Design Daily Digest: 12 Favorites
Orange County native Chad Wright drew inspiration from our stylish state of California for his new Twig chair, an indoor/outdoor design that was born from Wright’s view of the Golden Gate Bridge shrouded in fog. “I could really only see the tips of it, and the rest of what I could see was so simple. I tried to bring that to the chair by making it very light and subdued,” he says. The customizable chairs are available in directly through San Francisco’s Council Design.
This gives you something to Tweet about: The endearing sparrow lamps from Italian company Alessi. Part of a project called “I love animals,” the glowing shapes would certainly light up a room, and are sure to be as popular stateside as they are in the UK, where they debuted earlier this year.
Lee Brooks and Greg Franke design fantastical Alex & Lee jewelry from their home and studio in Sea Ranch. Together, they weave semiprecious stones, fossils, minerals, bones and cord into otherworldly designs. The 2012 – 2013 collection features necklaces woven into impeccably controlled and luxurious designs.You can find Alex & Lee designs at Cavalier by Jay Jeffers in San Francisco.
Fun-loving design group Knock Knock in Venice brings the clever to kids toys with its new Clump-o-Lumps—a line of stuffed animals with swappable body parts. With a quick unzip, the three-part snugglies can get mixed and matched to create bizarre new creatures.
San Jose-based Fireclay Tile teamed up with product designer Kelly LaPlante to launch its first designer tile collection on October 18. True to form for the eco-friendly company, the Runway Collection features four tiles made from either recycled materials or handcrafted clay, with natural ceramic glaze colors.
Fornasetti Profumi adds a dash more mystery to the already enigmatic visage of operatic muse Lina Cavalieri. In the newest addition to the Otto collection of scented candles, her face is shrouded in a net or mask. Available as a single-wick 10.5 oz. candle, $165, or a capacious three-wick size, 67-oz., $495, both from Barneys.
London native Sam Orlando Miller created these poetic works of glass and metal from his farmhouse in the Italian countryside. I caught wind of him through San Francisco’s Hedge Gallery, which just capped off the artist's first solo exhibition in the United States.
Skater style gets a modernist upgrade in the newest collection from Vans OTW, which pairs the midcentury panache of a plaid KnollTextiles pattern with the laid-back sneaker designs of the California shoe company. The limited collection includes three styles—the Piercy, Ludlow and Alcon—and can be found at Shoe Biz in San Francisco or American Rag in Los Angeles.
San Francisco architect Peter Strzebniok of nottoscale is developing a modular coop, or Moop, for the design-minded urban chicken. “It was supposed to be a Christmas gift for my wife,” Strzebniok says of his design, which starts with a small, 2x2-foot coop and a single run that measures 4x2 feet.
Zara Home launched in the US on October 9 with a huge range of color-saturated items, including bedding, textiles, tableware and accessories (head to our Editor's Choice gallery of our favorites), but my top pick is the Monacle table duo, which gets top marks for versatility. The glass-topped tables come as a nested set (approximately 16 and 18 inches tall).
Los Angeles-based e-retailer Lulu & Georgia's roots go deep—all the way back to founder Sara Sugarman’s grandfather and father (Lou and George, respectively). Inspired by her family’s work in interior design, she christened a new company in their honor and has gotten busy sourcing the perfectly boho-glam rugs or side tables that will spice up your house. The hand-tufted wool rug also comes in Sage and is available in a range of sizes, from 2x3 feet for $95 up to an 8x10-foot version for $1,267.
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