PopSugar

Love It or Hate It? Tongue-in-Cheek Chair

CasaSugar — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:00:50 -0800

I'm trying to decide where these Peter Harvey-designed Tongue-in-Cheek chairs ($5,900) would be most appropriate. A wacky dentist office, perhaps? Available in some candy-bright colors, these chairs are built out of UV-resistant GRP (glass-reinforced plastic).

Guess What This Chair Is Made From?

CasaSugar — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:00:47 -0700

This rustic chair would definitely appeal to the dudes in your life - especially if any of them are from Canada.

Weird Furniture: Natural Crystal Chair

CasaSugar — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 06:15:04 -0800

Japanese artist Tokujin Yoshioka, who spent years working with Shiro Kuramata and Issey Miyake, and has collaborated with Hermes, Toyota, BMW, and Swarvoski, among others, created this natural crystal chair, titled "Venus." The extraordinary art piece was crystallized over time by submerging a polyester elastomer chair skeleton in an aquarium. Although the chair looks far from comfortable, it's certainly a wonderful example of sustainable design, born out of the laws of nature, not a forest in the Amazon. I'd love to see this technique used to make other products where comfort is less of an issue, such as a lamp base or a coat tree. Yoshioka has curated an exhibit called "Second Nature," which features the chair, at 21_21 Design Sight in Roppongi, Tokyo. The exhibit runs through Jan. 18, 2009, and features the work of a number of other artists, including the Campana brothers. To see more photos of Venus, and how it was made, read more.

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Weird Furniture: Where There's Smoke by Maarten Baas

CasaSugar — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:15:20 -0800

Dutch designer Maarten Baas's "Smoke" is a series of a charred furniture finished with an epoxy resin so that the pieces are preserved instead of destroyed. A 2004 exhibition called "Where There's Smoke" at Moss in New York showcased the collection of 25 one-off pieces, including iconic designs by Gaudi, Eames, Rietveld, Sottsass, and the Campana Brothers among others, which had each been burned with a blow torch and then salvaged with the translucent sealant. At the exhibit, the pieces were put in a timeline from antique to modern, grouping pieces like a grandfather clock and chaise lounge together, and a second stage of pieces like an Eames LCW chair and Noguchi coffee table from 1900-1950 together.

Three of the "Smoke" works were picked up by Marcel Wanders for reproduction by his international design company, MOOOI, and important designers and collectors like Lidewij Edelkoort and Philippe Starck have also personally acquired the pieces. Select pieces have been exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. What's really beautiful about the series is that the furniture retains that charred texture, it's quite haunting, and appropriate for Halloween. To see more photos and close-ups, read more.

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Weird Furniture: Chainsaw Rocker

CasaSugar — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 05:30:25 -0700

Artist Christopher Chiappa's Chainsaw Rocker is a to-scale reproduction of a junkyard-find Honda Accord car seat that was chiseled to form by a chainsaw sculptor. Currently on view at Moss in Los Angeles, it's lowbrow artwork for the design elite. While its brass plated legs make it a delightfully functioning rocker, it's the chair's texture that really gets me. The wood was so expertly carved, with such realistic curves, that its toughness is almost disguised. It's funny: you wouldn't normally associate the harsh cuts of a chainsaw with the upholstery of a car seat.
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Weird Furniture: England's Dreaming

CasaSugar — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 10:00:26 -0700

Forgoing a shepherd's pie ottoman or a Wimbledon coffee table, London-based architecture and design practice Fat created England's Dreaming as a tribute to its native country in furniture form. The antique chaise is covered at one end by a mini English landscape, juxtaposing scales and references, prompting the lounger to "Lie back and think of England." I only wonder why Fat didn't choose a traditional English piece of furniture, such as something by Thomas Chippendale; we all know that the chaise lounge (longue) originated from the French. To see the mini landscape up close, read more

This is clearly an art piece, and not something you'd actually rest on in your home. But given that, what do you think?
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Love It or Hate It? Tour Table by Gae Aulenti

CasaSugar — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:00:10 -0700

After you've constructed your bicycle wheel pot rack, you might want to coordinate in your dining room with the Tour Table by Gae Aulenti ($6,258). Maybe Lance Armstrong's Austin home could use one. Could yours?

Guess What's on This Wallpaper?

CasaSugar — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 05:30:00 -0700

While it looks rather retro, this wallpaper actually has a biological background. Can you guess what it's illustrating? (Hint: It might be better suited for a doctor's office.)

Would You Put Skateboard Steps in Your House?

CasaSugar — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:00:53 -0700

At one point in my life, this would be a no-brainer for me. Back when all of my boyfriends (and myself, too) hung out on skateboards and in skateboard parks, this would've been a perfect addition to our homes. Can you see any room for it in yours?

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Midday Muse: Oh '70s, How I Don't Miss Thee!

CasaSugar — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:00:31 -0700

I'm sure there's some modern-day equivalent of the Love Rug, which GiggleSugar recently uncovered. There must be some piece of furniture that substitutes as a furry lover, which, as the copy for this ad so eloquently states, "As you stroke, it strokes. . . . It's almost like having another lover there with the two of you." I'm sure there's probably something similar, but I'm not going out of my way to find it. Source