A piece of furniture that can be all this: stylish, comfortable, and adaptable to one's lifestyle.

Good news for you... I was visiting South Beach recently and was helping a friend choose a sofa. We were looking at beautiful modern couches. When I started advising my friend against lighter fabrics, the salesperson pointed out that the all of the fabric on the sofa could be removed. I was shocked as it didn't look slip-covered as the fabric was attached around the bottom with velcro. Thank GOD! Can't wait to purchase a new couch. Not certain how common this has become, but it's promising.

Cords and cables: Electrical, computer, printer, charger, stereo, TV, DVD player, back-up drives, appliance....cords, cords, cords...hate them hate them hate them...

Sorry for the rant: Without these cords, I suppose, I'd have no place, nor reason, to rant...

I have a fairly cheap plastic, floor fan, and while it's not much to look at, it comes apart easily, intuitively and with no tools which allows it to be cleaned very easily in the sink with a little dish soap. Fans get really gross, but because of the ease of cleaning this one I regularly do. Similar to the idea of slipcovers above, I want all fans (and other things that need maintenance) to be designed this way! Good design means both good looking and easy to maintain. Otherwise, it just encourages our throw-away culture.

My biggest pet peeve of interior design is wires. Professionals never make the mistake, but one can always tell an amateur by the way they let it all hang out (wires that is). So I would LOVE to see the day when every piece of appliance doesn't need to be actually plugged, as long as it is near the electric outlet.

agree with jeffnyc. nowdays they make sofas with completely removable and washable fabric. I have washed my sofa covers a few times and thanks to the synthetic fibres in it, the color stays the same. have in the studio an ikea sofa, it is very modern looking and the cover is very well fitted - the way it works it is velcroed all around the base. It is white. I have washed so many times and it has held up very well - looking at it you would never think it is over ten years old.

I'll echo the electrical wires and cords complaint. Even cord keepers and organizers don't help all that much--you still get a big bundle of cords. It'd also be great if outlets somehow also could be turned off without needing a separate power strip.

Here are three items that have been difficult for me to find; pieces that combine form and function and that are scaled for an apartment or a small home:

Desk
Dining chairs
Bedside table

And of course, the guest room bed/sofa bed/futon/daybed.

I'm really into the wall-mounted fold-down laptop desks out there (i.e. Ikea PS or Ludvig) but am discouraged to see that there isn't a cute way to hide a printer in a similar fashion. That's what I want.

I'd really like more furniture that can be disassembled into small pieces and reassembled over and over again. I see so much furniture abandoned because the owners can't or don't want to move it, because it's heavy or cumbersome.

Let's make more things that are easy to transport, store, and assemble, that will last a lifetime!

I want an American-made fuel efficient, hybrid electric "Smart Car" with cradle to grave eco-friendly construction and recyclebility (is that a word?). I want a metallic green exterior and a pleasant neutral interior. I want it for under $20K. And I want it NOW! ;^)

Although The Cure does address how to manage cords and cables in Week 5, I 'd have to agree with the posts about wires and cables.
A good electrician, handyman, or DIY skills (if you have them) can address some of these issues if you own or the landlord will let you move things electrical.
And as Maxell says, wireless is a big leap forward. Maybe more things could be designed and made available in wireless mode.

I'm ready for stove burner controls to be either standardized or kinesthetically sensible.

For anybody wanting to expand their list of product design gripes, check out the well-written Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman.

amen about sofas. Sofas are the hardest purchase ever. Redjet - great point.

Upholstery is easy to keep clean - as long as you Scotchgard it, vacuum it regularly, keep the animals and shoes off, a quality piece can easily last 20-30 years or more.

Yes, cords are a pain - but that's why they invented wireless technology for laptops and speakers, and there's cable management doohickeys out there too.

As far as printers, I keep mine in a deep drawer of my entertainment center and plugged into the Airport Extreme wireless router via USB - Whenever I need to print or scan, I open the drawer, hit the power switch and print from wherever in the apartment (the wireless is also connected to the stereo so I can run my iTunes playlists from the laptop through the stereo speakers throughout the apartment)

Somehow I lucked out in that each room of the apartment has at least one switched outlet - so I can flip on at least one lamp from the entrance of the room, and the remainder I have on Lutron dimmers so I can switch lights off from the bed or my seat on the sofa - but what I'd like are light switches that turn off automatically like the one's in the office so that if I forget to turn off the bathroom light, they will go off automatically - and the lights in the common areas should also shut off if automatically if nobody is in the hall.

What I want are apartment buildings and office buildings to be encouraged to install solar panels and green roofs, windows that open for ventilation and AC to be zoned and temperature controlled so I won't freeze to death in my office while folks out in the cubicles are baking. I want parking garages with solar panels and electrical outlets for plug-in hybrids and parking spaces for Vespas (Electric Vespa, anyone?)

I want all cab drivers and bus drivers to slow down and learn to hypermile to save fuel and make our commutes safer, and I want all cabs to be hybrids. I also want bus stops on every 2nd or 3rd block rather than each corner.

I want printers to default print on both sides of the page, bosses that prefer electronic reports, and co-workers who use "Print Preview" to make sure that their pages will turn out correctly before printing.

I want electronics retailers to have mandatory recycling - so that when you buy a new cellphone/TV/laptop, etc, you can drop off not only your old one but also the packaging for the new one at the time of purchase or within a week or two for a credit to your bill. I want a similar program for appliances and mattresses: Deliver the new one and take away the old one for recycling.

I also want to see more locally-made furniture, clothing and electronics rather than everything imported from somewhere on the other side of the planet.

bepsf, it's fairly easy to put indoor lights on a motion sensor. You need to look for a wall switch that has a motion detector built-in. You can check locally, but I know I've seen these on the electrical isle at various big box stores. It's like a normal light switch but with a plastic bubble above it that contains the motion sensor. Then you just swap out the switch. You could always put the old switch back when you move out.

parhelia --

Thanks for the info - I see the one on my wall in the office every day and just never thought to look at the hardware store for ones at home...

Oh - and one other thing I thought of while reading the sink post from today:

I want apartment buildings to encourage/collect kitchen scraps for compost...
...put recycling facilities on every floor rather than on every 8th floor (like in my building)...
...and install places where tenants can securely store bikes besides inside our apartments or our storage units (which aren't even accessible 95% of the time)

Humidifiers! It sits on the floor, in the way.I had a great one designed in the 60s that was beautiful, glass, and sat on a chrome stand so it looked good on a table. But sadly, it broke. Besides the humidifiers that look like animals, there is nothing available that doesn't look like exactly what it is.

My problem is finding a bed that doesn't break. I bought a Vienna bed set less than two years ago and have already had to have the slats replaced, and now the leg (which is one piece with the headboard has broken in two places and the whole thing is about to fall apart. The furniture store where I purchased the set wants me to pay another $250 to get a new headboard, which is only going to do the exact same thing.

In terms of sofa fabric, I guess that's why vinyl was so popular when it was... I'm surprised there isn't more furniture covered in ultraleather- it's like ultrasuede, but faux leather that's very, very soft and durable. It's also easy to clean.

I'd really like a washer that I didn't have to climb into to pull laundry out of, same with the dryer. (I'm tall with a bad back.) I'd also like higher kitchen counters so I'm not stooped over them when I'm cooking-I know they're available, but it's expensive!

crash:
would front-loading machines help, if raised on a sturdy wood or concrete/brick platform?
I feel your pain, the other way, since I'm petite and find standard kitchen cabinets and counters trying. Also hate most standard size furniture as my feet dangle off the chairs and sofas and most armrests are all wrong.

bepsf:
I second all of your "What I want." Especially the bit about recycling the old when you bring in the new. I really felt it when I moved across the country and found it hard to dipose of my electronics responsibly.

I'll add:

I want food to be packaged more responsibly and in recyclable containers. I want cookware to be made from recyclable materials or at least materials that can be harvested for new items. I want to be able to bring back my old cookware to the store and know that they will recycle responsibly

I want housing societies and tenants to encourage cleaning and septic treatments that are safer for groundwater.

I want new homes built with more light and more windows to let in the sun. Light and sunlight would help to tackle the widespread winter blues in the cold months and Vitamin D deficiency in children.

This is not design specific, but I'd like to add that I would like people not to trash their usable stuff in dumpsters when they move out (especially in college towns) but to try and donate them to a charity. If things were not made to be used and thrown after one use, perhaps they would be kept and reused.; if things were more dear (expensive and truly wanted), that would help, too.