By David Campisi

It’s summer time again, and that big ball of nuclear fusion has unleashed its horrific fury on us in full force. Fitness experts, scientists, and moms have always preached the benefits of fresh air, but the summer sun has long deterred geeks from stepping foot outside. Fortunately, Hammacher Schlemmer has designed a chair that brings all the luxuries of indoors outdoors, so maybe it’s time we geeks give this “outside” another chance.

This monster of a chair is what you get when you cross cooler, coffee table, and chair DNA into a glorious hybrid. Providing ample shade is a 4′ diameter umbrella that can pivot to any angle to deny the sun’s fiery gaze. Each armrest sports a cupholder (in case, for some reason, you like to go akimbo with your drinking), and inside each armrest lies an insulated compartment that can keep an extra 6 canned drinks cold. Another non-insulated compartment rests under the seat to store reading materials, sunblock, etc. The footrest can also detach and function as an endtable or lapdesk. The chair is made of a breathable, soft mesh and even features an adjustable pillow to kick the comfort level up a notch.

This whole thing folds up into a rollable suitcase style rig, but it also features shoulder straps should you prefer to carry it like a real outdoorsman. The chair runs at $300, but there is also a scaled-back sports-style model offered for $75.

[ Hammacher Schlemmer ] VIA [ Technabob ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Referred to as the Swiss Army Knife of furniture, the Sasan ‘Magic Carpet’ starts out as what looks to be a particularly comfy padded square rug. But since the base is composed of 4 different sections, the carpet can be folded and contorted into various shapes and configurations of usable furniture, which are held in place by a contrasting set of red straps. Now I get the pseudo couch and bed with elevated footrest configurations, but what’s up with that adult crib setup? A bit of a stretch if you ask me.

The Sasan was created by the Alexander Munk Design Bureau, but since it dates back to 2006 and I can’t seem to find it available for sale anywhere online, I’m assuming it’s sadly just a one-off creation.

[ Sasan Magic Carpet ] VIA [ Freshome ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Got someone in your life who’s crazy about fonts and keen on sitting? TABISSO is a French design company who focuses on contemporary lounge furniture, including a unique line of chairs representing every single letter of the alphabet, as well as the numbers 0 to 9. The chairs are all made to order, since clients will no doubt be asking for custom words every time. And because everything from the upholstery material and color, to the frame and base, can be specified to match any decor. There’s also a series of 20 different punctuation mark lamps if you want your furniture to be grammatically correct. (And who doesn’t?) As for pricing? Since the chairs are all custom made I think it’s safe to assume they’re also going to be very, very…

[ TABISSO Typographic Furniture ] VIA [ Design Blog ]

By Andrew Liszewski

There are three things you absolutely must have before picking up one of Jaanus Osugaar’s unique Accelerator spinning chairs. 1) A strong stomach. 2) Plenty of space in your living room. And 3) A healthy budget for novelty seating. If you can’t already guess from the product shot, including the fact there’s built-in hand straps, the Accelerator chair is designed to spin instead of rock. And we’re not talking spinning as if you were in a barber’s chair. The Accelerator’s offset center design has you spinning like a fallen top, and it will actually take you 6 full rotations to get back to your original sitting position.

The idea behind the chair is to provide a more invigorating experience that energizes and stimulates your mind, unlike a regular rocking chair whose motion is designed to put you to sleep. Is it unique? Most definitely. Is it worth ~$1,700+ (£1,075) plus the cost of an occasional rug cleaning when guests over do it and get sick? Well, that’s your call.

[ Accelerator Spinning Chair ] VIA [ If It's Hip, It's Here ]

By Andrew Liszewski

As far as comfort goes, you just can’t beat falling into a bean bag chair and letting yourself completely veg out. But as far as not making your home look like a college dorm, pretty much anything looks classier than a sack of beans covered in Dorito stains. So kudos to whoever came up with these Tie-1-On sectional pieces. They may look like a couch (mostly) but they’re actually bean bag chairs in disguise.

Made with water-resistant polyester and filled with styrofoam ‘beans’ they’re available as both a chair and an ottoman that can be tied together using the straps in the corners. Kind of like Voltron if Voltron was a couch made of smaller pieces of furniture instead of robotic lions. …And now the downside. They’re only available in red which probably won’t match most motifs, and a chair/ottoman combo will set you back about $300. ($199 for the chair and $99.95 for the ottoman.)

[ Tie-1-On Modular Bean Bag Furniture ] VIA [ BLTD ]

By Andrew Liszewski

If you ever find yourself caught up in a Brewster’s Millions type situation where you have to spend a lot of money really quickly, I highly recommend the custom furniture offerings of Luzzo Bespoke. Specifically, their Bugatti Grand Prix racing car inspired desk that features intricate details that reflect the company’s design sensibility of the 20′s and 30′s. If you were hoping to find something that looked like the Veyron, you’ll want to move on.

The front of the drawers are covered with honeycomb pattern grills that are reminiscent of those featured on their early racers, and the hand-cranked height adjuster uses scaled-up versions of the drive gears used in their cars. It even appears to include an iMac that automatically raises and lowers as needed. All in all the desk represents some 3,000 hours of designing, machining and finishing, which is probably why it’s got a price tag of £150,000, or about $240,000+.

[ Luzzo Bespoke Bugatti Inspired Desk ] VIA [ Born Rich ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Don’t have the room for both a billiards table and a work desk/dinner table in your small home? Well if you can cough up $20,250+ (£12,497) that’s one less home furnishing decision you have to make. The oddly named Very(Tables), from French company Chevillotte, is another one of those converting billiard tables that hides it’s true nature when guests are over for a meal. Instead of just slapping a 3/4-inch piece of plywood and a tablecloth on top of your standard pool table like most civilized folk do, the Very(Tables) features a cranking mechanism that raises the table’s playing surface until it’s flush with the table’s edge.

Underneath the table is a web of metal wires that serve to catch and collect the pool balls as they’re sunk, as well as removable ‘plates’ that sit atop the playing surface when it’s raised so you don’t damage or stain the felt. I guess the fact that the table’s clever engineering means that it’s just 4 inches thick might be worth the price tag, but I haven’t got my chequebook out just yet. Of course if you’re already dropping that much money on a pool table, I doubt you’ll want to spend your time manually cranking it up and down. So you’ll probably want to go for the motorized option, which adds an additional $4,500+ (£2,797) to the bottom line.

[ Chevillotte's Very(Tables) ] VIA [ 7Gadgets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

It turns out that scrolling down a web page doesn’t provide as much of a physical workout as I had once hoped. So my dreams of getting in shape while doing nothing but surfing the web now solely rely on this fitness-friendly office chair known as the GymyGym. Besides providing a comfortable place to sit through the use of a “flat-bungee seating system” which promotes proper posture throughout the day, the GymyGym also incorporates 4 different ‘exercise stations’ for lack of a better description.

Underneath the seat are a few extra lengths of the aforementioned bungee cord attached to handles and velcro straps that allow you to do a series of strengthening exercises for your legs, arms and other muscle groups. The different routines are performed while standing or sitting, depending on what part of your body you’re working out, so you may not necessarily be able to get a full body workout while browsing your favorite website. But thanks to a couple of tension control systems also located beneath the chair, you can crank things up to 11 and really feel the burn when you do manage to sneak in a couple of reps. At $599 the chair is a bit pricey, putting it in competition with more lust-worthy models from Herman Miller, but the fact that it’s made from 95% recycled materials should appeal to eco-minded fitness enthusiasts.

[ GymyGym Workout Chair ] VIA [ Coolest Gadgets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

To me a coffee table is far more than just a decorative piece of furniture. It’s also a footrest, a work space, a dinner table, an occasional home for my transient family of remotes and every once in a while when people visit, even a place to put a cup of coffee. And that’s probably why this Elos table from Brazil-based ‘Nódesign’ caught my attention.

Made from wood it’s built to be as flexible as the chain on a bike, allowing it to be rolled up forming a larger table, or stretched out so it can be used by many people at the same time. Given the single leg below each pivot point I doubt it can be stretched out all the way without it falling over, but a simple zig-zag layout should keep it pretty steady. I suspect it might be available for sale, but from where or for how much I’ve no idea.

[ Designspotter - Elos Table ] VIA [ I New Idea ]