HYPNOTIC TIMES

One of the many finds that caught my attention at ICFF this year, were these fun eco-friendly, handcrafted cardboard and paper wall clocks made by Tendo Studio. The Amarillo Clocks´ colorful hands break up the concentric rings and angles that look almost hypnotic, creating a fabulous design ideal for homes and offices. The hands are totally customizable. You get to choose from orange, green, blue, white, red or yellow so they can match perfectly with your decor. Aren't they fun?

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NORDIC LIGHTS

Here's a tale of a small and great idea that gets a chance to be part of the Scandinavian design tradition. Bright Sprout is a wooden fixture designed by Danish Jonas Hoejgaard for Nordic Tales to hide the light bulb sockets on energy saving bulbs. With its clean Nordic design it turns an important everyday object into an aesthetic experience. Like with every other Nordic Tales product, Bright Sprout tells a story. And you're part of the story-telling as you get to choose from seven bright cord colors and the wood finish (soap finished or smoked oak). Besides its coo and minimalist design, the fixture arrives in a special designed packaging, inspired by a nutshell, that can be reused as a vase, pen holder or a fun decorative accessory. These are very cool, especially if hung as cluster.

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THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX

What do you get when you leave a stack of cardboard sheets alone in a room with some of Europe’s brightest engineers? How about this amazing line of furniture made completely, you guessed it, of cardboard. Australian company Karton is all about keeping things simple and easy. By following their basic fold and tab system (without the need of any tools or glue), you can put together a whole bedroom essemble, a complete office, funky storage units and even a dining room table that will give your guests plenty to talk about. Besides being an impossibly strong, exceptionally handsome and conveniently cheap way to sleep, sit, store or live, these designs are also 100% recyclable. BTW, if you're digging this fun and unique decor concept, you will also love these other cool versions here and here.

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RE-TURNED

I'm loving how Norwegian craftsman and designer Lars Beller Fjetlandthat elevates leftover wood from being merely an ignored piece of trash to becoming a desired piece of feel-good woodcraft. These adorable Re-turned birds were probably once a part of and old table or a scrap of wood that never made it to the factory. Either way, they're now transformed into these beautiful and 100% recycled accessories that will make your decor sing. Happy Friday to all and I hope you have a fantabulous weekend!

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A RADIATING JEWEL

If you're thinking this is an über cool sculpture, you're only half right. It's a design radiator disguised in a gorgeous, organic form that makes most old-fashioned radiators jealous. Designed by Italian designer Giovanni Tomasini for Hotech, Bloom is inspired by art and nature with an advanced exclusive technology that ensures high performances and low consumptions. Although their primary goal was “to free the aesthetic shape from its function”, the technique we developed and applied to allow them to improve the thermal yield. In the hydraulic version, the heating circuit takes an amount of water 20 times lower than a conventional radiator. And in the electric version, a portable radio thermostat gives full control of the temperatures and complete functions programming.

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A Very Eco-chic Home

• Written by guest blogger Ellen Spencer

Going green has become the buzzword: you need to keep up the eco-savvy routine even while decorating your home. Lately, chemicals used in and around the house are attracting a lot of flak; they interfere with our physical well being and can cause illnesses like migraines, allergies, colds, respiratory diseases and also cancer. Hence, it is absolutely crucial to change the way we live and aggrandize our interiors to support ecological sustenance. So if one of your New Year's resolution is to help the environment, here are a few pointers that will help you design an eco-chic home. (Reclaimed wood dining table and recycled Crystal Chair from Canvas).

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Making Recycling Fun

I'm all for lending a helping hand to the environment and recycle as much as possible. But it's hard finding recycling bins that are pleasing to the eye, and more importantly, don't take too much space. But that's all changing now with containers like Leco, a new, exciting and colorful solution created by Italian company Flussocreativo. Inspired by the look and functionality of Lego building blocks, these bins can be stacked in different ways to save room. The collection is made up of four different containers: two large ones to hold paper and plastic, and a couple smaller ones for aluminum and glass. Who said you can't be green and have fun at the same time?

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Relighting The Past

If you're into revitalizing old and forgotten treasures, you're going to love these phenomenal lamps by Ursula. Her unique boutique EarthSeaWarrior by Ursula specializes in the reconstruction of artifacts and industrial relics. She's really into using “specimens left behind by nature and/or machine and uses them to redesign whatchamacallits for the neo-nostalgic collector.” I'm smitten by her witty mix of color cloth cords with the distressed look of the vintage lamp parts. One of my faves is the one below where the base and mirror were upcycled from an old car lamp. Here's to another another fine example of repurposing someone else's trash into one-of-a-kind gems. Two thumbs up for Ursula!

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