The W* House / Storage
'Minima 3.0' shelving system
Bruno Fattorini & Partners / MDF Italia
Price on request
It's always a difficult task to improve on a classic without losing the beauty of the original. However, it would seem that Bruno Fattorini & Partners has managed to strike the perfect balance with its updated 'Minima' shelving. An aluminum bookcase with detachable panels, the 1997 original has been redeveloped with brightly coloured modular containers that can be slotted into the frame to create compartments.
'Hanny' coat stand
Ado Avdagic / Artisan
Price on request
Designer Ado Avdagic first discovered his love for carpentry as a child during visits to his grandfather's workshop in his home city of Tuzla in Bosnia and Herzegovina. But it was the structure of Native American teepees that inspired his finely crafted coat stand. Shown here in solid walnut and stainless steel, the tapered tripod design is available in six different types of wood.
'Yang' chest of drawers
Design MVW / Giorgetti
€10,449
A picture of perfect geometry, the 'Yang' chest of drawers is the result of Italian brand Giorgetti's first-ever collaboration with French and Chinese design duo Design MVW, a Shanghai-based studio that is expert in balancing contemporary Western and Chinese aesthetics. 'Yang', which means sun in Mandarin, is a reference to the piece's striking circular mirror that appears to float within the angled rectangular frame. Below the mirror, a stack of seven drawers crafted from solid Canaletto walnut with cut-away handles slide smoothly open and shut on recessed runners. Each drawer is topped with a leather-lined tray, which provides the ideal resting place for accessories, jewellery and other grooming accoutrements. The whole composition sits neatly within a walnut frame, while bronze-painted metal details on the handles, base and mirror casing complete the look.
'Token' sideboard
TOKENnyc / TOKENnyc
$8,495
Handcrafted in TOKENnyc's Brooklyn studio, this sideboard mixes American hardwoods with brass hardware and a blackened steel base. The bespoke design is offered in walnut, rift white oak, maple and ash.
'Portan' coat stand
MIXCV / MIXCV
From CHF1,411 (€1,174)
There's no underestimating the value of a good coat stand. This abstract, sculptural rendition, conceived by Swiss collective MIXCV, made up of specialist metalworking company MI and design studio XCV, not only holds its own in the transient space of the hallway, but also functions as well as it should. An elegant, poetic assemblage of lines with the simplicity of a paper clip, the coat stand is also available in purple, grey and green.
'Scissors' magazine rack
K% / K%
$690
This year is shaping up to be a bumper one for Nendo. Among the Japanese studio's numerous 2012 projects, its new K% label with Singapore's K Projects is most impressive. The concise range includes this ingenious steel magazine rack, which displays all the subtle qualities that have made Nendo such a roaring success.
'Stak' storage
Patrick Frey / Richard Lampert
€900
We're no strangers to just a little creative clutter about the place. But with its clean lines and clearly defined structure, Patrick Frey's 'Stak' offers a more utopian ideal that we are now one step closer to achieving. The modular storage system comes in a palette of sophisticated colours, from neutrals to yellow and even pink. Available in various sizes, the slender steel containers, trays and trolleys slide simply into each other and can be installed with doors and drawers for greater discretion.
'Wunderkammer'
Joe Doucet / Fritz Hansen
$10,000
The Wunderkammer may be a one-off, designed for Fritz Hansen for Kin Coda - an exhibition of keepsake boxes - but we would be very happy to find a home for it in our hallway nonetheless. Each box designed for the project is a sculptural assemblage of found, recycled and surplus materials, with room for storing around 40 'mementos', or artworks, contributed by the We-Are-Familia group of artists. We can't help but notice it would be perfect place to put keys and hats, too, as well as being a nice spot for a sit down, ensuring we are calm, collected and properly shod before leaving the house.
'Branchline' bicycle rack
Quarterre / Quarterre
£900
Two wheels may be the best way to navigate a city but bikes are not the easiest of things to store. So we're thankful for the innovative solutions recently dreamed up by London group Quarterre, whose sculptural bike stands elevate our transports most delightfully.
'Plus 31' cabinet
Ralph Van Der Made / Ralph Van Der Made
From DKK20.000
Aside from his work for collective Design By Us in Copenhagen, Ralph Van Der Made is also quietly making a name for himself as an independent furniture designer. The 'Plus 31' cabinet, with its giant circular sliding doors, is one of his best pieces to date and features a layered oak veneer base, massive oak legs, and a series of different doors in acrylic, aluminum and oak veneer that can be swapped around... And around. And around.
'Felt & Gravity' storage box
Amy Hunting / Amy Hunting
£500
London-based Norwegian rising design star Amy Hunting uses an unusual combination of Douglas fir, 100% wool, solid brass and gravity for her collection of made-to-order storage boxes and tables. The hanging storage compartment is strengthened by the weight placed inside. The knock down construction is held together by solid brass nuts and bolts, and with the odd shapes of wood left over, Hunting has also made a series of bold blue book ends.
'Staccato' Shelf
Atelier Oi / Röthlisberger Kollektion
€2,165
This shelving system is that perfect occasion when a design is so neatly described by its name. Look at the Staccato shelf long enough and you begin to see how its complicated interlocking grid does, in fact, visually rap out a pattern of closely packed narrow and abrupt spaces. The flexibility and stability of the modular design also means that the shelves, made of natural oak, can expand or contract depending on need and room space, while the shelves are sufficiently tall and deep to fit your precious collection of coffee table books and Muranos.
'Fortepiano' shelves
Rodolfo Dordoni / Molteni & C
price on request
Since Dieter Rams first unveiled his Universal 606 back in 1960, modular shelving units have been a boon for the house-proud set. We're especially enthusiastic about Italian architect Rodolfo Dordoni's contribution to the milieu. Comprised of wood and matt lacquered aluminium sheets, these shelves form a tesselated pattern that can be configured in endless permutations to fit an assortment of small drawers and hinged doors, while hidden tracks for power sockets allow TVs and assorted gadgets to be hooked up. And depending on your wall space, the shelves can be laid out horizontally, tipped on their side, or even just put on the floor as a free-standing piece of furniture.
'Job Cabinet'
Studio Job / Lensvelt
€800
There's a cheerful Alice in Wonderland quality about this series of cupboards by Studio Job for Dutch office furniture retailer Lensvelt. Available in 13 exuberant colours, including a pinkish white and radiant yellow, these cupboards will brighten even the most dour of office spaces. Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel, the chief designers at the Antwerp and Netherlands-based Studio Job, say their design reflects the fact that offices are looking more and more like home. Which explains the quirky touches such as the oversized bronze key and flexible shelving system. The result, say the Dutch duo, is a storage solution that is a 'perfect symbiosis between industrial mass production and the personal object'.
Paper frame shelves
Ontwerpduo / Vij5
price on request
There's already plenty to admire about these compact shelves with their industrial quality that comes courtesy of the rectangular strips of back mounting. The varied volumes of the frames make it easy to create artful combinations on any wall, not least as distinctive display units for your most precious tchotchkes. But we're particularly impressed by the fact that the timber frames are actually NewspaperWood, a renewable and incredibly tough material made from compressed newspaper. In their raw state, the paper layers appear like extremely realistic wood grain, but designers Ontwerpduo have covered the pieces with coloured paper to resemble tree bark. No possibility of barking up the wrong tree here.
'Lello' umbrella stand
Maddalena Casadei / Marsotto Edizioni
€1,850
You didn't go to all that trouble and expense of creating the perfect entrance hallway only to have guests ruin the flooring with their dripping umbrellas. Finding the perfect umbrella stand though can be equally tricky, but we think the 'Lello' by the Forli-based architect Maddalena Casadei does the job admirably. Cut from white Carrara marble, the deep trough can hold a multitude of umbrellas, while shorter versions sit comfortably on the non-slip grooved incline. The Lello is part of a project commissioned by furniture retailer Marsotto Edizioni that seeks to explore the use of marble in unexpected ways. The results, by the likes of Jasper Morrison, Naoto Fukasawa and Konstantin Grcic, have been gratifying, but we're hanging onto the 'Lello' for its solid bulk and undeniable polished charms.
'Spin' coat stand
Studio Taschide / Schönbuch
£450
Grand entrances can often make all the wrong impressions, but with the right prop, such as this sinewy coat stand, it's bound to have everyone talking, but in a good way. Slender steel tubes, in white, granite or coral, curve in a continuous loop into sturdy cross bars for coats, scarves and assorted sartorial accessories with an umbrella stand slotted neatly between. A small tray for keys and the like slips over a waist-high cross bar. The stand can just as easily be moved out of the hallway -- with a few adjustments, it compressed to fit a smaller room. The only thing Spin doesn't do is show you how to make an equally dramatic exit.
'Yabane' chest of drawers
A+A Cooren / A+A Cooren
Price on request
Paris-based Arnaud Cooren and his Japanese wife Aki, the talent behind furniture studio A+A Cooren, say a traditional Japanese graphic pattern inspired their design for this sleek chest of drawers. There is certainly a pleasing harmony and symmetry to the design of the Yabané (Japanese for arrow) that urges the eye to linger, particularly on its languid curved edges. And because there are drawers on both sides, it is perfect to divide the bedroom in an unobtrusive way.
'Truck' bedside table
Piero Lissoni / Porro
Price on request
In the hands of the right designer, space-saving storage solutions can be both effective and visually pleasing. With the Truck bedside table, the Italian architect Piero Lissoni reworks the quotidian bedside table by fusing a matt lacquered square and rectangular cupboard to form a pair of split level spacious drawers. Of course, the humour of the piece is that, from certain angles, the drawers also resemble the chassis and container of a truck. If space is at a premium, the lower rectangular portion of the table can be pushed neatly out of sight under the bed. That's the kind of bedroom tricks we don't see enough of.
'11 Boxes' storage
Studio Vit / Studio Vit
Price on request
With eleven separate components, the key innovation behind this module of cupboards by London-based designers Helena Jonasson and Veronica Dagnert is versatility. And a good dose of visual appeal. In their first outing as a freshly minted studio, the Swedish pair have designed eleven boxes in different shapes and dimensions, the common DNA being that they're all made of solid maple. Depending on the space of the room and one's storage needs, these boxes can be used individually or grouped together in endless combinations to form bespoke cupboards. Perfect for those who like to redecorate often, or who just like their furniture to be a little bit out of the box.
Sideboard
Eric Degenhardt / Böwer
€4900
Cologne-based Eric Degenhardt’s architecture training is clearly evident in the faceted construction of this elm wood cabinet. Its angular form comes in different configurations of drawers and doors, held up on thin but sturdy round steel legs, which give it its lightweight and elegant appearance.
'Armoire'
Paul Kelly / Gallery Fumi
Price on request
A designer who has long channeled the likes of Donald Judd and Yves Klein in his pieces, Paul Kelley could perhaps be described as a design artist with more modernist sensibilities than most. His latest creation - a giant armoire for Gallery Fumi - is a monumental structure upholstered in Fendi leather, available in a limited edition of three. The oiled mahogany interior is revealed on sliding back the large leather panel, or opening the hinged mirror door, and includes ample hanging space and shelves. The centre section pulls out to form shoe and bag storage - a perfect place to put Fendi accessories for those keen to coordinate all aspects of their wardrobe.
'Alog' shelving system
Johannes Herbertsson and Karl Henrik Rennstam / RVW
£335
Here it is - proof that design really does make a difference in our lives. This modular shelving system from Johannes Hertsson and Karl Henrik Rennstarn is easily detachable and requires no fittings - rendering Sunday afternoon DIY sessions quarrel-free. The T-shaped design references the language of grids and allows for various compositions.
‘Repeat’ kitchen system
Danilo Radice / Elam
Price on Request
Presented as a multifunctional modular storage system for any room of the house, these cupboards, shelves and drawers fit comfortably in the modern kitchen and, with lacquer and wood finishes to mix and match, sit particularly prettily in an open plan space where cooking and living areas blend.
‘Totem’ cabinet
Vincent Van Duysen / Pastoe
€2,995
It's astonishing how some designers are even able to reinvent the box. Vincent Van Duysen's 'Totem', for Dutch manufacturer Pastoe, is a modular square tower made up of boxes that all turn independently of each other and can be individually customised by colour, finish, height and even the number of shelves within each one.
‘Overdose’ desk tidy
Bram Boo / Bram Boo
Price on request
A messy desk is often seen as a positive – the sign of an independent, creative mind. However, even those of a more orderly, logical bent need no longer come across as anything less than entirely left-brained: Bram Boo’s ‘Overdose’ desk tidy shows it is possible to fake a haphazard filing system in the most pristine work space.
‘Down side up’ cabinet
Sam Baron / Fabrica
Price on request
Creative reuse is a big and important idea and Sam Baron and his Fabrica team are big on big ideas. From this cabinet to a desk and a clock, every item in their latest collection was made using four variously shaped and sized wooden boxes with holes in them. Baron and co simply attached legs and handles.
‘Net box’ wardrobe
Patricia Urquiola / Molteni & C
Price to be confirmed
Lacquered metal mesh is more usually found in industrial settings, so it’s a little surprising to encounter it in Patricia Urquiola’s wardrobe. But it works: the locker aesthetic contrasts with the warmth of the solid wood base, while the mesh means more ventilation for our vestures.
Ladder shelving
/ Casimir Meubelen
Price awaiting confirmation
There’s very little of Belgian company Casimir Meubelen’s portfolio that we wouldn’t have in our homes but if we had to settle for just one piece it’d be the new ‘ladder’ series. Made from solid oak, ladder is in the words of Casimir, the designer ‘a fusion of a movable stairway and an immovable shelving unit’. Rungs of the former have been extended to become shelves of varying depth and height. When viewed straight on it appears like a regular ladder but seen from the side it makes for an interesting tetris silhouette.
Wardrobe
Phillip Arnold / Plus Minus Design
Price awaiting confirmation
In the past we've tended towards quite graphic, architectural storage elements for the bedroom but young Australian designer, Phillip Arnold's charming new creation for Plus Minus Design has us feeling like something a bit more rustic might be in order.
Kitchen storage
Asif Khan /
from £100
Young London-based designer Asif Khan's clever kitchen storage is really a necessity for anyone with limited space but grand ambitions on the culinary front. The modular powder-coated steel and wooden elements stack neatly, keeping all sorts of things fresh, from biscuits to bananas, cakes to carrots. When it's time for chopping, simply dismantle and use the wooden bases/lids double up as chopping boards.
File shelving
Warm & Stolzenburg /
€1500 set of 10
Taking old-fashioned hanging files out of the drawer and arranging them dynamically on the wall is an idea that could filed under G for genius. This means you can file and search for your books or post without craning your neck. Better still the modular aluminium system can be added to for as far as your walls permit.
Umbrella stand
Charlotte Talbot /
Prototype
Time was when a good umbrella stand was de rigeur in every hallway but you’d be hard pushed to dump your brolly in anything purpose built, let alone beautifully designed these days, and yet it rains more than ever. Step forward ECAL student Charlotte Talbot who showed a beautifully considered design for an umbrella stand at this year’s Salone. The circular oak holder is rooted to the floor with a single arm and held in place by a circular pool of concrete, which has a gentle dip in it to collect running water from your umbrella.
Woodpecker coat stand
Tommaso Nani & Noa Ikeuchi /
Prototype
This Italian-Japanese pair, Tommaso Nani and Noa Ikeuchi, cite abstract geometry and the dynamic relation of force and space as key components in their design strategy. That’s all very well but we’re seduced less by the lofty intention and more by the barely there practicality of their Woodpecker coat stand. The design couldn’t be simpler, consisting of a plexiglass tube and lime wood pegs, which can be inserted or removed according to how many guests you have. Come summer when coats and things to hang are in short supply, you can take it to pieces and store it away for a rainy day.
Storage system
TAF Arkitektkontor / NC Mobler
€800
The bare scaffold frame of this storage unit inspired us to clear space for it in our hallway. With pegs, shelves and a cupboard it has everything you want near the front door; hang your coat, empty your pockets and hide away your junk mail in one impressive entrance.
Moebel 41/02
Schubladen /
€3570
Franziska Wodicka designs sideboards and cabinets using rescued drawers. Describing herself as a curator rather than a designer, she mixes and matches found drawers from her hoard of over 800, constructing a wooden frame in which to house them.
Magic cube
Andre Schelbach / Yomei
€5498
Yomei's cabinet is quite a 1990s affair - all mirrored surfaces, matt black and white lacquer. Like all good bathroom cabinets, the light that comes on when you open it is bright but forgiving.
Trolley
Roberto & Ludovica Palomba / Kos Italia
€1150
Powder-coated in a cool blue that complements our slate, enamel and natural wood preferences, there’s ample space to store all the things you don’t want cluttering up the side of the bath. The fact that it’s on castors means you can push it around the room as you like, from bath-side table to mirror-side caddy and, should you want it out of sight for a while, it’s compact enough to hide under a sink.
Clothes Tree
Cecilie Manz /
€2710
"The clothes can be tossed casually or draped carefully depending on your temperament," Manz explains about her ash wood creation. The chaotic but artful arrangement of horizontal and vertical poles would make a nice alternative to the ladder rail in the bathroom.
Pandora containers
Sander Mulder /
From €1200
Icon of the industrial world, the shipping container has long lit up many a harbour terminal with their rugged configuration of blocks and colours. Dutch designer Sander Mulder has taken them from a life at sea and created an indoor storage collection inspired by their indestructible appearance and mosaic colours. Available in three sizes and three colours, with a range of stacking possibilities, the sturdy storage boxes have the added bonus of being readily shippable, should you move overseas.
Collect chest of drawers
WIS Design / Schonbuch
€5240
A colour coded chest of draws might more usually appeal to only the most organised and tidy of souls. But while we do like to keep socks tightly rolled and vests neatly folded, that’s not the reason we like Collect. Just the opposite in fact, because we’re getting our knickers in a twist about the little china handles on the drawers and the soft matt finish.
Plug storage
Tomas Kral /
Prototype
While most students claim inspiration from the contents of the bottle, ECAL masters student, Tomas Kral, took inspiration from the bottle itself, or the relationship between the cork and glass to be precise. Designing a collection consisting entirely from cork and free-blown glass, it includes lamps, a small table and this airtight kitchen storage jar.
Sena tea trolley
Gino Carollo / Draenert
€1990
The tea trolley, that bastion of mid century entertaining, has wheeled its way back into fashion seemingly, albeit with a 21st Century spin. A very fine reincarnation comes courtesy of Italian designer Gino Carollo for German company Draenert. The industrial smoked glass and clean, cylindrical shape has us thinking of two of our favourite greys – Eileen and Earl.
Scalo library steps
Beoc / Cerruti Baleri
around €1000
Few can claim to have a library just yet, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have need for these library steps. For one, when closed, the wooden monolith becomes a stool. Second, when open the grey lacquered interior can be used as a small bookcase in itself, biding time for a day when our book collection can be termed a library and Beoc’s steps can be used as such to reach the dusty ones on the top shelf.
Reisling Bar cabinet
/ Armani/Casa
£23,830
Limited to just 100 editions Armani/Casa’s cocktail cabinet is quite a magnificent creation and definitely worth raising a toast to. Framed in bronze (a material that’s making a comeback) the body of the cabinet is divided into alternating smokey resin strips and polished Canaletto walnut. Interior LED lighting on the interior casts a warm glow through the transparent resin when the doors are closed.
Italic shelving
Ronen Kadushin /
€5300
Israeli-born, Berlin-residing lecturer, Ronen Kadushin, is the founding father of ‘Open Design’ - a movement that propagates free, downloadable templates of 2-dimensional designs. He recently showed his Open Designs at Berlin’s Appel Design Gallery and the Italic Shelving, named after the tilt of their vertical partitions, was a particular highlight. Designed in birch plywood the shelves are made up of two adjustable components that can be scaled and arranged to fit any space.
Punch cabinet
Alexander Taylor / Established & Sons
£1980 excl. VAT
Alexander Taylor’s ‘Punch’ collection of storage units was a quieter highlight at Salone 2009, channelling an industrial, school locker feel with their graphic indentations and aluminium material. The charcoal finish on the sideboard is an altogether more sophisticated affair though than anything you’d find in your old school.
Book tower
Samuel Chan / Linteloo
From €895
Another product of yore that’s returned to the stands this year is the book tower. Less commitment than a library but more interesting than a bookcase, it’s a welcome revival that leaves us wondering why it ever fell out of favour. Dutch company Linteloo has a natural oak set that strikes a neat balance of contemporary cool and old-fashioned charm; think modern day bookworm rather than ageing woodworm.
Vigo shelving
Russell Pinch / Pinch design
£4950
Pinch worked last year with traditional cabinet makers to create a timeless furniture collection with exquisite finishes. The Vigo shelving system, with its combination of block colours, empty spaces, natural wood panels and drawers makes it the perfect unit for a modernist living space.
Armoire Souple
Inga Sempe / Moustache
€380 each
The launch of a new French company, Moustache, was one of the big talking points at Salone 2009. The pieces, each by French designers, were just a little bit different, using novel inspiration, forms or materials and all had a distinct character – decidedly French you could say. The concertina storage units by Inga Sempe were a quieter, less showy highlight. Beautifully finished and not awkward as concertina mechanisms can sometimes be, the modular boxes would add a playful element to a home office.
Chankley Bore drawers
Maarten Baas / Established & Sons
Price on request
The hills of the Chankley Bore pepper Edward Lear's nonsense poetry and the wacky and whimsy looks of this work by Dutch designer Maarten Bass are just as lyrical. The hand-made drawers in composite materials (concrete and rubber) one of a range of characterful but functional furniture pieces designed by Baas for the British company. With intriguing mini-drawers, cupboards and must-press yellow buttons, this commission perfectly captures the energy and originality of non-British based designers now flocking to Established & Sons.
Brass key holder
Vincent van Duysen / When Objects Work
€485
As William Morris famously observed, you should ‘have nothing in your house which you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful'. This 'Primitives' collection by Belgian architect Vincent van Duysen fits the bill perfectly. He deliberately mixes primitive, tactile forms such as native blond woods and brass, and transforms them into simple yet powerful utilitarian objects. This finished brass ring, 26cm in diameter and 3cm high, is a natural space for your keys, coins or earings.
Rokumaru coat stand
Nendo / De Padova
€634
What you see is not what you get with this apparently simple, but technically complex coat rack by Nendo. It could conjure a tree with six branches or symbolise six radii of an imaginery circumference in which the product can be inscribed if seen from above. If that's too much information, you need only enjoy its clean, rigorous lines. Every detail of this solid rhomboid section coat rack with steel insert is minutely studied, from the inclination of its branches to the small notches at their ends upon which to hang your coat. In natural ash or wengé stain, coming in from the cold has never been so true.
Vasu containers
Mikko Laakonen / Covo
€160 each
Vasu starts as an individual container complete with handles but can also be stacked up with others and attached to a wall, turning the whole thing into a rather stylish shelving system. Of course, the system can be used in any room, but with the white, black and green colours along with easy-to-wipe and hardwearing lacquered steel surfaces we thought they’d be perfect for the bathroom.
Swing and Hang
Jung Hyun Han / Chairs on the Hill
$1800
There's something cathartic about shedding your clothes at the end of a day in a heap on the floor, or at least the chair. But it's a catharsis that only lasts as long as it takes to fall asleep - come morning, it's just unsightly and hence the need for a Swing and Hang. Jung Hyun Han designs products that are, "intimate with everyday life but beyond everydayness" and her Swing and Hang is exactly this. The Seoul-based designer explains that she was inspired to "capture a moment of harmony between object and user." Made from birch and plywood, the space-friendly clothes hanger has adjustable rungs that pop out when needed and back again when not, in a particularly harmonious, tidy way.
Unique Standard chest
Chandra Ahlsell and Anna Holmquist / Folkform
£2800
Folkform are Chandra Ahlsell and Anna Holmquist, Stockholm-based graduates from Konstfack, who devote themselves to experimenting with materials. This whimsical chest of 18 drawers is part of their Unique Standard collection, which experiments with combining original materials with manmade materials that imitate them, in this case Masonite hardboard and birch. The intention is to make us question what constitutes a precious material and though we pondered this for a little while, the effect was somewhat overshadowed by the fun of opening the jigsaw-like drawers. Like a contemporary cabinet of curiosities – just be careful to remember what you put where.
Pile of Suitcases
Maarten De Ceulaer / Casamania
Price awaiting confirmation
The young Belgian Maarten De Ceulaer’s eye-catching design was something of a crowd puller at Casamania's stand last year during Salone. Whimsical but robust, 'A Pile of suitcases' is just that, a bespoke, modular wardrobe design where each suitcase holds a different type of garment. "I wanted to design a dynamic, flexible storage system, the opposite of those big and heavy wardrobe closets, which are static and difficult to transport," he says. "The boxes are joined at the back using an efficient that makes it easy to expand, adapt or take apart and allows you to make various combinations and landscapes of beautiful leather boxes."
Authority system drawers
Philip Edis /
€2700
"Brutal, safe and elegant" is how young Swedish designer Philip Edis describes his Authority System set of storage. "The drawers are inspired by authority buildings, safety interiors and other protective environments," Edis explains, "here you can store your precious things and they are secure." One of the highlights of this year's Satellite show, Edis' pieces stood out for the boldness of their design and the high level of finish, though still at prototype stage. The graphite grey colour together with the solid prism shape of each drawer creates quite a hypnotic optical illusion, like a Riley print, which changes in different lights.
Paesaggi Italiani drawers
Massimo Morozzi / Edra
Price on request
Massimo Morozzi's constantly evolving range of modular furniture changes colour and form so seamlessly, it really does create a treasure trove of solutions for modern homes. Morozzi, a fan of the avant-garde and art director of Edra and Mazzei, has refreshed his 'Paessagi Italiani' collection with these harlequinesque, perfectly geometric prototype drawers. The joy is that you can customise the dimensions and colours of your drawers with an ingenious palette of 75 full-tone colours evoking all the charm and warmth of the natural landscape. Made in four types of wood and methacrylate, storage meets style.
DRAW shelving
/ Morgen
€470 per layer
German company Morgen last year released a new set of modular storage called DRAW, which solves a multitude of storage problems in the bedroom (or home office) and looks very nice at the same time. The laminate birch wood (bespoke finishes are also available) and aluminium modular elements can be stacked as high as there may be room for, leaving a freestanding storage system with deep drawers that open on consecutive sides.
Sideboard
Abdul Ghafoor / Kursi
£3150
Taking their name from the Arabic-Persian word for chair, Kursi are keen to stress their hands-on approach towards the design and manufacture of their currently small portfolio. We've settled on the sideboard principally for the charm of its retro undercarriage, but equally we couldn't help but be interested in the elevated pod. Pushed to explain this curious aesthetic, Abdul Ghafoor, Kursi's Design Director explained the pod had it's origins in a back copy of Wallpaper*. The designer created a mood board from a feature on Copenhagen's Royal Library, the projecting shape of which provided him with the inspiration for the form.
cARTe shelving
Roberto Mora / Dilmos gallery
€7500
Roberto Mora's 'cARTe' shelving is a characterful addition to the home office. Translated as 'Paper' the hand hammered, powder-coated sheet metal shelving resembles the flimsy material of its namesake, but has a considerable strength that belies its appearance. Of the trend for materials defying their usual properties that's staged an appearance at many of this year's fairs, Mora's shelving is certainly one of the more playful designs. But where many other examples of the trend stray into gratuitous gimmick territory, 'Paper' shelving has a sophisticated edge still.
About The W* House
We thought it only fair to throw open the doors to The W* House and share with you our wealth of experience in the design world. From cutlery to cupboards, pots to plumbing, The W* House features our favourite pieces of design from around the globe, room by room. We'll update them every time we find something new we like, building the collection into an archive for as long as the pieces are for sale. Practicality isn't often a buzzword at the Wallpaper* HQ, but when it comes to sharing our finds we wanted to keep things simple, letting you furnish your house the Wallpaper* way, with the click of a mouse.
