By Andrew Liszewski

Over on Make, what started as a humorous suggestion to simply use spray paint to un-uglify a couple of old armchairs turned into a fantastic discovery. It turns out there is actually spray paint specifically designed to refresh the look of your old furniture. What’s more surprising? It seems to work pretty well. Simply Spray’s Upholstery Fabric Paint comes in 9 different colors, allowing you to refresh and even completely change the look of your upholstered furniture. Though Make found that it seemed to work best on subtle color shifts, like taking the yellowish chair shown above to orange. While changing the same shade of yellow to blue wasn’t a complete fail, after 4 coats remnants of the chair’s original color were still visible.

The product does have a few quirks though. Like having to basically use the entire can once you start spraying. You can store it mid-use overnight with the nozzle kept under water, but after a few days the rest of the product left in the can will presumably dry out. But since it took 3 entire cans worth to turn the yellow chair orange, it doesn’t sound like a big issue. The chair also had a bit of a crunchy feel right after painting, but it quickly wore off with use. Each can will also cost you about $12 when purchased through Amazon, which will add up when multiple coats are needed. But compared to having the piece completely reupholstered, it’s a bargain.

[ Simply Spray Fabric Paint ] VIA [ Make ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I like the idea behind hammocks, and swaying back and forth can certainly add an extra element of rest and relaxation when kicking back. But I can’t say I find them the most comfortable place to sit or lay down. Maybe I’ve just never found the ‘right’ hammock for me. And I now doubt I ever will because my mind is fixated on Le Beancock Beanock instead. No one’s going to argue that a bean bag chair isn’t comfortable, so combining one with a hammock is a stroke of genius.

Made of durable fabric (with a fireproof option) with reinforced metal eyelets in the corners, Le Beancock Beanock comes in two sizes supporting weights of 220 lbs. up to 440 lbs. So the larger version should be able to comfortably and safely hold 2 occupants. They also come completely flat-packed to reduce shipping charges, requiring you to locally source your own chains for hanging and beans for stuffing. Oddly enough that essentially means you’re paying for an empty fabric bag, which will cost you $568.40 for the larger model, and $284.20 for the smaller.

*Oops. Sorry about the name mixup. Lesson learned about writing in the early morning before my eyes have remembered how to focus.

[ Le Beancock Beanock ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]

By Andrew Liszewski

With the future of the U.S. space program in question, there’s a pretty good chance that any of you reading this post will not have the opportunity to set foot on the moon in your lifetime. And to be brutally honest here, this giant ‘Full Moon Odyssey’ floor pillow is definitely not ‘the next best thing.’ But if you have a soft spot for the celestial objects that hang in the sky above us, and don’t mind a 5-foot wide circular pillow in the middle of your floor, i3 Labs’ designer Lily Suh has created the perfect room adornment for space enthusiasts.

Created with 26 hi-res images of the moon’s surface, the pillow not only provides a striking view of our lunar companion, but admittedly also looks pretty comfortable. Comfortable enough to justify its $1,970 price tag? Maybe if you have NASA’s budget at your disposal.

[ Full Moon Odyssey Floor Pillow ] VIA [ designboom ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I’m marking down August 11, 2011 in my calendar as the day I found a better way to spend $1,500+ (£950). R9′s custom coffee tables are clearly not sanctioned by Lucasfilm, hence the fact they refer to this beauty as the ’70′s Falcon’ table. The under-the-glass centerpiece is made from cold cast bronze with a retro wood grain veneer, tying it back to the design of the rest of the table and its wood base. This particular table is shown as being ‘Sold’ on the R9 website, which makes me wonder if it’s a one-off piece, but I’m sincerely hoping it’s not.

[ 70's (Millennium) Falcon Coffee Table ] VIA [ Fancy ]

By Andrew Liszewski

LEGO and wood seem to be the preferred mediums for artists who like to incorporate a technical side into their works. And in this case Kagen Schaefer has chosen wood (his preferred medium) to build this incredibly elaborate Pipe Organ Desk. In fact it’s made entirely from wood, including carved wooden screws, and represents more than 3 years of work. And besides being able to play a single octave by pushing in the various drawers, the desk can also be ‘programmed’ so that when a specific sequence of notes is played, a secret compartment will pop open.

When you push in a drawer on the desk the air is directed to one of the organ pipes at the front of the desk, sounding a note. Some of the air is also directed into a pneumatic logic board. The logic board within the desk actually keeps track of the notes played. When it picks up the correct tune it unlocks a very special secret compartment. The logic board, can be reprogrammed to pick up any tune, so at any time the song may be changed to a new tune. It is powered entirely by air, and it is made entirely from solid wood.

I’d also like to point out that the programmable logic board is also completely made of wood. There are no electronics of any kind here. And it probably goes without saying that the desk isn’t available for sale, unless you’re willing to write out a lot of zeros on a check.

(I wish there was a video of it being played too, but I can’t find one.)

[ Kagen Schaefer - The Pipe Organ Desk ] VIA [ UberReview ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Having trouble deciding on what kind of furniture to get for your new home or office? It’s certainly a decision not to be taken lightly, but while you’re deciding it doesn’t mean you have to work or eat on the floor. Karton, an Australia-based company, has an entire line of furniture made entirely from cardboard that will probably pack flatter than even IKEA’s most ingenious design. Everything from dining room tables to bedroom sets to even filing boxes complete with their own shelving are available. And if you don’t like their drab brown finish, you’re just a pack of crayons away from having something that matches the room’s existing color palette.

Some level of origami skills are probably required to assemble the furniture, though even the most elaborate pieces look easy enough for a 10-year-old to handle. I just wish they were a little cheaper. For $188, which is what they want for their ‘Paperpedic Bed’, I could probably buy enough raw materials and tools to build a wooden bed myself. And at $148 for their ‘Chairman’s Table’ I’d happily work on a piece of plywood spanning a couple of sawhorses, which would be far cheaper. So I guess there must be some level of ‘art’ involved here to warrant their expensive price tags. Just remember that if you spill a glass of water on one of those tables, they’ll be as useless as the paper towels you use to clean up the mess.

[ Karton Furniture ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Besides world peace, free energy and a “fat-free fudge cake that doesn’t let you down in the flavor department like so many others”, mankind’s greatest pursuit has been a solution to the problem of dirty laundry. And it turns out it’s been sitting right under our butts the whole time. It just took the designers at elementodiseño to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

What they’ve come up with is a brilliant way to ignore and avoid the issue of washing soiled garments, by turning them into the stuffing for a padded stool. Now I know what you’re probably thinking: “Andrew, I’ve been wallowing in a mountain of dirty laundry for months now, this isn’t new!” And I can’t argue with that. But, have you been wallowing in it while it’s stuffed inside a stylish blue canvas bag with reinforced seams? I didn’t think so. So let’s give the credit where the credit is due ok?

[ elementodiseño - Nexus Stool ] VIA [ Stilsucht ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Had Frank Lloyd Wright designed buildings using AutoCAD, or even computers for that matter, I can easily see him sitting back in a comfortable chair with his laptop perched on the outstretched arm of this Lounge-wood stand that I’m sure he’d approve of. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d designed it himself, complete with a small perch for his iPhone, and a surface for his mouse. (Though he’d surely be the Wacom type.) It’s of course fully adjustable so it can sidle up next to any chair or couch allowing you to work comfortably, and it’s available in various wood finishes and tints, including an all black version if you’re trying to match it an 80′s living room motif.

[ Lounge-wood Notebook Stand ] VIA [ Born Rich ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I almost feel bad about posting this amazing Millennium Falcon bean bag chair because as far as I can tell it was a one-off custom design created for an Adidas’ pavilion at the 2010 Sónar Festival. Made by Woouf!, masters of the fine art of bean bagging (that’s what it’s called right?) this version of the Falcon measures over 8 1/2 feet long, and looks a lot more like the ‘real’ thing than this Falcon bed we brought you a few years ago.

The chair was created to tie-in to Adidas’ line of Star Wars themed sneakers they came out with a while ago, but sadly I see no indication that it’s available for sale to the public. Which is too bad because I suspect Woouf! could demand a hefty pile ot republic credits for them and still easily sell out.

[ Woouf! in Adidas Original Pro Area – Sónar 2010 ] VIA [ WeWasteTime ]