If you are one to enjoy unusual -also meaning original- pieces of furniture, here’s the latest: the Armor Sideboard comes form  David Keune, a talented designer from The Netherlands. You can now forget about having your favorite things randomly spread around the house. This container is perfect for magazines, CD’s, perfumes. There is no limit to the nature of the items you place in it, but just their size. When you want to reach something, just bring out the sliding structures, one by one and what you stored inside will be revealed. Here is where you can get in contact with David for more information. -via

Designed by Staffan Tollgard Design Group, Notting Hill House was a traditional terraced house in Notting Hill that right now is a contemporary living space. The well-balanced use of natural and man-made materials creates a tactile journey through the ground floors harder ‘public’ areas up to the higher private floors where the couple that owns the house can escape a busy city lifestyle. Here are a few more words about this project from Staffan Tollgard Design Group.

Our clients asked us to create a seamless, contemporary living space for an elegant lifestyle. They asked for a bold design statement that would immediately welcome their guests.  We achieved this by pushing the ground floor open to its practical limits – the only door other than the entrance is the one to the cloakroom.  They wanted to multitask in this open, ‘public’, space without compromising their entertaining duties.  Thus the kitchen has become an integrated element of the living space; the island, with its bar area, provides a gathering point for both the guests and the host who can continue cooking without leaving the party.  The garden effortlessly becomes part of this borderless ground-floor space through our addition of three-metre wide folding sliding doors.  Materials link the outside with the inside: the stone-clad wall behind the dining table speaks to the more public nature of this entertaining space as well as to the garden beyond.

The streamlined sleek elegance of the ground floor continues to underpin the design of the more private upper floors and the transitional space of the staircase that leads to them.  The lounge and study area on the first floor are less minimalist, softer spaces but remain architecturally connected to the more contemporary and ‘public’ ground floor.  The combination of the original architectural elements (cornices and high skirting boards), with the more contemporary finishes of the furniture represents a logical evolution of the statement the clients wished to make. The subtle colour palette is another layer in the creation of a calm and relaxing area for catching up with work or with after party guests.

I have to say that this idea is very useful, and I would like to see it applied more. The Murakami Chair’s has an attached lamp that is powered by your rocking back and forth. Why waste valuable kinetic energy created while leisurely rocking when you could power an OLED lamp while doing so? The OLED lamp even senses when it’s light or dark out, and if it’s light, stores the energy produced by rocking in a battery pack until nightfall. The chair, designed by Rochus Jacob, rightfully shared first prize at the DesignBoom Green Life Competition. – Via – Gizmodo

Solar panels are no longer a thing of the future, but are slowly starting to be accepted and used by the population worldwide. People begun to understand their utility and despite their high prices, the need for alternative energy sources that in time will prove worthy of the initial investment. This project is called Solé Power Tile, it is actually a reinvention of the solar panels as we know them and comes with an upgrade: great and modern look. There is also a high functional feature that comes with the system which is that if a tile is broken, the others will continue to work independently. -via CoolThings