Special Hidden Treasures
Making A Statement: 10 Designs With A Difference
Slide Nr 1Design doesn’t have to be expensive to be extraordinary. Likewise, design objects don’t have to be mass-produced from cheap materials to be affordable. We’ve selected some of the best original products from independent designers that tap into emerging design trends. Select just one of these items to make a strong style statement in your home.
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Special Hidden Treasures
Making A Statement: 10 Designs With A Difference.
Slide Nr 2Want to wow your guests before they even set foot inside your home? Then get rid of your mangled door mat – and don’t replace it with one bearing an overly cheerful welcome message or punny jokes. Instead, choose from a wide range of recycled lobster rope doormats at Stern Lines. A US husband-and-wife team collect the multi-hued ropes from lobster fishers in Maine, up and down the coast north of Boston, and turn them into colourful mats that won’t just provide a friendly welcome to your guests, but also offer a conversation starter.
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Special Hidden Treasures
Making A Statement: 10 Designs With A Difference.
Slide Nr 3Show your passion – not just online and on social media, not only on a t-shirt proclaiming your membership of a boxing gym or yoga studio, but in your home. No, we’re not talking about setting up a rowing machine in your living room, but about incorporating subtle nods to your favourite sport into your décor. Give a decommissioned skateboard a new life as a coat rack, turn an old bike into “bike antlers” or use vintage school gym equipment as a footstool. Finally, you don’t have to be a surfer, but it sure helps, if you want to add a whiff of sea air and beach sun to your home with one of the beautiful mirrors made from repurposed surfboards by Californian artist Katy Helen.
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Special Hidden Treasures
Making A Statement: 10 Designs With A Difference.
Slide Nr 4Upcycling on a bigger scale is behind the Scrap Life Project, which was presented at the Ambiente consumer design fair in February. Each of the 46 unique stools is made from waste plastic, a byproduct of the injection moulding process employed by a furniture factory in Italy that makes plastic chairs for well-known design firms. The wasted material is collected and left as is, with only legs added to turn it into what could be termed the illegitimate offspring of a bona fide designer chair. We love the scrappy whippersnappers and their unorthodox un-designed look as much as the zero-waste thinking behind them.
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Special Hidden Treasures
Making A Statement: 10 Designs With A Difference.
Slide Nr 6Abundant greenery has taken up residence in urban jungles around the world – and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. But where to put all those plants, herbs and flowers? If every free surface in your house is already taken up with pots, planters and vases, up is the only one way to go. Embrace your inner boho and elevate your green friends with macramé plant hangers. You can buy one (or ideally several) ready-made knotted-rope contraption/s from Emily Katz, the interior designer credited with bringing the ancient Arabic craft most commonly associated with the hippie ‘70s into the 21st century. You can also learn how to DIY the look from her book or online workshops.
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Special Hidden Treasures
Making A Statement: 10 Designs With A Difference.
Slide Nr 7Another old-school craft gone new-school trend is trusty crochet. In this case, however, we recommend you only DIY it if you really know what you’re doing. Otherwise, leave it to the pros, like Anne-Claire Petit and her team of skilled artisans. In addition to on-trend poufs and floor cushions, the Dutch textile designer offers adorable crochet animals, fruit and flowers that look lovely enough to double as interior design objects. Some, like the giant birdcages or woolly taxidermy, are more like kid-friendly showpieces than displayable toys.
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Special Hidden Treasures
Making A Statement: 10 Designs With A Difference.
Slide Nr 8Where would you be more likely to find handcrafted designs that look contemporary and cool than in Brooklyn? Which designer could better create a collection of items rooted in a very specific place that would be sought-after globally than one based in New York’s trendiest borough? Lan Park does all of the above with Hudson and Kings, a collection of cushion covers, guest soaps and decorative trinkets capturing minute details representative of New York. The designs embossed on the textile covers, in particular, offer a unique take on typical motifs like Brooklyn bridges, NYC sewer covers and Central Park’s Imagine mosaic dedicated to John Lennon.
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Special Hidden Treasures
Making A Statement: 10 Designs With A Difference.
Slide Nr 9Unlike most tech accessories, the “craft-inspired technology goods” by San Francisco-based Most Modest design studio perfectly blend California’s startup culture thinking with Scandinavian design ideas. We already loved the Niko Power Pendant, a power strip made from pale wood and colourful knitted mesh cords that doesn’t have to be hidden out of sight. The Niko Power Dock, however, took the concept to the next level. The charging station with three concealed power outlets, storage bowl and pencil cup wouldn’t look out of place in even the coolest coworking space.
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Special Hidden Treasures
Making A Statement: 10 Designs With A Difference.
Slide Nr 10This season, clothing design is all about the frills… and the beaded fringes, tassels and pom-poms. If you’re already wearing the whimsical trend in fashion, why not use it to spruce up your home? Fair-trade craft retail website Accompany offers a great selection of home textiles that bring the trend from artisanal makers all over the world to your home, for example in the shape of a black-and-white striped blanket with red wool pom-pom trim hand-woven in Morocco, a tassel basket hand-woven from sweetgrass in Rwanda, or this delightful pom-pom garland made in India.
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Special Hidden Treasures
Making A Statement: 10 Designs With A Difference.
Slide Nr 11Blame hipsters all you like, but ceramics are now incredibly cool, and you will want handcrafted pottery in your life sooner or later. We are seeing a lot of designs in a dreamy pastel or mid-century modern aesthetic, but German designer Anna Becker’s label frjor nails the current monochrome trend in a way that is original and striking, but still timeless. Her black-on-white tableware is not only stylish, but also practical, stackable and goes with anything – neither blending in nor stealing the show. For an entirely different take on the trend, see Charlotte Cannon’s Baltimore brand The Vintage Vogue.
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