Cool Thing We Want #338: Faux-Rock “Livingstone” Wool Floor Pillows By Smarin

If you’re a design wonk, it’s likely that you saw these faux-rock woolen pillows when they made the internet rounds a couple of years ago. Well, they’ve popped up again on several awesome-hunting sites this week, and chances are that your ardour for them has not yet cooled. If you’ve ever seen/felt them in the wild, you know they’re every bit as darn desirable as they look.

Virgin wool “Livingstone” floor pillows | prices/sizes vary | 8 week delivery | BUY

EVERY COOL THING WE WANT

AWESOME THING WE DRANK #670: Late Afternoon Latte At 49th Parallel On West 4th

Tough call as to what’s better, the latte or the cool mug with new branding | 49th Parallel (2152 W 4th Ave)

Cool Thing We Want #332: Horizontal Six Jet Dream Shower Set Up From Meiré Und Meire

We’d be pretty keen to lose a week in one of these showers by Berlin design house Meiré un Meiré.

EVERY COOL THING WE WANT

Cool Thing We Want #286: Kuzuya Morita’s “Shelf Pod” For Design-Loving Bibliomaniacs

Just…wow. We’re pretty happy with the library set-up that we have now, but we’d happily trade for Osaka’s “Shelf Pod” designed by Japan’s Kuzuya Morita Architecture Studio. More shots that’ll make the book-lover in you quake after the jump… Read more

What Your Desk Says About You And Why You’ll Always Have It

I like that we can post to Scout using our phones; write articles for papers and magazines anywhere using Google Docs; and generally live a nomadic work life. But the bulk of the efforts that go into this website is sprung from pieces of furniture that are infused with deeper, more personal meaning than any other objects that we own. Our desks. Why? Because the traditional desk is still where most of us sit and think, create and communicate. A computer may sit upon it now, but it’s just another tool joining the stapler and pen jar. The desk remains our base of operations, and we dress their flat tops – with books, art and the things we hold most privately dear – to satisfy our need to reflect as human beings without losing our ability to concentrate on daily demands (both digital and analog). The “desktop” – as imagined by IBM and Apple – might often appear poised to make moot the seemingly archaic idea of “the old desk in Father’s study”, yet it’s still here; solid and purposefully weighted with personal history; the cockpit from which we navigate daily life. Thank goodness for that.

Cool Thing We Want #242: A Full Moon Every Night Of The Week

Absolutely loving these moon lamps from in-es.artdesign.

Smoke Break #711: The Coffee Table That Eats Your Junk Mail

Via Pigeontail Design: “The Papervore is hungry for all of your printed leftovers. With a turn of the crank you too can put that gas bill off until next month”.

The Puzzleboard Carry Tray Set From Dutch Design Firm “OOOMS”

I’d be stoked to come across one of these in the a restaurant.

The Puzzleboard by OOOMS can be used in more ways than one: each board can be used on its own as a cutting board or serving plate, or put some boards together and you have super-sized your workspace. It’s ideal for cutting those long baguettes! But the best thing is that any wineglass can be fitted into the blank spot of a board. Using the boards at parties allows guests to enjoy both wine & delicacies, while still having one hand free to greet other friends.

You mean “one hand free pile it high”. Even at $20 euros per board, yes please.

Bibliophile Porn: A Book Lover’s Tool For Getting Off On Stacks

I’ve been thinking a lot about the end of Duthie’s Books on 4th Ave. and the bookstore business in general. Opening a bookstore is something my wife and I have bounced around since the first week we met. Owning a good one, I think, would be up there with teaching in the pantheon of really awesome things to do with your life. Unfortunately (or rather, fortunately) I really like what I’m doing right now.

Thankfully, there’s bibliophile porn… Read more

Taiwan’s Convention Center Has A Solar Skin…What Can Ours Do?

One of the benefits of the greening of architecture is the global competition it inspires between cities. Take a good, hard look at what Taiwan’s upcoming Taichung Convention Center will look like. Sure, our own new convention center can boast its own living roof, but does it have a solar-powered skin that naturally ventilates the structure, thereby reducing overall energy consumption while also providing natural light unlike any building heretofore? I think not… Read more

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