Dos Campanas

Well, friends, after ranting about things that annoy me (and then get deleted) for the past day or two, I thought I'd put on my happy face and share what may be the cutest website ever with you. Everyone likes stuffed animals, right? Click on the picture to see a larger screen shot.

Brazilian designers Fernando and Humberto Campana create some seriously wacky furnishings and accessories, and you can't help but giggle while watching teddy bears get airlifted from vending machines to join their fuzzy wuzzy brothers and sisters in chair land.

I know they're silly, but they just make smile. Ouch. That hurts. I kind of wish I had a kid so I could justify having one of those alligator chairs for little him or her. I'm not sure how I would feel about buying one for myself... Oh, who cares. I want one. The panda and dolphin chairs are available through Moss, also seen at Crooked Brains.

The brothers Campana do make slightly more sophisticated furnishings as well, most of which are material-driven. The table on the left is made from plastic drain covers while the colorful table tops below are strung with lawn furniture rope cord.

A pair of chairs also made from humble materials:

On their awesome website, every project is accompanied by a visual story, and the graphic design is pretty fantastic and extremely intricate. For example, the animation accompanying the "Sushi" pieces below features a whirling pinwheel of tables set on a psychedelic background. Trippy, dude.

I think that couch is not too shabby for something made of carpet padding and styrofoam mats. What do you guys think?

Here are a few subdued pieces, all of which I could picture in a real home:

Rest assured, though, I couldn't leave you with something normal:

On the left is the "Anemone" chair (aka, "The Bird's Nest") made of clear garden hoses and on the right is the "Boa" sofa made of interconnected velvet sausage-like strands. Velvet sausage. Yum.

And finally, the designers themselves:

Humberto started out with a law degree, while Fernando majored in architecture. Whatever you must do to earn a few feathers in your cap, I guess. They're kind of adorable. I want to squeeze little Fernando's cheeks, and feed Humberto a sandwich.

Isn't my good side nice?

Sublime Seating, Redux

Hey kids, I have 872 errands to run today so I am reposting a goodie from back in the day. Why this one you ask? because it's the before to a post I will share with you oh so soon. enjoy! 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.

TrendStoppers!

A couple of weeks ago (back in the good old days when Erin was in town) we had Erin and Ben over for dinner, a couple several drinks into the night Erin and I started waxing poetic about how much we each really really want a Navajo rug.  My husband, who grew up on an Indian Reservation, gave us a grossly overstated argument as to why we could never ever have one in our house.  I don't really remember the slurred whirlwind of his verbal manifesto but I know it had something to do with the smell of mutton. Not only were Erin and I totally talked out of that which we had previously coveted, we were also inspired to start an entirely new column for our blog:  Trendstoppers!  (Currently accepting name suggestions)  We all see it every day, be it pirate ship lamps (which I'm still not totally adverse to), hypercolor furniture, or X-rated decor, it's out there building momentum and, well, sometimes it just needs to be stopped before it starts.  We need to lift the wool from atop the eyes of the greater populace and just say, hey, dudes, this shit ain't cool.  Par example:

rendez-vous wallpaper by Atelier Blink

Maybe it's just that I'm bored of Damask, and even more bored of variations on Damask.  Maybe I would like it better if the people were interacting with each other more, right now it's just a bunch of people doing (gasp) sexual acts floating independently on the canvas.  While it's reaching for edgy and shocking, I've really only got one response: yawn.

Liquorice Cherry Wallpaper from the  Paper Voyeur Line by DED

I do like this version of dirty wallpaper a bit better, I really appreciate that you have to look closely to even notice the erotic ladies.  It's more thought out and less contrived than the Atelier Bank version.  With Atelier Bank, you get the feeling that they expect to sell tickets to the show based on how many people stand outside the theater protesting.  All shock, no design. Paper Voyeur brings a bit of style to the table but, well, I can't shake this as anything more than just a novelty that I'll want to rip down within six months days.  Besides, the fact that 2 companies are making dirty wallpaper just makes the whole thing tired before it even has a chance to really get going.

The trend continues with this acrylic abomination:

'her' chairs, produced by casamania by frezza, 2008 via designboom

I really can't begin to express how much I hate this chair.  I can just hear the designer now, giving the obligatory argument about the female form.  Just thinking about it makes me want to barf all over his entire collection of sketchbooks (which I'm sure are filled to the brink with poetry and torn out pictures of water collecting in gutters and plastic bags gently tumbling across the street)  Now I need to barf all over this blog post.  I have no problem with the female form, but I do have a problem with the sappy term female form.  And with bad design.  These chairs are literally butt ugly and remind me of what Maxx Headroom would have made if he had a sketchbook and a Chinese manufacturing plant.  

Just to contradict myself (but also to prove the point that dirty minds are running rampant through our living rooms) I'll show you a  sexy chair that I wouldn't mind sitting in:

The Perspective Chair by Pharrell Williams

Don't you just see how much sexier (and sooo much dirtier) this chair is than that woman-butt chair above? It's so much more clever as well.  It's not all ass in your face, it's more like, hey, have a seat, woah, shocker!  

I guess there has to be an exception to every rule.  

At the end of the night, after we've all had too many drinks, it's probably best not to go home with the slutty decor, it's just a cheap thrill that you'll most certainly regret once the sun comes up in the morning.  And it just might smell like mutton.