Gear Patrol

From time to time we like to check in on what’s going on across the pond. The Queendom, if you will, never disappoints us with its take on art and design — a skew that can seem a bit wonky to our Yankee eyes. The Fire Extinguishing Device (~$123) from Tusch und Egon (sounds German,…

Designer foosball tables are nothing new here at GP, but the CB2 Phoos Table ($599) is the most affordable example of Chucky E. Cheese chic that we’ve come across yet. The modern gaming table is made from low-emission engineered wood and sports floor-saving metal feet, preventing even the most heated of games from ruining your…

Designed and crafted by ze Germans using aluminum and steel, the Retro Bureau by Wharfside ($4,500+) is a small office solution for OCD neat freaks and hue-happy hipsters alike. Inspired by the colorful and innovative designs of the last century, Retro’s made-to-order creation has the look and feel of a Cupertino-commissioned clamshell and comes in…

Looking like wall art that’s collided with a Cheesecake Factory entrée-sized salad, the GroVert Chalkboard Wall Planter ($130) is an apartment-bound green thumb’s dream. Mounted vertically on any wall (avoid the bathroom), the three-in-one planter provides a fresh herb garden without the plot O’land. Gardeners tend to be a fastidious lot, so the GroVert includes…

Stellavie is an art and design firm based in Hamburg, Germany. Specialising in prints, engravings, greeting cards and paper based lampshades, Steffen Heidemann and Viktoria Klein’s work is clean, precise and limited in supply. Their latest offering, Map 1: The Northern Sky ($78), is an amazingly detailed silkscreen of the stars and constellations that most…

You may be confined to your desk for most of the day, plugging away at eye-burning Powerpoint charts and brain-melting spreadsheets, but your imagination is still free to roam when everything else shuts down. All the happy thoughts in the world won’t send your boss into orbit, but Papafoxtrot can distract you from the paper…

Ah, the messy desk. It’s the stuff OCD nightmares are made of, single-handily ruining even the best interior designer’s work with one stray pen. You can continue to kid yourself about getting more organized, or simply swap in the Torino Desk Table ($500) by CB2 and hide your disheveled ways with ease. The lacquered white…

What are great authors for if not poignant, timeless prose? For example: “I have great faith in fools. Self-confidence, my friends call it” (Twain). “We are all lying in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars” (Wilde). “Why did I walk into this room again?” (self). Obvious State Literary Quote Illustrations…

As men, we naturally like to be prepared for anything. So when the backyard barbeque you’ve been planning all summer is sabotaged by Mother Nature’s sudden decision to turn on the waterworks, you wouldn’t dream of cancelling, or worse, ordering take out. The Cast-Iron Grill from Waring Pro ($150) is a twenty-one pound, 212-square inch…

There are marque moments in every man’s life. Somewhere between did-you-wake-up-on-the-floor-again and congratulations-you’re-a-father is moving into your own grownup place. You’ve gotten real seating, a nice bed and finally replaced your Taco Bell cup collection with actual glassware — so what are you still doing with that torch lamp from your undergrad dorm? Step up…

If you’re the kind of guy who enjoys antique automobiles and vintage style, but not interior design, Griot’s Garage Vintage Racing Signs are a perfect (and easy) decor choice. Reproduction prints of 20th century race posters, the signs are printed and powdercoated on 24-gauge steel with rolled edges and holes with grommets for quick hanging….

Improving on Edison’s original incandescent light bulb design has been a mixed bag — the soft-serve CFLs save energy but cast a bluish cadaver pallor and require a HazMat response to clean up mercury released if they break. A different, albeit expensive, approach to energy efficiency comes in the Switch LED light bulb. Continues after…

We like our women coffee strong and sweet but regardless of your preferences, the Compendium of Coffee has the range covered. An exploration of the various grinds (extra-coarse to extra-fine), production methods (steeping, pour-over or drip, vacuum, or pressure) and outputs (coffee; regular or concentrated; espresso; ristretto, normal or lungo), adulterants (sugar, melted chocolate, sweetened…

Ask anyone at the office who’s knowingly or unknowingly killed a houseplant, and you’ll probably learn of enough biennial-victims to fill a Home Depot greenhouse. In fact, one of the staffers (who shall not be named) actually thought coffee would be good for his Spider plant. Wrong. Not for green thumbs who actually give a…

There’s nothing quite like the sound of a record whisking as it spins, but while we need not wax poetic about the nostalgia of needle to vinyl, the other part of what makes records so satisfying is, well, the actual record. More importantly, the sacred process of stashing them away into storage like the Symbol…

You have the car, the driving shoes, the gloves. Now, complete the look by bringing the twisty lines of Linear Edge Race Track Sculptures to your walls. Featuring Formula 1, MotoGp, and World Superbike race courses crafted in Baltic Birch laminate, the designer addresses the passion of over 500 million fans worldwide with art that…

Vintage is everywhere, but in the world of furniture, it’s not easy to find great modern design that both echoes the past and makes use of truly classic materials. Designer Stephen Kenn scoured an old Los Angeles warehouse of military surplus gear and commandeered WWII fabrics and materials for his Inheritance Collection Furniture Line. The…

Outside of your bed, couch and maybe the john, too, there’s a good chance that most of your time at home is spent at a desk. The trouble is, it’s extremely difficult to find a dependable and good-looking work station at a reasonable price. Those items sold at big box retailers that eventually become a…

More charming than that cinder-block-and-board setup and stronger to boot, Salamander Designs Chameleon Collection ($800+) entertainment cabinets add functional class to your high end audio/video components. With 9 styles and 19 different configurations (single cabinet through quad), the furniture fits into any bachelor pad but will pass every style test your missus can think up….

Coat hooks and racks are a necessary evil in an accessory-laden home, — but they needn’t ruin your decor. Knax (~$100+) retractable hook rails from Danish design company LoCa provide plenty of stylish wall storage when you need it that then folds away flush with the surface of the rack when you don’t. Available in…

Sure, an overstuffed leather chair that goes horizontal with the flick of a lever is a comfortable way to tuck in for the afternoon, but why ruin a room with a Rent-a-Center relegation when you can have your modern and lie in it too? Responding to the challenge of designing a recliner that’s comfortable, ergonomic…

Looking for a unique piece of sports memorabilia for your office or mancave? You could plunk down some serious paper for a rare, yet dubious collectable or you could go with something guaranteed to raise some eyebrows. Papafoxtrot, maker of those model cargo ships we love, have now partnered with design firm PostlerFerguson to create…

If light bulbs excite you about as much as lightly toasted bread, then allow the Insteon LED Bulb to rock your dimly lit world. Not only does it provide the brightness of a 60-100W incandescent bulb on a mere 8W, you can control the bulb remotely using a keypad, motion sensors, remote control and… wait…

It’s true, many buzzwords haphazardly find their way into the most obscure and smallest of niche online audio forums. Audiophile, for example, can find its way into said forums with participants bombastically laying claim to such designation. If we’re being honest, from time to time, we too have fancied ourselves as such. Today, Klutz Design…

So you may not ever make it to the Tour de France. It’s one of the few athletic events that has spanned over a century, and it is truly a spectacle (on many fronts). You don’t have to be a fan of cycling to appreciate the brutal race, which is evident in its sheer distance,…

Neither the bane of a teenage boy’s frustrated existence nor Morningwood’s follow-up to their eponymous 2006 album, Perennial Wood is a bona fide building material. Technically it’s a non-toxic acetylation process called TruLast Technology proprietary to Eastman Chemical Company, but we’re not arguing semantics. Here’s what the process does: by changing wood at the molecular…

If you’ve ever wanted to know what it feels like to sleep one off in the streets of London but can’t leave your Hoboken homestead, you can trust an architect from the other side of Manhattan to have you covered — literally. City Quilts ($219+) are ever-so-soft road maps blankets from Brooklyn based Haptic Labs….

You shouldn’t need a life coach to know that leaving your personal items in the same spot every time is a terrific way to keep track of them. The question is, which spot do you choose? The Butler ($170) by Curtis Micklish makes that decision a no-brainer. Made of solid walnut and baltic birch laminated…

Models are more than toys: they inspire, allowing us to physically admire amazing creations through the work of our own hands. They also make for great office and home eye candy. So it is with Papafoxtrot’s Wood Model Cargo Ships ($156-$175). These miniatures measure around 14″ x 4″ x 2″, depending on the model, and…

Looking to add a little typographic pomp to your minimal home slash urban design gallery you call home? Lucky for you, there’s some Helvetica-based goodness. The cleverly named Fontable ($210) is a new concept in modular furniture composed of letters from A to Z in both upper and lower case, numbers, and even a skull….