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When you’ve moved on from flat-pack furniture, and are
looking for something a little bit different for your home, the world is your
oyster. Designers have come up with new, and in some cases, frankly bizarre,
ways of solving our furnishing needs. So if you have the imagination, and some suitably deep
pockets, you may find inspiration here.
Are
you sitting comfortably?
Comfort is key when choosing sofas and armchairs. So
would you fork out for a sofa made entirely of chopsticks? Yuya Ushida whittled
8,000 individual chopsticks into exactly the right shapes to make his Sofa_XXXX - a concertina-style chair that becomes a sofa. This unique piece of furniture can
actually support three 70kg people at one time.
Or perhaps you’d prefer to recline on one of Ron Arad’s
stainless steel sofas? These little
beauties cost around $300,000 – but they’re
definitely long-lasting and think of the savings in cleaning covers!
If you like your furniture to look more conventional, but
still sport a hefty price tag, check out the Dragons’ Chair. Made by Irish designer Eileen Gray, somewhere between
1917 and 1919, this carved wood and leather armchair was once owned by Yves
Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge. Perhaps that explains why it
reached $27.8 million at an auction at Christies in 2009.
Bizarre
beds
We spend up to a third of our lives asleep, so comfortable beds are a must.
But just how far will your budget stretch?
At the 2006 Millionaire Fair (yes, there really is such a
thing) in Kortrijk, Belgium, Dutch architect Janjapp Ruijssenaars unveiled his gravity
defying offering. Permanent opposing industrial
strength magnets enable to bed to float above the floor while reportedly
supporting a weight of up to 2,000lbs. While people with piercings should avoid
crawling underneath the bed, they’re apparently perfectly safe on top! Be
warned though, this is no economy option. You’ll need $1.6 million to be the
owner of what is probably the coolest bed in the world, but not the most
expensive.
That title goes to a more traditional four poster, created
by luxury designer Stuart Hughes. Working in collaboration with Italian
Fratelli Basile, the pair devised the Baldacchino Supreme. Lacquered, patinated and decorated with 107 kg of 24K
gold, this little beauty costs a cool $6.3 million.
If you’re investing that much in a bed, there’s little point
stinting on a cheap mattress. Why not go all out with the Vividus mattress, at a staggering $59,750. Vividus means ‘full of
life’ in Latin, and sleeping on this has been described as “sleeping on a cloud”.
If that doesn’t guarantee you sweet dreams, I don’t know what will!
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