Category: Design and Interiors

Remember the flying birds on the wall of Hilda Ogden’s house in Coronation Street? We featured an updated version a few months back, courtesy of Andrew Tanner. And now there’s a practical version –  these Jethro Macey Flying Duck coat hooks.

Very much in the same style as the vintage classics, these birds are available in powder-coated stainless steel and in a choice of colours – pink, blue, green, yellow and white. But best of all, these have a use other than decoration – as coat hooks.

Sold as a set of three, you can pick up a set for £55.

Find out more at the Rockett St George website

Sometimes descriptions are pretty pointless – and that seems to be the point with this Veer Umbrella lamp.

Yes, it’s a lamp shaped like your everyday umbrella. Standing around 24 inches high (so more of a desk and bedside lamp), it is fully adjustable in both size and in the amount of light it gives off.

There’s also two colours to choose from – white and ice blue. Sold with the 60w bulb, you can pick one up online for $130 (around £65).

Find out more at the Veer website

Via Notcot

Struggling to find the right design for your domestic seating? You can now create your own online, then add it to a Danish designer chair.

Yes, using a web tool (which requires a small Windows download), you can create a 3D design using your own design, photograph or pattern. And once you’re happy with it, you can have the seat (or seats) made, courtesy of Finnish furniture manufacturer Piiroinen.

The chair itself is the Flakes chair, the work of Danish architects Schmidt Hammer Lassen – the firm also behind the idea of customising the chair. Obviously a combination of custom design and designer seating isn’t going to be cheap, but considering you are getting something unique to you, the price of around £462 for a single chair (falling to around £367 each if you buy four), isn’t completely out of reach.

Design our own chair at the Flakes Piiroinen website

Trained as a painter, Mariano Fortuny was also an accomplished architect, inventor, set designer and lighting technician. This combination of skills and interests led to the design of his famous Fortuny Lamp.

Dating back to 1907, the Fortuny Lamp reflects modernist interests in industrial materials and functional style, but its dramatic appearance clearly reflects his fascination with the theatrical world. It is without a doubt a lamp for larger spaces – it would look particularly good in a modern open-plan living area. It is also an expensive piece of design, retailing for over £2,000.

It is available now from Nest in a number of different finishes.

Imitation is said to be the sincerest form of flattery. So Ligne Roset should be very flattered by the new Nimbo seating from DFS.

That’s because it’s a very close copy of the company’s classic Togo design by Michel Ducaroy. Ligne Roset introduced Togo in 1973 – the first all-foam sofa – and it’s still a best seller, as well as a contemporary item, thanks to the ever-changing range of covering materials.

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