House Things

Eames.

The revered name in design.  Even if you aren’t a scholar of mid-century modernism or a unrelenting obsessed freak for all things 50s and 60s you probably know the name of Charles and Ray Eames who brought  many amazing thing to the world of design including film, furniture and plywood.

Plywood? How completely unsexy you say?

That is until you see it terms that are pachyderm in proportions. Eames perfected bending a molding plywood; a process which resulted in chairs, splints and a very rare and famed plywood elephant.  Only two prototypes were ever produced in the 40s, both of which are housed at the Museum of Modern Art.

In honor of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Charles Eames, Vitra released a limited edition of 1000.  Want one? They are certainly all gone by now.  Want to make an offer for one that is in a private collector’s hands?

Start saving your peanuts now.  You know you’ll have to pay a Friday Fantasy price.

Got a little bit caught up with being totally EXHAUSTED last week after a huge fundraiser on Thursday night.  Friday morning was bumpy to say the least, but much money was raised for a great cause!

Thank goodness I  held off a bit on my post because this amazing find appeared in my e-mail box this afternoon from Michael in NYC and boy is it a drool-worthy bit of cutting-edge design to qualify for a fantastic Friday Fantasy.  Light-emitting wallpaper courtesy of product designer Jonas Samon! Samon takes the ubiquitously needed 3-D light source and more than flips it on its head – he takes away a whole dimension!  Samon is a bit vague on his website on what exactly the technology is; Inhabitat, where Michael found this preview of the Milan fair couldnt offer any more either.

One thing is for certain, the design possibilities are endless as are the green implications.  Gone are the Edison-era incandescent bulbs of the past, as well as the long-lived, but mercury-laden extended life bulbs we are all swapping over to now.  There’s something terribly exciting about the impact on design and vernacular from this amazing piece of design.

“Honey, turn off the wallpaper and come to bed.”

Price, TBD, but I’m pretty sure that it will fall somewhere in the Friday Fantasy pricepoint.

I finally scored a fantasy for a Friday!

Now, I have a few of the original versions of these kicking around my apartment.  I;ve always been a huge fan of Kozik and just about everything he designs.  In particular these naughty bunnies with their smoking habit always caught my eye and I ended up buying quite a few of them.

Perhaps because I was a naughty bunny and smoked as well that I found them so attractive.  Sigh… now I’m a struggling ex-smoker who looks longingly upon a cigarette when I’m feeling the stresses of modern living.

Who better to remind you of your days of wild abandon when a cigarette dangled from your lips than a GIANT SMORKIN’ LABBIT.  If I had the extra $1K and all the space in the world, he’d be in my office – right now – puffing away.

I’m going to inaugurate a new Friday post this week – my Friday Fantasy.

So much of the great design that exists out there comes with a GREAT price tag as well. Yes, the big, fat price tag comes is something that goes hand-in-hand with the limited editions, one-of-a-kinds and special orders.  Friday Fantasy will be a tribute to those hard-to-afford, but oh-so-perfect finds.

OK. So excuse me while I drool over the The DJ Kreemy Table by superstar designer Karim Rashid.  If you’ve been following design for the last few years you probably saw this pop up everywhere when it was first released.  My ardent desire for it hasn’t waned in the slightest as time has passed (nor has my inability to afford the $10K price tag, come to think if it).

Truly, I’d prefer this in the corner of my living room over a baby-grand piano.  How I’d love to pop over to it in the middle of a party and pop on some of my precious old vinyl 12″ remixes to keep everyone grooving.

Gotta. Have. House. Music. All. Night. Long.