Won't You Take Me To Shantytown?

People, I am tired. It was a boozy week (+ end) full of birthdays, house parties and the death of our beloved cat, Poop Log (RIP, little buddy, and yes, that really was his name). So maybe I'm still a little delirious, or maybe cardboard furniture is kind of... awesome. Sure it's cheap and tacky, but recycling is good, right? And occasionally it can be very modern material-centric, like Frank Gehry's quintessential cardboard chair:

Or cardboard can go for baroque like Giles Miller's wardrobe and grandfather clock over at UK-based Farm Designs. Check out the cute mustache handles:

Miller also produces seating that belies its humble origins:

The one on the right looks kind of painful, like sitting on the flying buttresses of a Spanish cathedral, but lefty has potential. He reminds me of the Togo sofas from Ligne Roset but comes a little closer to fitting into my furniture budget (which has recently been restricted to about $100 for a sofa off Craigslist). At $1500 it's still a pricey piece, especially considering that it's made of material usually functioning as wrapping paper for whatever it is you're actually buying.

Of course, the craft conscious legions have realized that cardboard is a great material for DIYers. The corrugated form is super strong, but it's still easy to cut with -- what else? -- a box cutter. The good folks at Designboom have several projects that you can do yourself:

And taking it 500 steps further are the Cartonnistes over at Instructables:

That desk does not look even remotely like cardboard and I love the idea that anyone could make furniture cheaply! Cardboard is so very democratic. Usually I'm all about wood, but have you ever tried to make anything out of wood? It's hard. Really hard. Plus I need all ten digits to type.

If you don't feel capable of starting from scratch, you can always order cardboard Legos from Bloxes and build yourself an entire Hooverville:

Is it just me or do those people seriously need to get to work??? Or maybe I'm just jealous that no job of mine has ever allowed me to to build a giant cardboard giraffe.

Really, though, all of my cardboard dreams will probably amount to little more than this:

Sitting on the street, drinking a beer while chilling on my sweet cardboard chair, hopefully without an orange bar over my eyes.

Eat your heart out, Claes Oldenbourg.

Have a seat, playa

Despite my deep deep burning love for hip hop (seriously) I'm sort of guessing that this will be my first and last post on a dyed in the wool hip hop genius.  I really don't see myself typing this sentence more than once:  Grammy-winner, skateboarder, Neptunes producer, and Jay-Z BFF, Pharrell Williams has teamed up with French design powerhouse Domeau & Peres to create the sexiest chair known to mankind.  Behold, The Perspective Chair:

I've been seeing lots of animal furniture lately but none of them were, uh, doin it and, nope, no people in sight.  I totally feel all lame and dorky like Vincent Libretti from project runway 3 when I say, this chair turns me on.  Pharrell and I are from the same hometown, but sadly, we never met.  This chair makes me want to go back - several - years and sign up for bandcamp so homeboy could (cover your eyes ma) treat me like he treats this chair.  Ok, that was gross.  Anyway, I'm in love with everything about this seat, the red lacquer (LOVE lacquer anything), the arch of her foot, the shape of the seat.  Must. Have. One.

The chair, as well as a second chair design and a table will be part of a show in Paris at the prestigious Emmanuel Perrotin Galerie from October 21, 2008 - January 10, 2009.  After which it will go into production in various colors with only FOUR VERSIONS OF EACH up for sale.  sigh.

Matt had a plaster mold making & fiberglass experimentation stretch last year, which I begged him to quit due to the yucky nasty fumes but I'm wondering if we should resurrect it to make our own version of this hot little number.  Get your mind out of the gutter, we'd just make a chair.

If you love the perspective chair but don't want your guests to have sex on the brain, you may also heart these:

The "Made In China" collection created by London Design Team Julie Mathias and Wolfgang Kaeppner of WOKmedia.  Each piece is unique and created from traditional chinese furniture retrofitted with handcarved toys and finished in... here it comes... white lacquer.  What do you think, should we go buy some toys from the thrift store and paint those bitches white, or what?  WOKmedia is a virtual design playground, expect to see more on them from me later.  For now, here's a last look:

Sublime Seating

Among the 872 new items I need for my house is a new sofa.  You would think I just landed on planet earth yesterday and have never had a place to sit, eat or look at artwork before.  That's not true, I just want to get rid of everything I've ever owned and replace it with all the furniture from the Viceroy.  Since that probably won't happen for at least another couple of days, I have to live with my fantasies and handy-work until then.  Enter, my inspiration sofas.  Bask in the glories people:

designers Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien, purveyors of all things great and true, pull at my heartstrings once again with their sofa, beautiful backside, available at Moroso.  With an unlisted price, it must be free and I'm sure shipping from Italy is pas de problem.  Incase, like me, you want to fill your room floor to ceiling with their heavenly goods you may also want to consider their princess and the pea bench:

It is with the utmost respect and kindness that I say:  I can totally knock that sucker off.  Perhaps my legs will pale in comparison to the glory pictured above but I can apply black laquer to a thrift-store bench like nobody's business.  Enter a few thin foam pads... and, oh!  some of that Ikea fabric Erin just posted about and geeeze, louise, I've got a hot hot seating area for my bedroom.  How do you like them apples?  Tasty and delicious, I say.

Incase you like to be reminded of your eminent demise all the live long day, perhaps this little number from, ahem, coffincouches.com is for you:

I'm a claustraphobe to the max and have informed all my friends and loved ones that I want to be creamated for fear of eternity in a wee little box, I clearly can't handle the coffin couch.  I am however a bit charmed by it's mix of luxury and whimsy with a creepyness factor of eight hundred thousand.

Moving on.

If you love the coffin couch but don't want to be troubled by all that messy death stuff, might I suggest another option: I am currently in the middle of a hot and heavy romance with Jaime Hayon's BD Showtime collection:

Like the coffin couch it has a hard outer shell (safe for use underground?) and a sexy tufted leather inside.  Unlike the coffin couch, it comes with a lady in turquoise.  Brace yourselves, people, you are about to spend the next 437 years listening to me wax poetic about our lord and saviour, designer Jaime Hayon.  Buckle up.

In my quest for the perfect seat, I find myself, time and time again drooling all over my keyboard at the likes of these beautiful boxy couches:

la la la love the clean modern lines, ha ha ha hate the vintage/designer price tags.  Dear, sweet matty bear swears he can make me any of them, just hand him a picture, but I fear that this project might slow down the kitchen remodel I'm forcing upon him so instead, I bought this on craigslist today:

Once you've dried your eyes from all the tears of pain you likely just shed and are able to read again, let me promise you, dear readers, this solemn vow:  I karly, of sound mind and body, promise to sand down each and every piece of wood, re-stain with a semi opaic black benjamin moore stain, and cover with a protective, shimmery polyeurethaine coat.  I also will rip and shred every heinous piece of denim from this sad sad sofa only to recover with love and kindness in a lovely fabric, possibly from Ferm or (sigh) Ikea.  Pick up is scheduled for tomorrow, before and after post to follow.