: It’s a seamless blend of the spoon and fork, which reached its design apogee in a version created last year by Map, a London-based design firm. The spork was just one of several high-design items that made Fast Company’s 2015 list of Brilliant Home Design Ideas—ideas that can make your life run more seamlessly as well or serve as the perfect host or hostess gift for the person whose well-appointed house has seemingly everything.
Consider Threadstax, for instance, a magnetized system designed by inventor Scott Kosmach, who lives in the Virgin Islands, to keep your clothes tidy. An ingenious space safer, Threadstax utilizes slides, brackets, a folder and magnets to neatly organize shirts, pants or complete outfits in your closet or drawers. The space starved might also look into Rock Paper Robot’s disappearing furniture, which folds up for simple storage in no time. Created by MIT grad Jessica Banks, the Brooklyn-based Rock Paper Robot also introduced a line of floating furniture created from cubes.
Campaign, a company started by former Apple engineer Brad Sewell, wants to challenge IKEA and BluDot’s modern designs and ease of assembly with a new line of furniture shipped via FedEx or UPS. The components for a chair, table, and even a couch—which include laser-cut, powder-coated steel frames, and solid hard-wood legs—can reportedly can be put together in less than two minutes without tools.
Now, how about homegrown furniture? Gavin Munro, a furniture designer in Derbyshire, England, has devised a way to create furniture (and save on significant material waste incurred during construction) by designing recycled-plastic frames on which he trains willow, oak, and ash trees to grow into chairs, tables, and lamps. Pretty far out—and super ecological. Part topiary, part bonsai, and all innovation, Munro’s company, called Full Grown, produces one-of-a kind furniture that comes marked and with a Certificate of Provenance.
For the house and host/hostess with everything? Let’s conclude with Apparatus’ Neo-Vessel, iconic objects at once ceremonial and mythic, modern, and futuristic. Created from solid Italian marble, these are vessels to have and to hold, perfect for your next ritual—be it a dinner party or wine tasting—particularly when accompanied by a Censer (aka incense burner) festooned with a glowing porcelain dome.
By Camille LeFevre
Photo via Fotolia
