The Friday Edit #4

A few of the best design stories on the internet this week...





1. Did you catch the Guardian's sorrowful ode to Ikea's Expedit shelving this week? In honour of the ubiquitous storage system, three of its best moments: some excellent Expedit hacking at homes blog, Dans Le Townhouse (bottom right); 20 real spaces featuring Expedit at Inthralld included this very good bench seating version (left

Object of the day: horse hangers

Perhaps inspired by Les Trois Garçons' haul earlier this week (particularly the wall-mounted unicorns), I have my heart set on these.

Regular readers will know of my fondness for an equine accessory. But is this a step too kitsch?





Neighhhhhhh! It is for sale in the US at Etsy (from a shop called Equine by Lauren) along with a range of similar designs featuring different horses (this, I

Real homes... kitchen trolley suggestions?

The top of this kitchen trolley in my house has been a design conundrum for years. It was originally acquired to provide a side table for the kitchen bench. 

For various reasons that never happened, and now – since the dramatic kitchen table relocation – it isn't really necessary either.





The trolley, due to its generous surface area, immediately became a dumping ground for downstairs

Spotlight on... the Sight Unseen shop

After writing about a Sight Unseen competition last week, I discovered the online US craft magazine has a shop dedicated to selling hand-made products by artists and designers.

The shop has recently extended its remit from just selling wearables to including a few very nice homewares, all produced in tiny batches.



These mugs are designed by former print-maker, Josephine Heilpern under the

The Insider: inspiration from the interiors of Les Trois Garçons

If you've ever eaten at A-lister repository and east London restaurant, Les Trois Garçons, you'll recognise the style below. 

Even if you haven't (and it isn't cheap), the place is well-known for its interiors and a favourite with art directors and photographers, so you'll have almost certainly spotted it as the backdrop for countless glossy magazine shoot. Either way, feast your eyes...



Why

The Friday Edit #3

This week's aesthetic highlights...






From left to right:

1. Don't need more interiors crack in your life? Look away now, because Sight Unseen has discovered Neybers, a new web based app which it describes as "a cross between My Deco and Sim City". The app lets you design rooms in 3D, using products from brands including Fornasetti and Donna Wilson. There's a competition currently running on

Introducing... The Common Room

When former performance artist, Kate Hawkins, retired from her chosen medium, she followed a new vision: to make good, contemporary art accessible to "the many, rather than the few". 

Her solution? To commission working artists to design conceptual wallpapers, and sell them in her new shop, The Common Room. I think the brand new company's first designs are very exciting. What do you reckon?



'

Object of the day: Sanderson 'Manila'

It's holiday time of year for the organised among us. 

If that's not you (it's not me), or if your holiday is about open fires and British countryside, you could always bring the heat home instead. And these two prints, in Sanderson's new Manila range, would do it for me.









A good tip if you don't want to commit to wallpapering properly, or can only stretch to one roll of the stuff, is to

Object of the day: stuffed drawings

This crazy looking little figure would look good on a shelf, especially in a kids' bedroom (but don't let that limit you). It's like a Donna Wilson creature cushion on acid.

And if children's brains are as free as a hallucinogen fuelled mind, then it sort of is. Because this stuffed character is modelled on an original child's drawing. Brilliant, no?


Thorody, the fabric company that makes them

The Friday edit #2

Back again with a round up of some of the best things I've seen/read/received this week. Happy weekend, all.



(Clockwise from top left)

1. Meet the original Brooklyn hipsters: The New York Public Library has more than 500 of Dinanda Nooney's 1978-79 photographs of Brooklyn dwellers, many taken in their homes. Apartment Therapy published the highlights. Excellently nostalgic, fascinatingly

Object of the day: Eduardo Barba prints

Some different examples of Eduardo Barba's striking geometric prints have featured here before. 

The Seville-based artist, a trained architect whose schooling seeps into his work, has created designs with a sharp 50s feel but without cliche.




 Geometric Exercise 3

A Rum Fellow, whose incredible Peruvian chairs I wrote about last week, seem to be the only UK shop to stock his work, and they

Before & after: Ikea mini drawer unit revamp

I've had these Ikea drawers so long that they no longer sell them (though they're in the ilk of the Moppe series). 

I put wheels on them back in the day, and thought often about painting them, just like the ones I overhauled in the bathroom – using odd old drawer knobs found on eBay and some white gloss paint. Years passed, procrastination flourished. Finally I have got around to fixing them up.

The Insider: remembering Nest magazine

Today, designer and writer Andrew Pothecary writes an ode to his favourite defunct magazine, and one after this blog's heart...

The entire span of Nest magazine’s printed life lasted 26 quarterly issues. And it closed 10 years ago with its autumn 2004 issue. So why’s it worth remembering now?







The first issue. In mint condition, it might set you back over $1,000. Other issues are

An idea: the blue room

Blues of every shade are suddenly everywhere, with teal (thanks to Dulux with, oddly, Alesha Dixon) and navy two of the most photographed shades.

And I've just fallen for this room, which features both.



It's cosy and calming and I am feeling a yearning to repaint the front room. I think I would read more books if there was a room like this in which to do it.

And don't you just love those

The Friday edit: the week's best bookmarks

I'm dabbling with making this a regular Friday regular: a round-up of some of my favourite stories from around the web, the homes and design-y things I've bookmarked in the last week or so. 

Let's give it a go.



Clockwise from top left

1. Donna Wilson has designed the interior for the remote Fogo Island Inn, off the coast of Newfoundland. There's a lovely story behind it and the building is

Object of the day: CUSTHOM's latest embroidered fabric

I've written about Custhom before: the young design company's particular speciality is their unusual and striking digital embroidery technique, which gives their textiles a tactile, 3-D quality.

Now they've just launched a new range of cotton wallpaper and fabric using the same methods.









The south London-based pair behind Custhom Nathan Philpott and Jemma Ooi only met – at the Royal

The Insider: The best Ikea hacks ever?

"Things are not always what they seem," state Elia Maurizi and Francesco Pepa, the duo behind Italian design company, Teste Di Legno (which means, by the way, "blockheads"). 

"Ask yourself: is it possible to revolutionize the furniture of Ikea, the company that revolutionised how millions of people live? Yes, it is." And thus they explain the thinking behind their incredibly brilliant new range

Tuesday question: coloured kitchen appliances – would you?

I was recently part of a research panel for a kitchen appliances brand. One topic we discussed was colour: good or not so good. What do you reckon?

To me, a washing machine, an oven, a dishwasher – whatever – these are things that should work well and also look as if they work well.






Something in a seasonally fashionable colour runs the risk of outdating before its working life perishes (

Object of the day: "Your Ideal Love Mate is..."

I'm not much for Valentine's day. But I can't resist these fantastic old cards from Pedlars – in fact I bought a set of 10 as a little Christmas present to go in a frame above the bed.

They're part of a vast stash of deadstock the shop acquired (so although they are originals, they're in good supply). But what are they?



These amazing love cards are from 1940s vending machines and originated