The Latest: Jul 2018

We still have a long way to go with prioritizing accessibility for people with disabilities. On the bright side, there are extraordinarily inventive minds like industrial designer Nour Malaeb, who is working to amend this widespread issue with projects like Relay, a fully customizable, voice-activated, table-ottoman combo. Malaeb came up with the idea after observing his best friend with muscular dystrophy struggle to maneuver with tasks around the house during the their days as roommates.

More and more, it’s becoming increasingly normal to hear stories of people learning to acclimate themselves to living in seriously small apartments. Cities are practically bursting at the seams so for many metropolitan dwellers, creatively maximizing a small living space has quickly become a modern-day survival tactic.

We might try to walk into Target with good intentions. The plan is to pick up that one thing we need, responsibly tossing it into our baskets before popping through self checkout, paying a respectable amount of money, and going on our ways. Sure, good intentions are great and all—but we also know that no one is safe from the lure of Target.

Le Koroc is a floating paradise designed for enjoying summer lake life in Canada with minimal impact on the environment—handcrafted from the ground up (or pontoon base up, anyway) to help its owner “explore nature differently” with a solar-powered, off-grid vessel that’s half fishing boat and half luxury tiny house. Crafted entirely by hand by a Canadian woodworker on a pontoon base, this is a tiny home for the lake-lover in all of us.

While we like shiny, new objects as much as the next design lover, we also have a soft spot for all things vintage. Mixing the old with new—be it a sofa from the sixties, art deco drinkware, or linens from the 19th century—can add a cool, one-of-a-kind flair to your home.

There’s no faster way to bring interest to a room than with texture—but there’s no reason to limit that design trick to fur rugs or velvet sofas. While an artfully placed knit throw on an armchair makes a space feel more “finished,” and a sheepskin rug underneath a planter lend sophistication, those same principals can now be applied to walls. There are plenty of genius ways to add texture to your walls, but be warned: they may not be for the faint of heart.

Belgian company BuzziSpace teamed up with American designer Cory Grosser to create a nature-inspired solution to noise reduction. Trying to soundproof your space so that it’s completely devoid of noise can be rather tricky, but outside-the-box thinking led Cory Grosser + Associates to using preserved reindeer moss as a main material for his series of geometric framed wall panels.

If you’ve ever seen furniture designed by Rick Owens, then you can already picture the interior of his Venice penthouse. The fashion designer began creating pieces for the home in 2007 with his wife, Michèle Lamy. MR PORTER recently toured their Italian home, the first public feature of the space. Indeed, you’ll see quite a bit of his brutalist designs around the space, peppered with the occasional antique, like a set of Eliel Saarinen high-backed chairs.