Simple yet unusual, modular yet quirky. The ROOM Collection of furniture by Erik Olovsson and Kyuhyung Cho is like IKEA but with a twist!
Fundamentally, the ROOM Collection is a series of wooden blocks with geometric negative spaces that you can store things in. The blocks are modular, which means you can stack them on top of each other to build shelves or cabinets… but what’s different about them is their storage spaces which are represented by a variety of geometric cutouts, from your conventional squares and rectangles to the unconventional circles and ellipses, to even the bizarre triangles and hexagons! The cutouts give each individual block their own unique character, and invite you to figure out what they could hold. The longer cutouts work well for wine bottles and vases, while the zig-zag ones are ideal for tablets, laptops, and books. Part of the adventure is in building the furniture to suit your space, but the rest of it is in figuring out how to turn your shelf or cabinet into a canvas for all your odd objects and souvenirs!
What the ROOM Collection so beautifully does is turns furniture into graphical art by allowing you to build a collage of 2D shapes and use them to store your objects. Inspired by architecture, designers Erik and Kyuhyung wanted to create “rooms” for your objects, with each room acting as storage while also adding to the composition of the entire shelf. The blocks come crafted from plywood and are topped off with a pine veneer. The playful treatment of the blocks literally gives them the appearance of building blocks that kids play with… acting as a reminder that we’re still creative beings who can turn ‘adulting’ into something incredibly fun and engaging!
Designers: Erik Olovsson and Kyuhyung Cho
