If you’re looking for that one-of-a-kind bed, armoir, or rocking chair that fits in perfectly to your unique space — and you’ve got a few bucks to throw around — you might want to take a look at the work of Allan Lake. The U.K. designer uses an array of British hardwoods from sustainable woodlands to create fantastical furniture that looks straight out of a surrealistic fairy tale. Each commissioned work is akin to art, blending in beautifully with its surroundings, yet still might inspire you to turn your bedroom into a museum for your new centerpiece.

We’ve all had little house parties or been to events where you end up sitting on cheap little plastic stools that even the skinniest person fears will snap in half. The folks at Mocha answers these cheap seats with self-stabilizing aluminum stools. Designed by schindlersalmeron, the stools are a beautiful clean design so thin you don’t think it is possible. Think of these as the MacBook Air of stools. Just like the Air, they are a little price at £145 — but there is a price for a good stable seat that is unbelievably thin. Have a look at the stools and some other new products at Mocha’s new site.

Aside from making beautiful pastries (re: this morning and my kitchen window) the Danes are serious when it comes to furniture design. Andrew Hollingsworth has authored a book entitled Danish Modern exploring his findings of Danish furniture design. He covers everything from the history, to caring for pieces and guides to contemporary purchasing. The books mantra is to look at what is now seen as the pinnacle of furniture design and understand why so many Danish furniture designers are regarded as instant classics by exploring the details of the craft and market. Something a bit more classy that a bright yellow cover that reads “Danish furniture for dummies” because the Dans definitely wouldn’t except that hideous cover. The book begins shipping on September 11th, but you can pre-order copies now.

While IKEA specializes in churning out convenient, (sometimes not so) easy to build furniture for the masses, Martin Sprouse is busy producing the antidote. Acknowledging that no two clients have the same needs, the California based furniture designer creates unique pieces that are custom designed to his clients specifications. Being influenced by architecture, though not relying on suggestions from one specific school of thought, Sprouse with the assistance of his close friends and family brings a fresh sensibility to each of his works that are designed to put the accent on “quality, functionality, and longevity.” If you’re in the market for some furnishings that capture the essence of your space and caters specifically to your needs, we recommend checking out Sprouse’s site. Innovation never looked so good.

In the future there’ll be no such thing as a newspapers. All reading will be done on a complex device called a computer. But as long as someone’s still putting print to paper there’s going to be waste associated with it. Thankfully, there are people like the inventive minds at Onceneto design studio, who have found ways to turn the print industry’s trash into someone else’s treasure. Teaming up with Santiago’s La Tercera de la Hora daily newspaper, the Chilean firm founded by Ricardo Vargas and Abi Jarkowiec has taken the difficult to recycle cardboard tubes from the periodicals printer rolls and connected them using a steel support to create a nifty chair called the Conolounge. While this precious furnishing is still in the prototype phase, with any luck, it’ll be rolling hot off the presses sometime soon.

This fall, you’ll be able to purchase the Hello & Goodbye backrest coat hanger, one of the first production pieces from concept artist John Nouanesing. What are some of his other concepts you may ask? How about a dog urinal for the lazy pet owner? Or maybe Pong 3D, a working table tennis set made to look like the Atari game. But, right now we’re loving the walnut and aluminum rack. Half design piece, half functioning coat hanger, all hot.

Unless you’re an 18th-century French king, you’ll probably agree with us when we say Louis XV style furniture is stuffy. But if all that turns you off to these pieces is the fabric, you’re in luck. Custom upholsters Atelier de Tapisserie will print images of your puppy — or just one you think is adorable — onto classic leather chairs and ottomans. All you have to do is supply them with the photo, sans drool.

via Pupstyle

We recall spending a lot of time slumped over our desk at school in a position that didn’t exactly prevent scoliosis. But there’s hope for the kids of today and their spines. Simon Dennehy’s MA Industrial Design project for NCAD set out to design school desks with ergonomics in mind. The result is Perch, a marked improvement over the desks of yore. Lord knows if you’re going to be sitting somewhere for seven hours a day, you should be comfortable (and have a cupholder).

Thanks to Jellio now you can design the room of your five-year old dreams. Bumping kitsch up a notch by mixing clean, modern design with the gadgets and toys of your childhood, Jellio’s designs aren’t so much a throwback style as a literal interpretation of childhood memories as furniture and art.

From Lite Brite and Rubik’s Cube tables to a selection of juicy looking multi-hued GummiLights, the inspiration behind the designs is direct and literal: they’re childhood indulgences brought to adult-sized life … the kind of adult life where you need to buy furniture. Newly released items include the Button Bench, a rounded white acrylic bench covered in pliable plastic button candy dots, as well as their first foray into fashion and accessories — the Slate Bag. This Etch-a-Sketch-inspired messenger bag (and its companion, the iSlate) comes complete with a stylus and writing pads to doodle on the flap. When you’re bored, wipe it away and start over. Fun!

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Attention Northern California art enthusiasts: If you prefer your art to be functional — which is to say classy-looking sculpture and furniture — we think you’ll be down to check out Proliferation, an exhibition being held at FiveTenStudio from now until July 29. The show is centered around the work of Bay Area artist Annalisa Vobis, whose work (like the Second Nature sculpture) is inspired by organic influences such as coral reefs, as well as her own personal childhood recollections of growing up near Odin’s Forest in Germany. The exposition also features some practical, yet artistically rendered furnishings from other well-known designers such as Mike and Maaike and Ross Lovegrove Be there for the official reception on Friday July 11th from 6 – 9 p.m.

Icelandic designer Sruli Recht has come up with an interesting solution for traveling fashion designers and students who have become frustrated with their lack of workspace while on the road. For Sruli, I imagine this idea was born out of pure necessity– Iceland is, after all, a pretty isolated place, so the ability to bring one’s work abroad is a must. The ‘Cutting Table No. 1′ - or as I have dubbed it, ‘Icelandic Fashion Designer’s Best Friend’ - is a collaboration between Sruli and FormFast, is made of cardboard, and is at once portable and sturdy. It comes with 3 collapsable drawers, jute strap moving/storing box, laminated white surface top, and all replaceable parts. It’s available at the Liborius boutique ($400 U.S.D); and rest assured, if you buy one, they’ll ship it to you (i.e. no trip to Iceland necessary).

Brastilo, the contemporary furniture gurus based in Brazil, just revamped their website, giving their products and other company collateral some fresh new cyberspace digs. The updated nav makes it easy to browse by category or designer, and easily whisks you away to other parts of their site where you can learn interesting tidbits about the company, including their impressive eco commitment and astute collection of designers. An authentic company offering unique, culturally inspired home furnishings? Not your everyday Ikea, and definitely worth a look.

For those who find themselves filling awkward silences with off-time table tapping, an effortless creative outlet now exists. Tor Clausen creates modular coffee tables that can house four, eight, nine, and 16 percussive components including tambourine, snare, cowbell and three levels of bongo. Aside from being an amazingly fun toy for musicians, Musical Furnishings make for an awesome party game. Sit around with your friends and tap out patterns to come up with cooperative drum sequences, or simply make your living room much more interesting to sit around in.

The first time we heard the words “warm organic material against cold steel” we began to romanticize about an afternoon trip to the gun range with Dirty Harry — which is rather strange seeing as we don’t consider ourselves the violent type. Thankfully, we snapped out of it when we saw those words were accompanied by pictures of Stanley Ruiz’s stunning design collection entitled, “The New Organic. ” Taking his inspiration from improv music, Henry David Thoreau, and walking (a classic combo), Ruiz employed the rudimentary tools at his disposal. He hand-assemble raw elements like twigs and machined parts into an inventive collection of wares that manage to fuse craft and industry into something as simple as a necklace or a clock. If you want to get a peak at Ruiz’s creations, we recommend heading to the ICFF New York this week, where the Brooklyn-based designer will be launching The New Organic as part of the designboom Mart.

ICFF time is almost here again, which means that our inbox is about to get flooded with contemporary furniture designers hawking their wares. One of the booths we will stop by though, is the Designboom Mart, which will feature new stuff from Ripple Design for the PAD Outdoor company. A couple of the inspired ideas we wish we came up with are an aluminum serving tray that has a perforated pattern which acts like a colander, and the Nuclear Planter, a playful pun shaped like the cooling towers from the infamous Three Mile Island disaster. If those aren’t your speed, not to worry. There’s only a 100,000 other products on the convention center floor. So make with the stoop sale, and clear some space in the living room, because we guarantee you’re going to come back to your apartment with decorative wheelbarrows full of home accessories.