flora. dee.

Sure, it looks like someone stuck some old Litebrite pieces onto a bit of circuit board and powered the result with a dangling wire, but the $2,7500 designer lamp Flora Dee is much more than that. It has a "continually variable 'Touch Tronic' transformer with sensor and dimmer with 221 10 Watt LED bulbs" and "the angle of the lamp is adjustable with ball and socket joint." So there. Anyway, I like it. It will go well with my Tron poster...

au.

I think the name of the Au chairs from Edra must be pronounced "awww" because they're just so cute! Look at the way they nestle and snuggle with each other. Technically they're "shaped similarly to the Japanese yin/yang symbols" and, yeah, sure, I get that, but...whatever. They're more like the fuzzy bunny slipper of funky chairs not yin/yang if you ask me. The cute little devils are made out of polyurethane foam covered in woolen cloth or a woolen stretch fabric.

rasta. pouf.

The Rasta is ostensibly a pouf, which is to say an "ottoman" or possibly a "roundish pillow," depending on your personal definitions. But really it's just a hairy mass of merino wool that looks a bit liked a waterlogged Cousin It and serves as a place to rest your feet when you're sitting down. It will fit in perfectly with your other formless blobs of yellow-ish furniture, which is always a selling point. I'd highly recommend pairing this with the Illustri, although there does appear to be the odd chance that the two could mate and spawn a hellchild that will destroy the world. The Rasta will set you back $730.

neon. chandelier.

The idea of a chandelier made out of neon sounds...well, horrifying really, but designer Matt Dilling has pulled it off. I can't quite call it elegant because the overly exaggerated "bulbs" look altogether too cartoony for my tastes, but this is a far cry from the beer signs and diner clocks my mind flashes to when I hear "neon."

special. tubes.
There's some technical stuff about how it blends special tubes to create warm tones, blah blah, which seems to mean it kicks off a nice, warm chandelier-like light...a definite plus if you want to hang it over your dining room table. The standard size is 25 inches by 20 inches by 20 inches and costs $2,400. Custom sizes and colors are available too.

sanluca.

Even though I'm a little very afraid to sit in the Sanluca chair from Poltrona Frau, I think it's sensational to look at. It was originally designed by the Castiglioni brothers in 1961, before scientific research proved that this chair would kill you after prolonged seating. The artistic concept of the Sanluca was to empty the traditional padding that furniture was saddled with and lay bare the essential curves. Of course, the padding was there for a reason guys! But I have to admit this thing is amazingly stylish. The ottoman was designed by Achille Castiglioni in 1991 and mercifully has a bit more padding on it.

starship. table.

If Star Trek is your thing and you're not afraid to show it, check out this hand carved oak coffee table from the Unique Furniture Outlet. It looks like a starship as intended, the starship Enterprise in fact. (I don't think they can say that on their site though...it just says "in the shape of a spaceship"). That is, if the Enterprise were made out of oak and had four legs. To be honest, the legs creep me out a bit. They kind of make it look like a giant happy wooden spaceship puppy. But if you have one of these, you'll want a giant happy puppy to keep you company, 'cause I can't imagine many people coming over your house.

cloud. shelving.

Shelves don't get the attention they deserve in the design world. Probably because you need to make them square if you want them to be useful, but when they're all square they're also all boring. Lucky for us Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec threw "utility" out the window when they designed the Cloud Shelving system, which has gloriously round shelves that form pleasantly curvy frames. And while they were at it they abandoned that old "wood" material for colorful polystyrene, so you can get your clouds in red, light green, dark green or white.

book. stacks.
Clouds are around 73 inches by 16 inches by 41 inches (get it? "around"? heh.), but if you need them bigger, no worries, they're stackable. As the sell text says, "there is no limit to the size of a structure other than the size of the space containing it." And other than the size of your wallet, since these babies sell for $601 apiece.

(Note: I don't know why but Blogger insists on cutting off the left part of the image no matter what I do. Sorry about that! It kind of ruins the symmetry, but at least you get the idea.)

pin. up. clock.

This cheery timepiece is made with 12 pushpins, a square patch of bright green felt and some clock guts. It will go...well, wherever you feel comfortable sticking 12 pushpins into something, so probably not a wall you don't want 12 tiny holes in. Maybe it's best to start with a bulletin board and move on from there after you've gained some experience. It's only $28 but you have to supply the AAA battery.

rocket. lamp. style-3.

As accent lamps go, the Rocket Lamp Style-3 from Rocket Mfg is a pretty nice little bauble. The LMP3, as it's often called, has sleek steel plating to speed it through the atmosphere and into the inky blackness of space. The inner compartment is lined with a cunning parchment shade to maintain intra-ship integrity while letting luminescence out. And port holes along the top add a bit of flare to the ensemble. The whole affair is powered by a 7 watt lamp and requires an initial fuel load of $280 for launch.