Tag Archives: marble

FreePower turns your beautiful stone countertop into a wireless charger

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Wireless charging is finally becoming more common but despite the freedom from tangling cables that the technology offers, wireless chargers still have a few inconveniences, especially when it comes to aesthetics. Only a few of these products can be considered pleasing to look at, especially when mixed with the rest of your room decor. And they still have at least one cable snaking out of their bodies, which might be difficult to hide depending on where you place the chargers. In an ideal future, almost any flat surface can become a wireless charger, immediately juicing up your phone or device the moment you put it down, anywhere you put it down. Part of that future seems to already be here, with a creative wireless technology that can hide that wireless charging space inside stone countertops, seamlessly blending with your choice of interior design.

Designer: FreePower

Wireless chargers remove the messy cables from the charging equation, but the current state of technology requires you to still make physical contact between the device and the surface of the charger. Add to that the hard requirements on materials for the surfaces of wireless chargers and you will find yourself with a few of these products scattered around your house, often sticking out like a sore thumb. Some designs are admittedly more elegant and stylish, but they still add to the visual baggage on what would be an otherwise pristine table or countertop.

FreePower is a technology that tries to offer the best of both worlds, combining the liberating convenience of wireless charging with a clean and unblemished tabletop surface. In a nutshell, it embeds the wireless charger inside the countertop, and not just any countertop, mind you. It is compatible with different stone materials, including quartz, granite, or even marble, materials you’d never think could be used for wireless chargers. Thanks to this innovative design, you don’t need to actually put a charging mat or stand on your kitchen countertop, side table, or bedside table, because the countertop itself is the wireless charger.

Of course, only a portion of the countertop actually functions as the wireless charging zone, but you don’t have to worry about ugly and conspicuous markings that ruin the aesthetic of your beautiful stone top. A customizable LED halo glows around the area where you can place your devices, and you can even turn this light off when it’s not in use. FreePower does even better than most wireless chargers because you can place your phone or earbuds anywhere within that zone, no need to perfectly align with markers.

FreePower is the latest in a growing number of designs that aim to integrate wireless charging technology into every surface inside your home, completely freeing you from unsightly cables. Of course, such a design is also less flexible in that you have very little choice when you want to change furniture or designs. You’ll have to hope there’s also an invisible wireless charger version available for that or else you’ll have to go back to old-school wireless charging mats.

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This glass and marble lamp creates an air of mystery and harmony with contrasting materials

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Think of a lamp and you will probably immediately imagine a bulb on a metal pole, a circular base, and a conical lampshade. More modern designs often involve simpler geometric shapes like bars with rotating arms. Of course, there’s a wide world of lamp designs that cater to an equally wide range of needs and tastes. Some even tell stories with their forms, materials, and production. This beautiful lamp, for example, exudes an ethereal character as well as a sense of timelessness, two different properties brought together in graceful harmony thanks to the interplay of contrasting elements made in very different ways.

Designer: Omar Godínez for Peca Estudio

Some materials carry a distinctive character simply by their very nature. Rock is hard and unmoving, wood is warm and tactile, and paper is light and flexible. Some materials even stand diametrically opposed to each other, but just like many things in nature, sometimes complement each other so perfectly that it almost feels like they were made for each other from the start.

The Talla Lamp is a gorgeous design born of that duality, combining the ethereal fragility of glass with the timeless memory of marble. One feels like it would break at the slightest force, while the other would break other things instead. And yet the spherical glass sits calmly and gracefully on top of the marble prism, fitting snugly in each other’s embrace. The small bulb inside creates an otherworldly light that shines through the tinted glass and casts eerie shadows on the marble stand, illuminating and mesmerizing at the same time.

The glass half of the lamp has its own story to tell. It is made using free-blown techniques that make each piece truly unique. That complements the marble base, made using more mechanical methods, whose patterns also differ from block to block. As such, each Talla lamp carries its own character and story, a subtle nod to the personal stories we ourselves make every day in our life’s journey.

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This modular marble picture frame brings utility and brutalist charm to your desk

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It’s a common practice to put pictures of loved ones, including furry friends, on our desks as a source of inspiration or motivation, especially when our spirits are low. Despite this ordinary occurrence, most people don’t really pay much attention to what they attach their photos to. As long as they don’t look ugly or don’t clash with the rest of your desk’s motif, people will settle for any old picture frame they can grab. Of course, the photo inside is the most important thing, but just like any other product, the things that surround it can add more value, especially if the frame can serve multiple functions at the same time. This modular picture frame concept offers that kind of value, but it also tries to enhance the design’s appeal by using a material that embodies long-lasting memories.

Designer: Burcu Nehir Tum

Marble is one of the most distinctive types of rock-like materials that we use for creating products. It is durable and long-lasting but, more importantly, is beautiful and unique thanks to the patterns that never ever repeat, at least not naturally. It leaves a lasting impression, which is a fitting metaphor for memorializing someone, something, or some memory in a photo. It’s an admittedly heavier material, but that also lends some stability to the frame.

The MEMORABLE picture frame is more than just a pretty face, though. It uses a rudimentary rail system to slide different modules on both sides of the frame to expand its utility beyond just displaying a photo. There’s a module for a short cylinder for a pen holder, a longer cylinder that can be used as a small vase, and a square spiral wire for holding small notes. The latter might be useful for sticking notes or messages from the very same loved ones shown on the photo beside it.

Given the frame only has two vertical sides, you will have to pick two of the three modules to use at a time. The advantage is that you’re not locked down to these choices and you can change things around as needed. In fact, that sliding rail system also allows two or more MEMORABLE frames to be joined together, allowing you to have as many photos as your desk can accommodate. This expands the function of the frame significantly from a simple display to an organization tool.

Although marble is a refined material, its appearance gives the photo frame a certain raw appearance that is quite appealing to the eyes and especially to the touch. It’s also a more sustainable material that can become raw material for other products after the end of its life. If there’s one drawback to the MEMORABLE’s design is that it’s rail system is fixed to only work with certain modules, such as the pen holder and vase on the left and the note holder or another frame on the right. It’s also not clear where the rails also work when the frame is set to a wide or landscape orientation, which is how some photos are taken when groups of people or scenic views are involved.

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This beautiful table lamp of marble and glass is a piece of art you can place anywhere

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Lamps inject life into our homes and our lives through their light, but that isn’t the only way they can enhance a space’s ambiance. Unless they’re embedded into ceilings and walls, the forms that lamps take can add to a room’s appeal or even become the main attraction. This is especially true for lamps that are always within view like lamp stands and table lamps, and their designs can easily make or break a room’s design. Lamps come in all shapes, sizes, and materials, but a large number use metals or plastic-plastics for both durability and style. This table lamp, however, bucks that trend and uses heftier and more solid materials to create a distinctive form that is quite portable despite its heavy construction.

Designer: Terrence Woodgate x Case Furniture

A lamp that uses heavy, solid materials is almost like an irony. Like the adjective that bears its name, light is often associated with concepts like weightlessness, formlessness, and bright colors. Opaque glass and stone might be the last things you’d link to light, but those are exactly the types of materials that the Solid Table Light employs, and it’s that very same juxtaposition that adds to the character and beauty of this striking lamp.

The lamp’s base is made of marble, either Serpentine, Nero Marquina, or Carrara. The stone’s unique visual properties make it a favorite for walls, floors, and pillars, but here it also creates a mesmerizing effect as light bounces off its polished surface. Additionally, no two pieces of marble are alike, guaranteeing that each of these lamps has their own unique appearance and personality.

Sitting on top of the marble base is a hand-blown opal glass shade that is acid-etched to diffuse the light. Its soft glow stands in contrast to the beautiful yet harsh marble below it, while also accentuating the heaviness of the entire product. Ironically, this lamp is almost asking to be moved and placed anywhere your mood dictates thanks to its lack of cables at least while it’s not charging.

Although the Solid Table Light isn’t exactly new, this latest iteration sneaks the word “Rechargeable” in between. It even uses a replaceable quick-fit battery so you won’t have to worry about where to plug it in or about the longevity of the lamp. While its 4kg weight might make you break a sweat, this wireless operation makes the Solid Rechargeable Table Light a bit more versatile and flexible in its location, allowing you to place it not only where you need some light but also where you need to add a bit of flair and style to your space.

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How marble waste is reused to become mesmerizing eclipse-inspired wall lamps

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When people hear the word “waste,” they most probably think of trash or rubbish that no longer has use, like leftover food, paper cups, and plastic bags. In reality, a lot of waste material also comes from production, whether it’s food, wooden furniture, textile, or even rock pieces. Marble, for example, is a much sought-after material for making luxurious-looking products, from furniture to decorations. Not all parts of a chunk of marble end up in the final product, though, and plenty is thrown away without much consideration of how they affect the environment in the long run. It might not be easy to work with unused marble waste, but this rather creative design reuses those pieces to turn them into parts of a wall lamp cluster that gives your space an unearthly glow.

Designer: Hadiye Ozdemir

Beautiful as it may be, marble isn’t exactly an easy material to work with, and its sustainability value is a bit all over the place. It’s a naturally occurring rock, yes, but extracting it and processing it requires a lot of energy and water. It isn’t an easily renewable resource either, but it is at least recyclable and reusable when ground and added to a concrete mixture or other hard materials. Reusing bits and pieces of polished marble as they are, however, is harder to pull off, and that’s exactly the feat that the Sole Lamp concept design accomplishes.

Pieces of thin marble, such as those used in tiles, are combined with resin in square or circular molds, depending on the shape of the discarded marble. This combination of marble and translucent resin serve has a cover layer for a circular LED lamp underneath, creating a visual effect that’s similar to a corona during a solar eclipse. On its own, this lamp design is already striking, it becomes even more impactful when combined with other pieces of the puzzle.

Horizontal and vertical wall fixing bars bridge the lamps together, either directly or with an intermediary piece in between. These can also be made from reused marble pieces, often in the shape of discs, that only have small or no parts broken off. Unlike the lamp parts, these are mixed with opaque resin and are used to create unlit segments that break apart would be a visually monotonous sequence of lights.

With an almost random series of lights and opaque discs arranged in a maze-like structure, the Sole Lamp provides not only illumination but also an artistic decoration for your wall. The light from the circular LEDs gets diffused not only through the resin but also on the wall itself, creating a softer glow that contrasts with the sharp light of the lamps. More importantly, the design concept also introduces a novel way to utilize marble waste and even potentially recoup economic losses from these beautiful but underutilized pieces.

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These five different kinds of tables were built from seven different kinds of marble

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I believe that the secret to a great home is an excellent selection of tables – whether coffee tables, side tables, or even console tables. Tables function as the centerpiece of any room, hence you need to pick ones that truly liven up your home, and set the tone for it. And, once the perfect set of tables has been set, you can start building the rest of the space around it – a comfy sofa, exquisite lighting, and elegant decorative pieces. They are all brought together by the right choice of tables. And, last month at the Milan Design Week 2023, I came across an exquisite collection of tables that are the right fit for your home – the FIVE x SEVEN collection.

Designer: BUDDE x SolidNature

Furniture design studio BUDDE teamed up with SolidNature, the leading global curator and purveyor of fine natural stone to create the FIVE x SEVEN Collection. The collection was unveiled at the Rossana Orlandi Galleria, and it features – two side tables, two small coffee tables, and a console composed of three high tables. The exclusive furniture collection was built using marble cut-offs, transformed into these stunning furniture pieces.

SolidNature has an ever-growing inventory of stone off-cuts that can not be used, and end up going to waste completely. To help tackle this issue, they approached BUDDE to use the leftovers to create innovative, functional, and contemporary furniture pieces. Although visually similar, each of the five tables of the FIVE x SEVEN collection was built using seven different types of marbles that were selected, curated, and sourced from all over the world – this is also the explanation behind the name. Pretty cool, no?

Clean, precise, and vibrant, the refined FIVE x SEVEN furniture collections beautifully represent the colors, textures, and characteristics of each of the seven marbles. Each matte table was built using fifteen slabs of marble, carved out on four sides, to create a mesmerizing yet simple shape, that accurately captures the inner natural beauty of the stone without any frills or tassels. The color palette of the tables is warm, neutral, and vibrant – all at the same time, creating furniture pieces with a unique and strong identity of their own.

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This heavenly lamp puts the otherworldly beauty of the moon on your wall

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Humanity has given birth to dozens of bright minds and creative designers, but few, if not none, will ever claim to have surpassed the grand and almost miraculous designs of nature and the universe. From the intricate and fragile snowflakes to the majesty of the mountains to the grandeur of heavenly bodies, there is an almost endless richness of beauty to inspire designers. Many have indeed tried to recreate the unparalleled beauty of natural objects and forms, some more successful than others. This wall lamp, for example, might not resemble the moon in accurate detail, but its adjustable light perfectly recreates the ethereal glow of the moon against the night sky right inside your house.

Designer: Simay Tokus

Unlike the sun, the moon’s light isn’t blinding even at its brightest. More importantly, however, its shape and light changes over time, going from full brightness to complete darkness and back again. For millennia, the moon has always been a symbol of mystery, magic, and enchantment. These are pretty much the same images that will come to your mind when you gaze upon the gentle light of this wall lamp.

Named after the Italian word for “full moon,” Luna Piena tries to recreate the changing light of the moon as it changes its phase in an elegant and non-literal way. For example, the wall lamp is a ring rather than a full circle, and only the upper half of the ring actually holds the light. The lower half is the control interface, using a ball on a rail system to indicate the intensity of the light. Move it to the right to dim the lamp, then move it in the opposite direction to brighten the light.

The choice of marble for the lower half of the Luna Piena is intriguing and a stroke of genius. The marbling is almost reminiscent of the imperfect yet beautiful surface of the moon. The effect of light on the marble’s surface creates an enchanting aura that brings the beauty of natural stone into focus. In a way, it’s a poetic reference to the juxtaposition of a heavenly body against an earthly material, combined in harmony to create a beautiful whole.

Luna Piena is quite a creative interpretation of the phases of the moon that doesn’t get hung up on faithfully recreating the waxing and waning shapes of our planet’s satellite. The effect is a lighting fixture that effectively conveys the bewitching beauty of moonlight while also enthroning the elegance of natural materials like stone. Whether it’s at its brightest or turned off, the wall lamp becomes a striking piece of wall decor that will elevate the ambiance in any room.

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Kreoo brings nature’s great art indoors as design objects you can sit on

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Zen gardens, whether actual gardens or miniature recreations, have become symbols of calm, relaxing spaces in today’s hectic world. It isn’t just the fine sand that conveys that imagery, and, in fact, the sand is more therapeutic and effective if you actively draw on them rather than just looking at their undulating patterns. A zen garden is almost like a microcosm symbolizing a miniature universe, at least the ideal one from monks’ minds. Every piece and part of that garden symbolizes nature’s true beauty, including the unhewn rocks and large smooth pebbles stacked on top of each other. It’s the latter’s beauty that Kreoo is bringing to homes, rooms, gardens, and poolsides to offer a piece of furniture that is both beautiful, calming, and thought-provoking, all at the same time.

Designer: Enzo Berti

There is something beautiful and also symbolic about smooth pebbles of different sizes stacked on each other. The pebbles themselves have been sculpted and polished by flowing river waters and blowing wind over the course of months and years, showcasing Mother Nature’s artistic talent. At the same time, the cairn, as it is sometimes called, is a man-made structure that is used to represent, among other things, higher aspirations as well as balance, attempting to find and create some semblance of balance in life.

Of course, these stacked pebbles are mostly only just for viewing, but Kreoo takes the concept and turns it into something you can both see and use every day. Its Pavé collection turns the concept of meditative stacked pebbles into furniture, especially ones that you can sit on. Rather than waiting for years for nature to take its course to create large, smooth pebbles, Kreoo employs modern techniques and materials to emulate Mother Nature as close as possible. And it’s not all just hard stone either, which would have made for an uncomfortable sitting and shipping experience.

Instead, the Pavé Stone seats use an oval marble base to deliver the sturdy foundations of this unique piece of furniture. It places a wooden seat on top, one that has been formed in the shape of a smooth pebble similar to its base. The lighter wood seat allows for rather visually unbalanced designs, with a top that’s twice as large as its base, something that would have been impossible using real rocks or marble. The design almost stands in defiance of nature while, at the same time, is a tribute to it.

At Salone del Mobile 2022, Kreoo introduced a new combination for its Pavé Stones. Normally just made of two pieces, a marble base and a wood seat, the furniture maker added another layer to increase the seat’s height and accommodate more people of varying heights and needs. There now exists an option to have two marble bases beneath the wooden seat, and the appearance of each piece can still be chosen as desired.

The Pavé collection also includes the Pavé Log bench, where a wooden board is made to overlap and overshoot two marble bases, and the Pavé Drink, a table that adds an element of metal in the stem that raises the round wooden top up high. These beautiful pieces of furniture are easily mistaken as design objects and can add a bit of Zen to any room, garden, or space while also offering something to sit on while you contemplate the meaning of life.

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“Hot Wheels for Minimalists” – This kinetic marble sculpture is an incredibly cool tabletop accessory

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Move over, Newton’s Cradle. MARBOLOUS is a quirky, hypnotic tabletop design object that demonstrates Newton’s finest discovery in grand fashion – gravity! MARBOLOUS, as its name would suggest, is a marble-based kinetic object that you can interact with, enclosed in a glass bell-jar for added dramatic effect. Within this bell jar lies a long and winding metal track for the marble to slide down through, and a tiny lever at the base of the toy lets you launch marbles onto this track, creating a mini marble-coaster of sorts. The track isn’t just a simple incline or sine wave – it takes unusual twists and turns, giving the MARBOLOUS a mesmerizing energy that’s fun to watch. All the marbles collect in a single file in a vertical chute at the center of the toy. Hit the lever at the bottom and it pushes the marbles upwards and outwards, launching them one by one onto their pretzel-shaped track (the makers are German, can you tell?).

Designers: Jan Friedmann & Sebastian Sauerbeck

Click Here to Buy Now: $157 $219 (25% off). Hurry, only 19/100 left! Raised over $240,000.

Designed to be an entirely analog device (there’s no battery, motor, or app here, just pure physics), MARBOLOUS is a fun engaging little mechanical gadget that invites you to interact and observe. Each MARBOLOUS ships with 25 glass marbles and 6 modular track elements in two styles known locally as Brezels and Anti-Brezel (Germany’s love for pretzels is truly unshakeable) that you can piece together. The entire marble-coaster of sorts rests on a base that has a lever built into it, and is covered by a glass enclosure so the marbles don’t accidentally fall out and get lost. In fact, aside from being analog, MARBOLOUS is made with minimal amounts of plastic too, using primarily metal, glass, and cork in its construction.

The stackable tracks come in two shapes which they call “Brezel” and “Anti-Brezel”.

What the MARBOLOUS really does is bring a tactile joy back to your workspace in the form of something that engages with your inner child, without using screens, apps, the internet, or anything remotely modern. It’s a contemporary toy with an appeal that transcends age in a way that’s truly remarkable. Whether you’re 6 or 60, there’s no way you’re NOT going to enjoy watching the marbles go scurrying down their metal railroads. The reinvention of your classic marble track, in fact, comes from the minds of Baffy and Jan, two adults who wanted to revive their favorite childhood toy, the marble run, for the modern age. In a story that only reinforces the toy’s underlying emotion of childlike happiness, Baffy and Jan left their well-paying cushy jobs in the middle of a pandemic and global uncertainty to design and develop the MARBOLOUS – because in these unprecedented times, we all could benefit from looking away from our screens and enjoying the childlike pleasures of watching marbles dance around in their choreographed routine!

A mechanical marble lifting system, integrated within the 360° metal track, dust-protected under a glass dome.

No electronics are necessary for MARBOLOUS.

The MARBOLOUS comes in a variety of colors, with black or white metal rails (no cheap plastic), and different tinted glass marbles to choose from. With a 16cm (6.3 inch) diameter, it’s perfectly sized to sit on any tabletop, be it a study table, a coffee table, or even a mantelpiece (just be cautioned because the dome is made of glass!) Given all that metal and glass, the MARBOLOUS weighs 1.6 kilograms (3.5 lbs), making it roughly as heavy as a MacBook, although chances are you won’t really be carrying it around anywhere! Just place it on a tabletop that’s easy to access, and whenever you need a spark of joy in your life, launch one of those marbles and watch it come cascading downwards as your heart floats upwards!

Click Here to Buy Now: $157 $219 (25% off). Hurry, only 19/100 left! Raised over $240,000.

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Marble meets stainless steel in this chessboard for a minimalist and artful take on the timeless chess game!

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Tarek Elkassouf’s chess set is comprised of a Carrara marble board and sixteen brushed stainless steel pieces capped with gunmetal reflective tops.

Some of the most artistic designs are born out of the timeless and elusive charm of chessboards. From chessboards inspired by ‘Queen’s Gambit’ to chess pieces that form architectural city maps, designers have the opportunity to get their most creative when creating new chess boards.

Speaking to that, designer Tarek Elkassouf explains, “They say that all artists are not chess players but all chess players are artists.” Citing the chessboard as “an altar of concentration,” Elkassouf hopes his chessboard will help players focus on the game, their strategy, and most importantly, the moment.

Giving the traditional wooden chessboard a modern, artistic upgrade, Elkassouf designed a stylistic chessboard that takes on notes of midcentury design and with a sleek futuristic edge. Stripping the chessboard down to its bare essentials, Elkassouf’s chessboard found refinement in minimalism and artful craftwork.

Finding beauty in the changeability of chess, Elkassouf hoped to create a chessboard that speaks for itself, with a sophisticated heavy-duty board carved from marble and sleek, minimalist chess pieces.

Mounted atop a polished Carrara marble board, the rectangular chess pieces are made from brushed stainless steel with gunmetal reflective tops. Sticking to his minimalist approach, Elkassouf etched small icons of each piece on the top of each rectangular piece for players to decipher between the sixteen pieces.

In designing his chessboard, Elkassouf embraced the accessibility and intersectionality of chess, going on to describe how the game “transcends language, age, race, religion, politics, gender, and socioeconomic background. Whatever your circumstances, anyone can enjoy a good fight over the chessboard.” And it’s true, the game of chess is for everyone so long as you know the rules.

Designer: Tarek Elkassouf

With a simplistic, velvet case, Elkassouf’s chessboard is minimalist by design and refined by effect.

The Carrara marble chess board comes with alternating diagonal etches that delineate all of the available squares.

Coming in an array of different-colored marble, each chessboard from Elkassouf’s collection is unique in its own design.

From the side, Elkassouf’s chessboard maintains clean, geometric lines and silhouettes. 

 

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