Cross your fingers we don't get grounded

As you may know Erin is out of town and she's left me here all alone to Run the DC headquarters. Just to prove to her, as I have proven to all of you, that I am a big girl and can be trusted to stay home all by myself I'm totally going to stay up late, watch R rated movies, eat tons of sugar and possibly throw a party that ends with every object in the DCHQ painted (almost klien) blue. With all of these scheduled activities how can I possibly be expected to write an entire post about boring old design? Huh? Huh? So, I've decided that, in Erin's honor, I will dig up one of my favorite posts of hers from back in the day when Design Crisis was just a wee little baby inside it's mommy's tummy. Don't worry, I fully plan to wake up bright and early Friday morning from a mind blowing sugar crash surrounded by piles of glitter, empty cans of gold spray paint and artfully arranged photos of Michael Phelps 100% ready to bring you the best damn design post of your scene-loving-life. Until then, without further ado, I give you: Flock Watch, by Stacy (yep!) Erin Williamson I heart sheep -- and especially their silky soft skins. I know, Peta is probably coming to splash my front door with faux blood, but I really can't help myself. I have, like, 500 (ok, two) of the Ikea sheepskin rugs covering suboptimal chairs, and I loooooove my Costco sheepskin rug. I used to have a flokati rug, but I couldn't vacuum it properly without fumes of burning rubber issuing forth from my workhorse machine, and shaking the stupid thing out usually induced a seismic allergy attack, magnitude 8.0. Yuck. Happily, my sheepskin rugs are a dream to clean, and they are so, so cuddly on my feet.

Yes, I love my pretty little pelts, but lately I've noticed sheepskin recalling its original form. Witness these stools from Sam Brown at Leigh Harmer:

These cute poofs would make a comfy landing spot for a guest when seating is limited, or perhaps as accessories in the little tot's playroom. I like the headless hybrid form and the juxtaposition of wood and fur.

Hanns-Peter Krafft's vintage design in current production at Moss moves closer to the zoological end of the animal/furniture spectrum:

His stool evokes the designs of amazingly brilliant husband/wife team Claude and Francois-Xavier Lalanne, who have spent much of their lives creating animal-themed furnishings and objets d'art. In particular, Francois' sixties-designed Moutons are enjoying a contemporary revival:

I am loving the life-sized sheep on abstracted "grass" carpet, and it helps that the chrome coffee table reminds me of a totally stylin' water trough! (Image courtesy of Topsy Turvy).

While Les Moutons are sheepishly cute and fuzzy in a stuffed animal kind of a way, a couple of newer designs may belong in the cabinet of curiosities. Check out this three-headed monster courtesy of freshome:

I don't know. I love me some taxidermy, but I'm not sure I want to sit on it. On the other hand, it's kind of awesome. I'm torn.

I feel less ambiguously repulsed by this meat chair, a gruesome creation of Italian artist Simone Racheli featured at Paola Maria Deanisi Gallery.

That's really the point, though, right? I definitely think of this one as art, designed to provoke a strong reaction, and on that level I find it to be extremely successful. And gross. And kind of mesmerizing.

I think I'd most like to have this fabulous lucite and sheepskin chair at Waazwiz, a Japanese design site:

Cozy yet cool, I need this one. No meat required.

+++++++

See, wasn't that fun?  Aren't you glad I slacked off like that?  Don't you see why I LOVE animal furniture (and Erin)?  

Impress Me

Why must there be a constant celebratory parade of birthdays and barbecues and fun all summer long? Obviously I'm incapable of self-regulation because here I am, after another evening of injudicious imbibery, feeling a little... lackluster this morning. So, now I have this pathetic need for entertainment -- I want to be dazzled -- and Good God, I don't want to think very hard. Thinking hurts. Here, neato fun table!

The tattooed Yakuza coffee table from Reddish, with its coyly unmarked "feet," definitely belongs in the home of an ink-stained scenester.

I need more crazy patterned goodness... but I am never one to be impressed by the mundane. Thank you, Front Designs, for catering to my hazy whims.

UV imprinted wallpaper, for commitment-phobes everywhere, shows its pattern only in sunlight. If only tattoos worked the same way! This reminds me of my husband's college apartment that revealed strange and intricate dayglo scribble-covered walls only when viewed under black lights, of which there were many. Needless to say we moved into my apartment, beautifully decorated (to my impoverished 18-year-old mind) with the obligatory iron-barred futon, giant tacky Chinese fans, and even gianter (but FREE) Beatles poster. I can still feel skeevy Ringo's eyes tracking my movements across the room. I'm so glad I don't live there anymore.

Moving on to more of Front's awesome offerings:

Wallpaper again, this time with a pattern formed by mouse nibbles -- the roll was scanned and inverted so only the indentations showed the pattern. Ouch! Too much thinking, but how cute is that little guy? My cat would love to meet him.

And yet another brain busting surface dreamed up by Front:

The pattern here was created by bugs that chewed tracks through the wood, leaving impressions (wink, wink! nudge, nudge!) of their ways and means. This one's kind of funny to me because I spent much of my time in Hawaii desperately fighting the bugs that did this very thing to my furniture, my photographic prints, and worst of all, my negatives. I'm about to scan those negs in right now and say I MEANT TO DO THAT. It's all about intent, right?

My last ditch effort to dazzle my poor tired swollen head:

Charred furniture from Maarten Baas's Smoke series bears all the marks of its time in fiery flames. Apparently Baas burns the pieces and yanks them before they crumble to the ground, but not before little bits are broken off and cracks form in the wood. This appeals to the erstwhile gothy side of me, the side that still gets really excited when Bela Lugosi's Dead surfaces from the depths of my shuffled itunes (which are mostly rap, if you must know. I have a weakness for dirty booty jamz).

Yes, that chair is hot, but its conception is even hotter:

Fire always cheers me up.

Stretchy McSpandertron

You all know I love animal furniture and if it were up to me (rather than my bank account) my entire home would be filled with creepy animal finds.  I would not be ashamed at all to put a horse lamp on top of a crab table and set it all right next to this whippet bench:

well, assuming all of the animal pieces worked with my color scheme.  Otherwise it would just be a downright embarrassing travesty.  The Whippet bench has been designed to fulfill all of my wildest dreams and fantasies by Radi Designers.  Almost everything I found on the bench or the design firm was in French and, despite my 3 years of high school language lessons, I didn't pick up on any of it as the site never mentioned where the library was or asked me to pass the fork.  I did recall enough of my latin roots to figure out that they also have this resin version in a limited edition of 30 pups:

would it be tacky to have the 4 color whippet inside and the blue one in my yard?  What If I had a giant version of this bench and I turned it into my house?  Still OK?

The stretched out whippet reminded me of this elongated bench I fell in love with a few months ago:

to be continued / bench, by Julien Carretero Design Studio

What if instead of filling my house with animals I filled it with stretched out things?  I find this polyurethane piece particularly exciting for it's texture and imperfections.  According to the designer: "each layer is casted on top of the one casted before following the exact outline of it. Because of the imperfection of the cast, the object slowly mutates and start designing itself." I'm sure work like that is easy and cheap and totally within my budget, right?  houses full I tell ya, houses full.

Keeping in the stretched out theme:

Working Wave Seating, designed and fabricated by Susan Wood

I have another picture of this bench with a girl sitting on it that actually makes the stretch more exaggerated.  I decided not to post that one because she was wearing the lamest brown turtleneck sweater and mom jeans.  I know I'm getting off track (surprise) but how can someone spend so much time and detail creating such a beautifully designed piece only to photograph it next to a girl with a scrunchie?  Isn't a designer's vision supposed to be complete?  (back on track) the bent plywood bench is still welcome in my home any day, my well dressed friends can sit on it.