So you are the lucky one who gets breakfast in bed on a regular basis, or maybe you just like eating all your meals in bed. The CB2 Bed Tray makes such indulgences even easier. Stark white finish and Mahogany veneer, this small tray is just the thing to hold your daily meal, or even your lap top. Clean design, sturdy, and best of all, very affordable.
Available from CB2 for only $29.
On my anniversary earlier this year, I posted about a card that I had gotten from a local store called Artichokes and Company. Unfortunately at the time I didn't have a website for the designer of the card. Luckily today Leslie of Mingo Design, stumbled across my website, and gave me a link to her blog. It turns out that Leslie is a Salt Lake City based designer that is making beautiful cards, as well as some very cute little modern onesies. All her wholesale prices and minimum orders are listed on her page, and the prices are great. For all you local SLC folks, lets do our best to support a local artist.
Mingo Design
This very simple FM radio from Orange Skin doesn't come with a whole lot of descriptions, but I love it for its simplicity. The only info they do give is:
A rechargeable FM radio that can be plugged into any outlet. Material Plastic, Available in Aluminium, Blue
I love how simple it looks, and what the quality is like. The price $60.
Available from Orange Skin.
I know that a lot of you that visit this website fully embrace the whole DIY idea. Quite a while ago, we had a question in the forums where someone was looking for an affordable modern bookshelf. I wish I would have know about this one, because I think it would have fit the bill just perfect. The author first saw the shelves in Budapest, and has such recreated them elsewhere. The design is very simple, and flexible, and best of all, you could pull it off pretty cheap. I may have to do a small scale version just for fun. For full instructions check it out over at Instructables.
This comes via Instructables, a wonderful DIY website with instructions on everything from making ramen noodles to a loft bed.
Well, I finally wrapped up another small project. I have had our Caroma Walvit toilet hooked up and functional for about a week now, but I was waiting until I had the walnut section done to post about it. So far we are liking the toilet, although I am still not sure if it was worth the money. The whole dual flush thing does make me feel good about myself though. Who knows, another 50 years and it will pay itself of in the water we are saving.Today I finally had time to build the walnut column that the toilet hangs from. It is made out of the exact same material as our vanity I did a while ago, so it is a nice match. We are planning on doing white tiles on all the walls, so I think that the walnut will break things up nicely. Plus it lines up with the doorway exactly, so it makes for a pretty dramatic first view into the bathroom. Now that I've got that out of the way, I can start working on getting our ofuro tub installed.
As always, more pics after the jump.
Sure you've heard of Real Simple the magazine, but how about Real Simple Furniture? Turns out the two have nothing to do with each other. Real Simple furniture is a company that specializes in knock down furniture. That means that you can assemble it with no tools, and when the time come, you can just as easily un-assmeble it and transport it flat pack style. It's a great idea for college student and other who have to move a lot. The media stand shown above goes for $199 unpainted. Not a bad price.
Available at Real Simple Furniture
Click here for a animation of how it goes together.
Yesterday I shared some pics of a bed I made for my friend. Today I have some pics of some of his kitchen cabinetry I have been working on. It's not done by any means, but it gives you a bit of an idea what it will look like when it is all done. The cabinets are birch, with a water based poly urethane finish. Drawers are mounted on heavy duty, full extension, ball bearing slides, so they will last forever. Doors are attached with Salice Euro hinges. We are still looking for some good hardware. The cost in materials for these two 38" lower cabs came in around $250. Do the math and that is about $50 a linear foot. They are very over built too. I even used 3/4" ply for the backs instead of the normal 1/4". I think they turned out pretty decent for my first real kitchen cabinets.
More pics after the jump.
My architect friend is re-doing a small pad about a mile from my house. About a month ago, he was getting ready to move in, and was looking for a bed. Unsatisfied with what he was finding in the stores, he drew me a quick sketch and asked if I could build it. Since I never turn down an opportunity to try something new (especially when someone else is buying the materials) I was all over it. The design was really quite simple. Two plain boxes wrapped in birch with a cantilevered top. The edges on the top were left exposed to match the desk I did for him a while ago. All in all I think it turned out pretty good. The price for materials was right around $250 when it was all said and done. The mattress is a 9" memory foam. The duvet is by Dwell.
Lots more pics after the jump.
I have been trying to get our Caroma Walvit wall mounted toilet installed since my post last week two weeks ago. Progress has been slow. I finally managed to get the frame that it hangs on secured, and the wall that will be slightly popped out to accommodate the tank framed in. Today I've got the whole day to work on it, so hopefully I will be able to get it all done. I just have to run some copper tube over to it for water supply and hook it into the sewer. After that comes the fun stuff. I am trimming out the wall behind it in walnut to match the vanity. Hopefully tomorrow I will have some good pics of it all done.
Urban Outfitters has always had great style and an affordable price. This simple, yet classy Butterfly Leg Table is a great example of why I wish I lived a little closer to one of their stores. Available in either orange or expresso, and accented by a stainless steel trim around the rim, this table sits gracefully atop a set of chrome butterfly crossover legs. Simple, sturdy, affordable.
We have featured Blomus products here at GRM before. Thats because they do a good job at making clean affordable modern accessories. I have perused through their website a couple times before, and for some reason I don't recall ever having seen this great modern bird feeder. Made of stainless steel, like most of the Blomus line, this simple ground stake bird feeder would look good in any modernists back yard. I'm sure the birds would appreciate the good design too.
Available from Shop.com for $31.
Just a couple of days ago, I posted about some grilling tools that were on sale over at the MoMA Store. I also asked if anyone knew of any affordable modern grills. Thanks to you guys, we had a lot of great comments. Some of the modern grills mentioned were:
One idea that came up in the discussion was to just make my own grill similar to the clean lines of the Fuego. I looked around for a while to see where I could get some parts, and was a little discouraged. Then yesterday while I was at Lowes, I found the BBQ Grillware Stainless Steel Table Top Grill. Thats a whole lot of words for a simple little grill. It's small, only 22 square inches, but is clean looking, and it will make a nice grill section for a custom base. Best of all, it was only $97, so I can actually afford it now, and enjoy some good grilled Salmon until I get around to making a base for it.
Thanks everyone for the suggestions.
BBQ Grillware Stainless Steel Table Top Grill available at Lowes for $97.
Kerf Design, makers of high end custom cabinetry and furniture, relaunched their website a couple of months ago. I have been meaning to let everyone know, but forgot until today. Kerf is one of my favorite cabinetry and furniture designers/builders. They have a style that reminds me a lot of Blu-Dot. They manage to pull bright colors into classic mid-century design in a way that makes you smile inside. Unfortunately the prices are not really affordable. Cabinetry starts at $500-$700 a linear foot. So, even though none of us can probably afford it, make sure you head on over to their website and drool a little.
Kerf Design.
Love the look of the ugly dolls, but think they are just a little too ugly? Then like me, you will love these Woollyhoodwink Dolls. Designed by Jeff Root, this collection of incredibly cute plush woodland creatures are some of the coolest little dolls I have seen in a long time. Jeff does a great job of bringing a fresh new angle to the whole funky doll look. Each doll has his own name (Ozard is shown to the left) and comes packaged in their own little tree (pics after the jump).
Available from Elsewares for $29.
As the summer heat presses on, many people turn to the outdoors for cooking their food. While I still haven't found a great affordable modern grill, the MoMA Store currently has some nice stainless steel grilling tools for a decent price. Made in Denmark and designed by Claus Jensen and Henrik Holbaek, these stylish and functional pieces are just the thing to cook up some fresh fish or a burger over the coals.
Available from the MoMA Store for $29-$34.
If anyone knows of a great affordable modern grill, please share!
The whole modern pet craze has really taken off in the last year, and we are starting to see some really well thought out design coming to pet supplies. The Metro Bowl is no exception to the rule. Equal thought has gone into both form and function when designing this designer dog dish. Made of surgical grade stainless steel on the inside and creamy smooth acrylic on the outside, it is available in three clean colors. Best of all, the large dish (shown) doesn't come with a large price tag.
Available from Barker & Meowsky for $22.
I just wanted to give a quick Friday shout-out to a local guy I met at a friends party the other night. Gabe Holland is an aspiring Industrial Designer, who just finished up his second year of ID school at BYU. Shown to the left is one of his projects, the Couch Cubed, which is a couch with easily configurable cushions. His website is currently under construction, but make sure you check out his Fickr set, he's got some good ideas.
What ever happened to the bread box? It used to be such an american staple you couldn't even play 20 questions without talking about it ("Is it bigger than a bread box?"). Now I think I can honestly say, I don't know a single person who owns one. If you are one of those rebels trying to always bring back the past, why not do it with some style. The Metro Bread Bin from Typhoon comes in White (shown), Black, or Red, with a brushed stainless steel front and top. It even features a dual compartment so your bread doesn't have to co-mingle with you bagel. Size 14" x 10" x 8".
I never would have thought that I could spend hours looking for toilets. I also never thought that I would spend more than $200 on a toilet either. Looks like I was wrong on both accounts. Since our bathroom vanity does not go straight to the ground, I didn't want a toilet that did either. The thought of having a floor space that is totally open is very appealing to me both in cleaning and aesthetics. Unfortunately wall hung toilets are nothing close to affordable. I finally decided on the Coroma Walvit, for two main reasons. First the specs said it could be mounted inside a 2x4 wall, which was huge for me, and second it has a dual flush, so it saves on a lot of water. Price tag was a very painful $800 after all the little parts I needed. Ouch. The worst of it is that now that I am going to install it, I find the hardware to do it in a 2x4 wall isn't available in the US, so I will have to add a little detail to accommodate an extra 2".
The affordable runner up, which I maybe should have gotten was the Kohler Rialto, which can be had for closer to $250
Ofuro Copy
I think I previously talked about our plans on putting an ofuro, or Japanese soaking tub in our bathroom. For those of you who don't know about ofuro's, let me break it down for you real quick. The traditional Japanese bathing experience differs from the American bathing experience in two basic ways. First, an american bath tub is long and shallow, whereas a Japanese tub, in order to economize square footage is short and deep. The other big difference is that traditionally in Japan, you would sit on a stool outside the tub and use a low spigot to fill a bucket and use it to scrub off before getting into the bath. That way the water stays clean and the whole family can share it throughout the day.
Long story short. We wanted one. A real ofuro is usually made of hinoki, which is a high grade cedar. Unfortunately this is not only high maintenance but also high dollar. We considered just tiling it in, more like a roman bath, but I was worried about leaking. Ultimately we decided to do it out of stainless. My father in-law knows how to weld, and was kind enough to take on the project. The picture above is the design I sent him. It was lots of fun getting to do some industrial design since I wanted to go into that field in the past. I'll go into some of the design features when I show the finished tub later. If you are looking to do some reading, "The Japanese Bath", is a great book, as well as the more light hearted "How to take a Japanese bath".
