Store or not store, there is no try. That is the line I often use to ensure my husband replaces everything back to their place once he is done using them. While organizing and being neat is a compulsion of mine, I never really paid attention to the vessels aka furniture that carries our things from more than a functional point of view, that is until I came across these designs! Who knew a shelf could be so much more? These transforming, smart and extremely useful designs are the perfect mix of functionality and aesthetics, making them perfect for every home!
Designed to be compact enough to fit into any space, yet comfortable enough to have you sink right in with your favorite book, the Conch by Wei He comes with a molded-plywood inner body and a dual-density foam outer body, giving it structure as well as supple softness. The chair’s form conforms to the contours of the body, allowing you to sit comfortably, while also conveniently having a storage unit right under you for everything from books to a cushion to other bric-a-brac. It’s the perfect reading spot for one!
The Becky Corner Shelf by Noook comprises of a selection of stackable shelves, that turn even pointless little corners into useful storage spaces. This one’s been crafted just for your bathroom!
Vasco Cabral’s The SHELF is furniture installation made incredibly easy. With two wooden sleeves that slide against one another, The SHELF can be mounted on any drywall just simply by pushing it in. When you push forward, the outer sleeve slides towards the wall, prompting a mechanism in the inner sleeve to deploy incredibly small but powerful hooks that lock into the wall (I suspect they do this diagonally). When locked, they’re so firm that the shelves can take the weight of two cinder blocks (the largest TheShelf can carry as much as 30 lbs) without breaking a sweat. If you ever want to relocate the shelf, just pulling the outer sleeve with moderate force allows the hooks to disengage, and the shelf to detach from the drywall.
In urban homes, one often has to compromise on the kind of furniture they would like because there isn’t enough space to have a separate piece for each function – in this case, Alessio Romano’s Orte saves the space you would need for a full shelf and a mirror by blending them into one. Its limestone base supports a rotating wooden frame with the mirror on one side and six hidden shelves on the other. The pop of red brightens up the corner where the furniture will be and stretched oblong shape makes it easy to fit in any corner. It can be used as a dresser, a bookshelf, or the stuff you need to grab quickly without it being on display always.
The KUR!O was featured here on YD after Markus Hofko of Von Morgen won a Gold A’ Design Award, and has, since then, developed and refined into a product that consumers can now buy and own. The construction hasn’t changed much fundamentally, but a few tweaks make it more durable and allow you to even dock dowels/pegs into it to hang items like keys, photos, or that dreamcatcher you bought at the flea market. The base of the shape-shifting, the infinitely customizable shelf is its underlying grid, made from sandwiched wood-fiber boards. The cuts in the grid go as much as 20mm deep, allowing you press-fit powder-coated steel panels into it. The steel panels come in a variety of colors, giving the KUR!O its uniquely vibrant appeal, and feature carefully-placed cuts that let individual panels interlock into each other. The 2mm thick panels are heavy-duty enough to take on large loads, making the KUR!O robust, despite the fact that there isn’t any screwing or gluing of parts.
This conceptual side-display-table by Zinus Inc. comes either from a place of complete vanity or sheer creativity, but nevertheless, the Photo Table definitely feels like an instant must-have. Imagine never having to worry about setting up your mini-studio for a product photo-shoot. Just place it on a table, point some lights through the table’s diffuser-hood, and there you have it….perfect images for posting online. And the best part of it is not having to pack your studio up after you’re done because it goes right back to being a piece of furniture that sits somewhere in the living-room-space of your quirky studio apartment.
It will be very easy to confuse the Folding Wall Chair by designers Ahmad Ahmadian and Reyhaneh Rajabzadeh Samani as a waffle making machine that is placed at an odd height! Open the contraption, and you have a seat for yourself. Close it, and the bottom cushion part has an exclusive niche for holding magazines and books.
GATE’s designer Artem Zakharchenko identified that a shelving unit only occasionally holds the same items for its entire life, more often than not the items will be swapped out over time and the environment that it is placed in will change, therefore the product needs to be able to adapt to this. Being able to choose where you want the shelves to be positioned is just the beginning! The ‘zones’ allow for the unit to be used as a wardrobe, storage for wine glasses, shoe shelving or even a small desk! This level of adaptability makes GATE perfect for use in the home as well as commercial environments such as bars and restaurants. I know I want one!
Made completely out of wood, the Twofold reinterprets a traditional wooden connection, turning the product into a hinge itself. Made from plywood with a melamine coating, the Twofold can simply be mounted on any wall. Without any external fittings i.e., hinges, flap-holders, Studio Michael Hilgers for Müller Möbelwerkstätten designed the Twofold to open and close, turning into a neat bookshelf when you need it to be, and a rather comfortable work desk when you want it, without disrupting the arrangement of objects kept on your shelf. Elegant, isn’t it?
Studio NINE’s Lego compatible furniture aims at being a playground for your children. The furniture comes with a machined textured layer that’s all too familiar. Made from Corian, the polymer-based marble substitute, the furniture has a premium feel and a simple design… The purpose of this simple design being twofold. It can either blend well into a house with Scandinavian styling, or can be infinitely decorated by using pieces of Lego that just simply snap onto the furniture’s dot-embossed surface. Yes, it also means lesser chances of your foot accidentally stepping on a loose piece of Lego lying around on the floor… Plus, like Lego itself, the furniture is perfect for all people of all ages!
Check out more creative furniture options in the first part of this series for the love of all things furniture!