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Hot or Not? Madam Rubens Collection by Frank Willems

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This furniture from Dutch designer Frank Willems gets its unique shape from recycled mattresses. Willems learned that mattresses are the one of the more difficult things to dispose of and decided to attempt creative re-use of them. More pieces from the collection after the jump...What do you think?

 
 

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"Willems repurposes old mattresses, bending and folding them like giant pieces of bubblegum, then lashes the volumes to the bases of antique furnishings, creating quirky hybrids. The entire piece is then sprayed with a hygienic, water-resistant foam coating, and finished with a pliable, soft paint."

For more on Madam Rubens visit Frank Willems' site. Via: Coolhunting.

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Hot or Not?, seating - misc., beds & mattresses

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Comments (31)

yeah, it's hot. a hot mess.

posted by kahlil19107 on June 6th 2008 at 5:03am
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Ok, a couple things here. first of all, a recycled mattress as my new chair or ottoman, yeah, gross.

Second, let me just guess here that the price of it will not reflect at all that it is made out of someone's old mattress. Instead it will be ridiculously over priced. Yeah, just as I thought.

Last, if you get past it being a used mattress, couldn't you just stuff regular chairs with them, so it would look like a nice chair but be recycled? That way you could also make more instead of using an entire mattress to make one chair, you could make like 4 chairs.

plus those are fugly

posted by jmorey on June 6th 2008 at 5:15am
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It looks like it's going to eat me.

posted by Otherkate on June 6th 2008 at 5:18am
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Has anyone seen those specials on tv about the people who drive around picking up old mattresses, "repurposing" them and then selling them in a warehouse for $5... then they open them up and find bed bugs and stains and all kinds of grossness? Where are they getting these mattresses?!

Also, those are all just horrible. There's gotta be a better way.

posted by -haley- on June 6th 2008 at 5:19am
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Well...the intention was good.

posted by Cassis on June 6th 2008 at 5:19am
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i'd like to see someone try to sit on that

posted by little flower on June 6th 2008 at 5:23am
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Nice try but yuck. Most mattresses are an accumulation of dead skin, mites and bodily fluids. Even though these look like they've been coated with paintish stuff, no way one could get these clean enough for reuse.

In addition to being fugly, as jmorey says, they also looked damned uncomfortable, unless one were about 6'5" tall!

posted by Tammy Blue on June 6th 2008 at 5:23am
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What about running the old mattresses through a wood chipper, sterilizing the "shavings" and creating new throw pillow/couch/whatever stuffings? As opposed to just folding in the bugs and what not. After recovering a chair that had been in a bad place and seeing just what was in there I'm never just reusing soft goods without a thorough cleansing.

posted by pbblythe on June 6th 2008 at 5:27am
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Could these possibly be more grotesque? I don't think so!

posted by gordon on June 6th 2008 at 5:28am
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This is one of those cases where "Reuse" isn't the right answer...

posted by bepsf on June 6th 2008 at 6:25am
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"Mattress chair for sale. Slight urine smell. $1 or best offer."

posted by Melissa82 on June 6th 2008 at 6:27am
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The first chair looks like an angry boil.

posted by LilyC on June 6th 2008 at 6:44am
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It looks vaguely like an intestinal tract.

posted by jick on June 6th 2008 at 6:58am
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1) Old mattresses are gross. Could we break down and process them a little before reuse?

2) This looks like the back of an obese person's neck. Now all I can think about is neck sweat. Thanks Frank, I'm going to skip lunch now.

posted by ChristopherB on June 6th 2008 at 7:07am
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Well it was a nice thought but I'm with everyone else about the material, ick! They look like split hotdogs.

posted by girlonthem00n on June 6th 2008 at 7:12am
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The intentions are good, but honestly, this is not hygienic.

posted by kuroneko on June 6th 2008 at 7:14am
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Oh, the horror!

posted by RobertTheChicken on June 6th 2008 at 7:27am
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Ohhh, I wish I were an Oscar Meyer weinnnnner....That aside, I think it's interesting art, but I would never want to own one.

posted by squidlette on June 6th 2008 at 7:27am
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I wonder how green the "hygienic, water-resistant foam coating" is?
If it's polystyrene-based then it's bioaccumulative and not very green, which sort of defeats the (re-) purpose.

posted by lightspeed on June 6th 2008 at 7:40am
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Oh, come on, people -- why not have the Rubens plump lady chair on one side of fireplace and yesterday's green lady's rear-end chair on the other?

(actually, I can think of several reasons why not, but I am beginning to wonder about what's going on in AT's psyche and/or love life)

posted by Deborah on June 6th 2008 at 7:44am
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The form factor screams Simpson's butcher shop. My first reaction is that it looks disgusting and unappetizing. It's also humorous in a cynical and disturbing way.

I think this piece works better as a social commentary than as furniture.

posted by raven on June 6th 2008 at 7:44am
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Yeah, using a foam coating doesn't strike me as green. And I would think the texture of the foam would be grosser to sit on than a used mattress covered in a natural fiber.

posted by bright_as_yellow on June 6th 2008 at 7:59am
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Recylcling is good...up to a certain point. This line of "funriture" crossed that line and is now treading back in the garbage area. It looks like someone folded up a sleeping bag, tied it to a chair and spraypainted the whole thing (most likely in a drunken stupor).

posted by goldfixe on June 6th 2008 at 8:31am
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I have never seen anything more hideous.

posted by jooly on June 6th 2008 at 8:51am
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it looks like it has what southerners call "saddlebags"

posted by inkstainedwriter on June 6th 2008 at 9:01am
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DISCRUSTING!

posted by Monica on June 6th 2008 at 9:05am
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wow! you can have a chair that resembles your colon? HOT!!!


not.

posted by animalhouze on June 6th 2008 at 10:01am
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I'll pass.

It is interesting to see really bad furniture design though.

Just when you think you've hit rock bottom (furniture design-wise) something even more worse (worser?) comes along.

posted by Mr. Dangerous on June 6th 2008 at 10:09am
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Did someone really spend money on this?

posted by plain jane on June 6th 2008 at 2:35pm
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looks like aliens...

posted by looksgood on June 6th 2008 at 5:19pm
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You couldn't pay me to take that chair.

posted by bemyescape on June 7th 2008 at 4:44pm
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