Ah Uhuru, you clever scamps, you've done it again. The Brooklyn furniture designers, who we featured in our SHOP section earlier this year, make functional yet whimsical designs from materials that have been "reclaimed, recycled, repurposed, reused or otherwise rejected from their original function." We love that sort of thing, of course, so we're pretty excited about Coney......read more
Earlier this week, The New York Times business section featured a story on Meyer Wells, a small Seattle company that makes high end, custom furniture from urban trees downed by development, disease or storms. Started four years ago, the company has succeeded in the face of a recessionary economy, with sales pushing $1 million. “I really believe a designer can make better choices, and that......read more
Sao Paulo-based designer Brunno Jahara has unveiled a new collection of scrap wood furniture called Neorustica. Produced by NDT Brazil, a local furniture factory that specializes in working with wood leftover from construction sites, the line of 10 tables, containers and benches pay respect to the country’s rural background. Each Neorustica piece is named after a shanty town or favela in......read more
Old wood is the goods. Reclaimed timber has a rugged beauty that new wood products can't replicate. That's our humble opinion, anyway, and Jamison Sellers' too. The Rhode Island designer/craftsman salvages wooden pallets and boards to craft chairs, tables, and shelves that are as simple as they are striking. Alternating diffierent colors of scrap wood in thin strips, Sellers makes furniture with......read more
Folded Roads: Google Earth images become surrealist artworks in Clement Valla's series Postcards from Google Earth, which depicts bridges and roads that appear warped when you zoom in just the right way. T-Shirt Upholstery: Swedish eco designer (and mega babe) Maria Westerberg won first prize at the 2011 Green Furniture Awards for the T-shirt Chair, made of recycled textiles and bent wire fence.......read more
For a long time, Senegalese-French furniture designer Bibi Seck, one half of product design duo Birsel + Seck, wanted to produce local furniture in Senegal. But it wasn't until he linked up with Transtech, a maker of cisterns and septic tanks using recycled plastic, that the project became feasible. The fruit of the partnership is the Taboo Collection of furniture, made in Dakar,......read more
Israeli industrial design studio Tenenbaum Hazan has found a surprising use for the plastic window blinds that have been replaced by lighter, stronger alternatives made of aluminum. The flowing, curvaceous TRIS chair features old plastic roller blinds held together by a closed wooden contour that keeps the form in place. The side where you sit is flexible while the other side......read more
Harkening the golden era of mid-century modern design, these SQ Tables from Artless Corporation (headed by Alejandro Artigas) bring clean lines and basic shapes to your living room. Fear not, no virgin forests have been affected by Alex's creations. Made entirely of reclaimed walnut wood, the tables are imbued with thoughtful details including rectangular supports that act as perfect mini......read more
With a design practice focused on the endless possibilities of found materials reuse, Cologne, Germany-based designer Michael Konstantin Wolke conjures truly inventive new uses for old discarded stuff. His coolest creation may be these wardrobe units, which consist of from bicycle inner tubes wrapped around a metal frame. Super smart. Also check out his recycled cardboard light......read more
It's always a score when you discover that a stunning bit of design has tight eco credentials to boot. Such is the case with the colorful outdoor furniture creations of Loll Designs. The Duluth, Minnesota company crafts stylish and durable outdoor chairs, tables, benches, and accessories from post-consumer, industrial high-density polyethylene. What the hell is that, you ask? It's the same......read more