nuit.

The Nuit side table is your basic phone stand with one neat trick: twist a lever and you can raise or lower part of it so it either looks like a short one piece table or a taller bi-level ensemble. Not hugely amazing, but it does give the Nuit an interesting appearance and, I suppose, makes it somewhat more versatile than the average side table. If you like it, you're in luck. It's on sale

sebastiano.

Pencils are boring. Putting pencils into the Sebastiano pencil holder, however, is the height of entertainment. At least, it's as entertaining as putting pencils into a holder can be. Unless you don't like stabbing them into the belly a tubby plastic guy lying spread eagled on your desk, in which case this item is not for you. (Since we're told Sebastiano lives, I don't think it's as sick and

soft. light.

Over at Butter they have a project called Soft Light that's 18 feet of luminescence wrapped in woven fiberglass. And that, sadly, is all I know about it, other than it looks like it would be nicely at home in a David Cronenberg film with its vaguely spine-like appearance(I mean that as a positive thing, by the way). Hopefully we'll hear more about this one soon.

m01.

Every now and again someone makes an umbrella stand that I don't really need, but that I'd like to have. Such is the case with the mo1 from the Marco Zanuso Jr. collection. It's a very simple piece that somehow speaks to me. It says, "go out and get an umbrella so you'll have a reason to buy me and use me." Now if only they made a Zanuso umbrella I felt compelled buy, they might have a customer

shahara.

Sometimes the perfect design requires the perfect fabric to go with it, and such is the case with the Shahara Chaise. The "demo" fabric it comes in shows off its elegant curves and sassy tassle in a way I can't imagine any other fabric doing. Although it works well, it's such a specific look I'm not sure how many people will actually be able to make it fit in their homes, but for those who can:

sit. painter. sit.

The guys over at Bertendennis have an awesome design for an eating nook called Sit Painter Sit that looks amazing but doesn't take up much space. The hype text is a little confusing because it says "just hang the paintings on the wall and sit, and you can even paint on it if you wish." So I'm assuming that means you can hang the table and chair pieces on the wall (like, hanging, say, a painting)

gooroom.

The Gooroom from Dune looks like a giant alien soccer ball that fell to Earth without the aid of a parachute. Which is a pretty specific look, really, but I happen to like it. Especially the name, which is just fun to say. Of course the Gooroom is not actually an alien, it's an ottoman that's upholstered in poly-urethane. Size is 16" high and 22" around. Did not see a cost on the Dune site,

wonder. vase.

The Wonder Vase sounds dorkish but lives up to its name because it actually starts out life flat as a sheet of paper. (See the picture? The thing on the lower right is the Wonder Vase in its flat state.) It's so thin you can mail it to someone, hence the cards you also see in the picture. When someone also mails you flowers (or just hands them to you), it's time to put the Wonder Vase in hot

multichair.

Usually designers who make furniture that can be reconfigured into different pieces give their creations funky names like "transmorgrafer" or numeric call signs such as "LV-22C." Not Joe Colombo. He created the Multichair back in 1971 and pretty much decided to call it what it is. It's chair made from two "transformable elements" that you can combine in multiple ways to create various chairs,

angel's. trumpet.

The Angel's Trumpet is a ceiling light that looks sort of like an upside down blossoming flower and a lot more like some kind of alien infestation. Or even, perhaps, the trumpet of an angel. How does it achieve that effect? Because it's made out of sculpted Unyru Japanese paper. The 23" version will cost you $276, or $375 for 48".

mushroom. chair.

Bold, bulbous and dramatic. Words you don't usually use to describe a piece of furniture that's part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art, I'd guess. But that's what the Mushroom Chair by Pierre Paulin is like. Although I will dispute the "bulbous" moniker as it actually looks anti-bulbous to me. If convex is to concave, then I'd say bulbous is to (made up word here) bulbom,

a. note. about. comment. moderation.

I've had to turn on comment moderation to combat all the comment spam Funfurde has been getting lately. I'll try to approve comments ASAP and hope to be able to turn off moderation if/when the spammers go away. (Suggestions for dealing with this problem are very welcome.)

ds1025.

Despite its mundane name the DS 1025 from De Sede is a beautiful sofa set that looks "like terraced hills" and comes in elements. Two elements will give you enough 1025 to create a two-seat configuration or "a pyramid or a small range of upholstered hillocks." The pyramid looks striking if not particularly useful to me. The hillocks are sort of half and half. Somewhat useful, but only somewhat

f41.

The F41 lounge from Marcel Breuer has five things that set it apart from the rest of the furniture world, and all five of those things are wheels! I'm firmly of the opinion that adding wheels to furniture is a great idea (as long as it looks reasonably fitting and tasteful), and the F41 is the best example of this I've seen. It's not just a lounger, it's a roadster. A sportster. A speed demon

airlift.

Monte Carlo had a pretty good idea when they put the Airlift together. The idea was, create a ceiling fan that doesn't actually appear to be a ceiling fan when it isn't, um, fanning you. Sounds funny, but looks pretty good. Looks, in fact, like a decent if slightly odd contemporary light. Which seems to be a fair tradeoff if you happen to need or want such a contraption.

pi-air.

Futuristic shapes in fiber glass reminiscent of technologies applied to high speed. Sounds like a science experiment to me, but it's actually how the Living Divani site describes the Pi-Air chair. My but it do look good though, don't it? Not many more details on this one, although I don't remember fiber glass being the most comfortable of materials to sit on, so not sure how much more I want to

intrigo.

The folks at LA Furniture Seen sent me a link to their site, where I came across the Intrigo by FENDI. This bed brings to mind a lot of "ent" words that are always fun to see in furniture...opulent, elegant, decadent and, um...succulent. (I wanted to say comfortable but then I would have lost the whole "ent" thing so you got succulent. The bed does look juicy though. And yeah, I cheated with

lovejackets.

Nothing says "I love you" more than making your partner wear an emitting/polling infrared transmitter in the form of loveJacket. With these on, anytime you're within 10 feet of each other and in a line of sight (as two lovers ought to be), a pattern of LEDs embedded in your jacket will light up and blink. This will be accompanied by your jacket "emitting a sound akin to crickets mating." aiming

oops.

So for no particular reason I technorati-ed "funfurde" and ended up on the Ghost Weather blog where they talked about the Bad Table. And in the comments a guy named Pavel Curtis mentioned the Oops chair by Jake Cress. So I checked it out, and now here it is for your amusement. When I move into my ancestral haunted house, I'm buying this chair and putting it in the foyer so it's the first thing

the. bridge.

If you've got one of those nice city lofts with lots of exposed metal struts that also happens to have an awesome view of some giant landmark-type bridge, then it's practically mandatory that you buy The Bridge from the Andrew James Collection. It's got I-beams, it's got stainless steel connecting rods and it's got presence. Not only does it come in a wide variety of custom colors, they've all

phonebook.

The Phonebook is a telephone, answering machine and message printer from Krohn Design that's really wild. Not only does the design inspiration come from the trusty old file-o-fax, so does the operational inspiration. To change modes on the phone you turn the plastic "pages." Cool. The are also four "common buttons" along the side of the phone that change function as you flip through your

chair. one.

So you're sitting around cogitating about Buckminsterfullerene and you think, I wish I had a chair that would go with the look of my Bucky Ball dome home. No worries, designer Konstantin Grcic has got your back. Although his Chair One is not actually made with the theories of Mr. Fuller in mind, it sure fits in with the Geodesic dome motif. It's built out of a concrete base and a powder coated

moonwalk. carpet.

The designers of Droog know no bounds when it comes to reinventing everyday things. Take their version of carpet, called Moonwalk. It's, well, lumpy and 3-D and fun and alien looking. Like, say, a moonscape (really a reverse moonscape, since the moon tends to have craters, not bumps). Yeah, not really practical, either for walking or cleaning -- I'd love to see how a Roomba would deal with

cuckoo. clock.

This contemporary version of the age old Cuckoo Clock is not only designed with a modern flare, it's also got some modern convenience built into it. Just like the cuckoo clocks of yore, it's got an annoying bird that pops out every so often to announce the time. But this version comes equipped with a light sensor, so when the room is dark, the bird is silent. The clock itself is a mixture of

glassbulbs.

These Glassbulbs from Oooms fall somewhere between interesting and innovative. They're wineglasses filled with lightbulb innards, and the idea is that you use them as bulbs until they burn out, then you remove the guts and you have yourself nice wineglasses. Seems okay if you have a wine bar where lights like this would not look tacky fit in, otherwise not sure where'd you use them.

bad. table.

It's pretty gutsy to give your piece of furniture a negative name like "Bad Table" but then again the people at Straight Line Designs seem to have guts to spare. Who else would make a table that's lifting up its leg and peeing on your floor? I don't know how much of a market there is for this kind of, er, creativity, but give them points for trying.

felt. rock. answer.

Todd from Molo sent me this note about felt rocks:Your curiosity was brought to our attention by a colleague.What are felt rocks good for? They have no intended purpose. But, when we first came across them (one of our passions is to understand the factory floor) we couldn’t resist pulling these bits of tumbling industrial waste from a large and loud felting machine. The shop forman was horrified

dna. art.

Send the designers at DNA 11 a sample of your DNA along with $390-$790, and they'll send you back a piece of art based on your own genetics. Each bit of art is, of course, as unique as you are. You can get your gen art in one of seven color schemes with gimmicky names like "matrix" and "postiv," as well as three sizes. Takes 4-6 weeks to arrive and shipping is included in the price. There is

windowseat. lounge.

The guys over at Mike and Maaike sent me a link to their Windowseat Lounge. They call it a "room-within-a-room for lobbies and airports or a relaxing sanctuary at home." I say yes for airports and lobbies, but not so much for the home (unless you really dislike your family). You can get a cool matching ottoman for the Windowseat, which would be mighty fine to have the next time I'm stuck between

tag'liatelli

If you're one of those people who's been building a giant rubber-band ball for the last 10 years, you've probably already got yourself a nice ottoman to go with the Tag'Liatelli. Described as either a seat or a piece of sculpture, the Tag looks like it's made of really big rubber-bands, although they're really pieces of QM foam. Each one is hand made by designer Arne Quinze, and you can get them

felt. rocks.

I'm going to tell you about felt rocks, then I have a question for you. First things first, though. These, um, creations, are formed through an industrial process related to the wool felt buffing pads used to polish optical discs (you know all about those, right?). This apparently involves being continuously packed and hammered while steamed. (Sounds like my first marriage...I tease, I tease.)

flora. dee.

Sure, it looks like someone stuck some old Litebrite pieces onto a bit of circuit board and powered the result with a dangling wire, but the $2,7500 designer lamp Flora Dee is much more than that. It has a "continually variable 'Touch Tronic' transformer with sensor and dimmer with 221 10 Watt LED bulbs" and "the angle of the lamp is adjustable with ball and socket joint." So there. Anyway, I

au.

I think the name of the Au chairs from Edra must be pronounced "awww" because they're just so cute! Look at the way they nestle and snuggle with each other. Technically they're "shaped similarly to the Japanese yin/yang symbols" and, yeah, sure, I get that, but...whatever. They're more like the fuzzy bunny slipper of funky chairs not yin/yang if you ask me. The cute little devils are made out

rasta. pouf.

The Rasta is ostensibly a pouf, which is to say an "ottoman" or possibly a "roundish pillow," depending on your personal definitions. But really it's just a hairy mass of merino wool that looks a bit liked a waterlogged Cousin It and serves as a place to rest your feet when you're sitting down. It will fit in perfectly with your other formless blobs of yellow-ish furniture, which is always a

neon. chandelier.

The idea of a chandelier made out of neon sounds...well, horrifying really, but designer Matt Dilling has pulled it off. I can't quite call it elegant because the overly exaggerated "bulbs" look altogether too cartoony for my tastes, but this is a far cry from the beer signs and diner clocks my mind flashes to when I hear "neon." special. tubes.There's some technical stuff about how it blends

sanluca.

Even though I'm a little very afraid to sit in the Sanluca chair from Poltrona Frau, I think it's sensational to look at. It was originally designed by the Castiglioni brothers in 1961, before scientific research proved that this chair would kill you after prolonged seating. The artistic concept of the Sanluca was to empty the traditional padding that furniture was saddled with and lay bare the

starship. table.

If Star Trek is your thing and you're not afraid to show it, check out this hand carved oak coffee table from the Unique Furniture Outlet. It looks like a starship as intended, the starship Enterprise in fact. (I don't think they can say that on their site though...it just says "in the shape of a spaceship"). That is, if the Enterprise were made out of oak and had four legs. To be honest, the

cloud. shelving.

Shelves don't get the attention they deserve in the design world. Probably because you need to make them square if you want them to be useful, but when they're all square they're also all boring. Lucky for us Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec threw "utility" out the window when they designed the Cloud Shelving system, which has gloriously round shelves that form pleasantly curvy frames. And while they

pin. up. clock.

This cheery timepiece is made with 12 pushpins, a square patch of bright green felt and some clock guts. It will go...well, wherever you feel comfortable sticking 12 pushpins into something, so probably not a wall you don't want 12 tiny holes in. Maybe it's best to start with a bulletin board and move on from there after you've gained some experience. It's only $28 but you have to supply the

rocket. lamp. style-3.

As accent lamps go, the Rocket Lamp Style-3 from Rocket Mfg is a pretty nice little bauble. The LMP3, as it's often called, has sleek steel plating to speed it through the atmosphere and into the inky blackness of space. The inner compartment is lined with a cunning parchment shade to maintain intra-ship integrity while letting luminescence out. And port holes along the top add a bit of flare

batman. shakespeare. bust

The 13-year-old kid in me really wants to put one of these in my non-existent library as a cool way to get into the non-existent secret room hidden behind the non-existent library. It's a reproduction of the switch Bruce Wayne used to get into the Batcave in the original Batman series. Of course, the fact that one of its selling point is that "IT REALLY WORKS!" does not necessarily speak too

embrio.

The Embrio is a concept bike from Bombardier that kicks the ass of the Segway...and just about any other wheeled vehicle for that matter. Like the Segway, a gyroscope keeps you balanced on the thing, but unlike the Segway this only has one wheel! And it can supposedly take two people. One wheel + two people = big bargain! It's definitely got a lot going for it style-wise and balance-wise, but

sultan.

When it comes to funky beds there really just ain't a lot out there. Lucky for us Henry Hane over at Urbana has come up with the Sultan, based on Aladdin's flying carpet (please, no "magic in the bedroom" references). The Sultan's design makes it look half like it's ready to take flight and half like it's a comfy rolled up carpet (I mean that in a good way) ready to be lounged upon. You don't

morphescape.

Like most of you, I've always wanted my dinnerware to look like the city scape of Istanbul, but Pottery Barn doesn't seem to carry anything like that. Fortunately for us, Karim Rashid has taken the first step toward overthrowing the tyranny of non-city-scape-plates by creating Morphescape, "an ambitious project that is equal parts beauty and function. The non-stop continuation of a single

naos. angel.

Giant lamps can make a statement and look cool, but really, who has the room? The Naos Angel Lamp takes that into account by being an oversized lamp that opens up into an end table, so you can have your big designer light and use your space efficiently too. According to USA Today, Naos calls the Angel a "luminous, poly-functional matrioska: it's a home office, a bar, a serving table, a vanity."

roswell. calculator.

I'd have bet good money that something called the Roswell Calculator wouldn't be the nouveau art piece of machinery that I'd want on my tastefully modern desk. And I'm not saying this thing rocks my world...but I don't know, I kind of like it. It's geometrically pleasing with a nice recursive pattern: note the square base inset with the round face plate that is itself inset with round keys

illustri.

The Illustri doesn't look like a light so much as a bizarre deepsea creature that heaved its bulk out of the ocean before collapsing on your living room floor. To go along with the collapsed-on-the-floor version, there is a dripping-from-a-lamp-pole one and a hanging-off-the-ceiling variety. No idea what it's made out of (ocean junk maybe?) but it seems to cost 655 euros. The designer is Hans

poaa. dumbbell.

If you're looking for a 6-pound designer dumbbell with a bizarre name and a price tag north of $400, have I got something to show you. These bad boys of muscular fitness were designed by -- who else? -- Philippe Starck out of bronze with a brushed nickel finish. When you're not using them as dumbbells, they also double as doorstops, paperweights or just random pieces of sculpture. (That's not

capitello. chair.

If you have a house where a Greek column would look at home, then it's an artistic imperative for you to get the Capitello Chair! According to Nova68, this is "a factory brand new authorized production" of a 1971 design that looks hard but is supposedly quite comfy.utterly. untruthful.Further Googling turned up this strange description on Design Matcher: "Easy chair in flexible polyurethane

black. hole. table.

There's two things I think about the Black Hole Table that I'm not sure of: 1) It's not actually for sale anywhere. 2) The design somehow combines surfing and black holes. The two things I know about are: 1) It's pretty friggin' cool. 2) It's extra handy if you're not too delicate to scrape your crumbs into the hollow legs. (Somewhere I think I just hear Marc screaming in agaony...sorry guy).

himiko. waterbus.

The Himiko Waterbus is 114 tons of pure style that makes me wish I lived in Tokyo. This Nemo-esque beauty was "produced by" Japanese cartoonist Leiji Matsumoto and currently plies the waters off the capital of Japan. It's got everything you'd want in a design that's "appealing to children," including 3D windows and floor panels that light up (you know, so it looks even more awesome at night!).

torso. armchair.

Paolo Deganello's Torso Chair is one of those things where you really don't care if it's too comfortable or not. It looks good, and that's all that matters. It's got everything I like in a piece of furniture: asymmetrical, colorful, doesn't actually look like furniture at first glance. Not to mention "elastic webbing," which I'm all about. And if that's not enough, you can get a matching Torso

zettel'z 5

Zettel'z 5 is a pendant lamp with lots of little bits of wire sticking out of it. On the ends of those wires are lots of little clamps, and in the clamps you put lots of little bits of paper (a.k.a. "notice sheets") to build the lamp shade. write. art.An intriguing concept that gets more interesting, because those little bits of paper (31 in all) aren't there just to stay white. You -- or your

customized. star. wars. blinds.

Today I came across the "world's largest collection of Star Wars moments printed on blinds," a claim that a) seems to be true and b) begs the question, are there other such collections? The company is called 3 Day Blinds and they offer dozens of images from all six Star Wars films on just about any size blind you can dream up. There are so many options there's actually an online blind

concrete. stool.

It figures the guys with Stonehenge in their backyard would invent the "Concrete Stool." Granted the name isn't very attention getting, but the stools themselves are. Made by the London-based The Shed studios, these functional pieces of art will make your backyard look like an outdoor museum while giving your backside a place to rest as you admire your new Louvre-like lawn. They run £350. [

kristall. table.

When Unica Home says the Kristall table "screams Memphis" they're of course talking about the famous Italian design movement. Okay, after quickly reading up on Memphis (like I knew what that meant before I googled it?) I agree. But when they say it will "fit in with more conventional decor," I think they're just trying to move some product. If you buy their sales pitch, you can also buy the

broadway. spring. chair.

It's a chair on springs...how much more can you say than that? Well, this: the Broadway was designed by Gaetano Pesce and, if I understand this right, it's an update of a similar chair from 1939 (that one only had four springs...this one has eight!).

movement.
The hype on the Moss site, where I saw it, says "Due to the eight spring feet, this chair, although sturdy and supportive, accompanies

ruf. cinema. bed.

Want to watch a DVD while you doze off? Forget bolting a flat panel TV to your four-poster. If you want a real home theater in your boudoir -- and by real theater I mean a screen and a projector, not just a TV -- you want the Ruf Cinema Bed from Ruf-Betten.


multi-faceted.
Described as the first multimedia bed, the Ruf has a fold-out screen tucked in the footboard (activated by remote, of

tierra. y. luna.

The Tierra Y Luna is (are?) a pair of round rugs woven to look like the Earth and the Moon. The Earth is a hefty 98.5" in diameter and the Moon is 47.25". Not quite to scale, I imagine. Made of virgin wool if you're wondering.

nerdishly. cool.
Part of me thinks the rugs are terrifically cool and part of me thinks they're terrifically nerdy. If they weren't priced sky high (get it? heh.) I

malibu.

A cool Swedish company named Traspecialen makes a colorful line of retro-styled furniture called the Malibu. Now, there's a lot of retro out there, but what I love about this line is that the pieces come in odd sizes and configurations, and the colors include blue and orange (looks like a fluorescent green was recently discontinued...sigh).

reasonable.
The few pieces of Malibu I've seen in

ghost. candelabra.

The Ghost Candelabra is a charming update to...you guessed it, the candelabra. It's made of lucite panels etched with a line drawing of a candelabra, and the candles perch in the four included glass-cup inserts. Supposedly when the candles are lit, their flickering light lends a ghostly look to the whole thing. And when you're not using it, it folds flat for storage. It's not only brilliant,