Furniture designs are incredibly important to any space, whether it’s an office or a home. And, with this ongoing pandemic, our homes are now our new office! The right furniture can really set a space apart, creating a comfortable and functional home cum office that caters to all our needs. Our living space nowadays should be one where we can comfortably longe about, and work efficiently. So, we’ve curated a collection of super functional and aesthetically pleasing furniture designs that are sure to not only brighten up your living space but provide unique solutions to all your furniture problems. From work chairs that take care of your posture to a smart bed designed with everything you could possibly think of – we’ve got all your needs covered!
The Soul Seat helps you sit in a neutral posture that is effortless and comfortable. The springs on the elevated perch tilt the pelvis forward, open the hips and help align the spine. You can sit in several positions if crossing legs isn’t comfortable for you, the chair enables you to switch between multiple positions frequently keeping your body engaged and blood flowing. For some, this may also alleviate neck and back pain! The height of both levels can be adjusted to suit your workspace setup. I know there were many comments from our Instagram audience about it missing a backrest and while I don’t think it causes harm if you sit without one (people meditate and work in this very posture for hours in Asian countries), I do think having an option of a detachable backrest can help those who are just starting to work on their posture ease into it. It is about having that choice which opens up many more people to use the Soul Seat, however, there are countless reviews that mention it being comfortable as it is so it is a great design but it does come down to personal preference.
Fitwork’s design sort of embodies a no-excuse mentality to being fit. Whether it’s the excuse of ‘being too busy’, or of ‘not wanting to go all the way to the gym’, Fitwork combats it by bringing the gym not just to your house, but to your workspace. Designed as a product to let you work and work out at the same time, this crazy hybrid of a desk-chair and treadmill keeps your legs active while you work. Whether you’re sitting in front of a laptop or standing in front of one, it’s the sedentary lifestyle that Fitwork tackles. The setup (which is sure to grab a few eyeballs) comes with an office chair attached to a treadmill underneath, and an elliptical in front. Coupled with an elevating desk, the Fitwork allows you to keep the lower half of your body active while you work, giving you cardio as well as keeping your spine engaged, whether you’re sitting or standing while working.
KUR!O’s design features a simple grid base that you wedge shelving-plates into. The plates interlock with each other, creating walls and floors for your shelf, allowing you to store all your belongings in the dedicated spaces you planned out for them! The base of the shape-shifting, 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. Each KUR!O even comes with a set of 8mm thick steel sticks or dowels that peg into the circular holes at the intersection of the cutouts. Plug a stick in and you instantly have yourself a series of hooks right beside your shelf-spaces so you can both hang as well as place items on your KUR!O.
This is the ultimate bed just like its name states – the Hariana Tech Smart Ultimate Bed! You know how we always have to get up to get stuff before we settle into relax mode? Well, this bed was designed to have everything you will need to relax within your bed frame. It has an integrated reclining massage chair with a remote, a built-in Bluetooth speaker, a bookshelf, a reading lamp, an air cleaning system, an area to plug-in and charge your devices, a foot-stool that opens up for extra storage, and a pop-up desk for the ultimate WFH setup, Netflix marathon or cozy reading hours. The sound system also features an SD card slot, an auxiliary port, and a USB port. Another interesting detail about the Hariana bed is a password-protected safe box for you to store your most precious belongings – for me, it would be my passport and snacks!
Bringing new life to the room divider, the designers at Molo, a design and production studio led by Stephanie Forsythe and Todd MacAllen, created their own rendition, calling it a paper softwall or folding partition, one that folds and bends, with the flexibility to be shaped in any curved or linear formation, and expands and contracts, like breathing. When expanded, the paper softwall is like a monolithic accordion paper organizer that is surprisingly lightweight and can easily change direction to define private spaces or supply dramatic backdrops for performances. Each paper softwall expands to a total of 15 feet when fully extended and positioned in a straight line, but can reach any length in between for shorter, or more curved lines. When the soft paperwall is properly compressed, it recoils and achieves the thickness of a book.
The SMĪLE shelf is a modular system that relies on recycled steel frames that fix to a wall, holding shelves in between. The steel frames can be arranged practically in any orientation and arrangement, giving you the freedom to create your own shelving design that can even be expanded if you want to, in the future! Depending on the size of the shelf you buy, it comes with the recycled steel frames and ChopValue’s signature chopstick shelves. Each shelf uses hundreds of bamboo chopsticks, compressed together to create a unique looking material with its own bespoke grain-pattern. Most disposable chopsticks are manufactured using bamboo (because of how fast it grows), and travel nearly 8,000 – 10,000 kilometers from China to other parts of the world, only to be used for 30 minutes before being thrown into the trash. Instead of letting them enter a landfill, ChopValue harvests them and turns them into this new material that can be used again.
This particular piece of cat furniture is extremely easy to set-up and seamlessly integrates with your current home setting minus the bulkiness of a conventional cat tree. In 2020, it is all about how modular the product is, and that applies to pet furniture too. With Catssup you can create a DIY jungle gym by simply clamping the different parts onto existing furniture and changing the set-up whenever ‘you’ (read: your cat) need. The best part is that it doesn’t require any floor space so if you want to lie down and WFH – you absolutely can with the extra room! The Catssup set includes a Dot Step, a Sleeping Pill, a Space Ball, a Cloud Lounge, and a Climbing Tower – I would just like to say that I strongly believe human furniture should also have fun labels like this and maybe we would be more invested in it.
BeYou is a “transforming chair that adapts to you,” which means that whatever seated position is calling your name, BeYou will adjust accordingly. The spirit of this chair and what makes it so special is that it isn’t fixed by any means, it was designed to be ever-changing to meet your growing needs. The convertible chair is cushioned with soft and durable fabric that wraps itself over a double layer of foam for a bouncy and form-fitting seat rest. Oak veneer coats the exterior parts of BeYou so that the chair not only conforms to your body but also your room and office, or wherever you choose to position your BeYou chair. The quick-release hinges that switch the chair’s positions and presentation are user-friendly in that they operate through simple, intuitive mechanical movements.
In a parallel universe without gravity, we’d probably be surrounded by storage units like the Geco Hub. You see, gravity allows us to simply place items on a horizontal surface, which is almost the fundamental aspect of a cabinet. The Geco Hub, on the other hand, grabs items almost like a pair of hands. Its silicone ‘fingers’ let you store everything from your keys to sunglasses, and from wallets to even post-it notes. The hubs come in a series of modular tiles that you can attach to any type of wall using either screws or adhesive strips. Add as many hubs as you need and you’ve got a wall of storage you can place items on, into, or under. The silicone ‘fingers’ have enough friction to securely hold onto things like keychains, wallets, spectacles, cases, notebooks, and stationery. They come with flaps too that let you secure notes onto them, giving you a wall of storage and functionality – which is unusually pleasing to look at as well as a really good way to declutter spaces.
The SSD chair stands for Simple, Strong, and Durable (and not Solid State Drive, as one might think). Designed to be an alternative to flimsy, cheap, run-of-the-mill plastic or wood chairs, the SSD Chair has a simple, classic appeal, and is made to last for decades. The SSD is strong too. Designed with a metal tubing structure that is more than capable of years of everyday use, the SSD gives you the advantage of strength as well as the comfort of having European-made plywood seats and backrests. The SSD is durable too. Designed to be sustainably manufactured, the SSD uses strong components, ethically and sustainably sourced wood, a simple design, a minimal number of parts, and even uses 80% recycled packaging.
