LATELY ON OUR FACEBOOK PAGE...

If you haven't joined Home Rejuvenation on Facebook yet, then I suggest you consider joining us and checking out our latest discoveries. Here's a roundup of the past week.

From Freshome, we discovered that magazines do make very good - and pretty - partitions.

Minimalism is not for everyone. Does this home leave you feeling cold?

Re-nest finds this cabinet made of reclaimed floorboards "perfect for displaying your favorite objet d'art, and hiding your mess."

So I gather those leftover wallpapers in my office can come in useful somewhere else...

Japan's EASTERN Design Office designed this unusual Villa Saitan apartment building in Kyoto, Japan.

Design maestro Ron Arad has come up with a a bookshelf which is shaped like the map of the United States.

The interiors of Green T. House in Beijing are beautifully crafted.

Those stacked firewood walls lend this office space a unique lodge-like appeal.


Designers Victor Massip and Laurent Lebot of Faltazi have designed a conceptual system where water is recycled and waste is broken down by worms inside the kitchen.

These chairs made with hair freaked me out. Period.


Stan

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THE EAMES ELEPHANT ALL DRESSED UP

A cross between a toy and a stool, The Eames plywood elephant, designed by Charles and Ray Eames in 1945, has brought much cheers to many a child's and parent's heart. Recently, as part of a fundraiser art event for the Ambassadors of Design industry group in Hong Kong, several local designers and artists took the beloved animal with those distinctive, over-sized ears and dressed it up according to their imagination. The results - including one in the form of a roasted suckling pig - were pretty wild and spectacular.

Stan

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15 UGLIEST FURNITURE EVER?

We human beings are so superficial - we only love celebrating beautiful stuff. But sometimes, it's not a bad thing to celebrate bad-looking objects. After all, how do you define beauty when there is no ugliness in this world, ha? Link

Stan

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BOXETTI COLLECTION BY ROLANDS LANDSBERGS

The Boxetti collection meets all essential aspects - form, color and function - in furniture and interior design. The concept itself is fairly simple: using a consistent visual language of shapes, tones and functions, each piece in the system is a stand-alone, self-contained object but also part of a larger aesthetic whole.


Stan

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GRAND CENTRAL BY SANNA LINDSTRÖM

Grand Central is an innovative expandable table that transforms from space-saving occasional table to the central piece of the room via a couple of flips. Spectacular!

Stan

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MOOD AND MEMORY AFFECTED BY YOUR HOME

Have you heard of the term 'neuroarchitecture' yet? If not, sit up and listen up. Recent research shows that our architectural environment, comprising elements such as lighting, space and layout, influences certain brain processes such as those involved in stress, emotion and memory. For example, studies show that big windows or a balcony lift our spirits and "decorating with a signed painting or one-of-a-kind sculpture... transmits a sense of authenticity and trust". I'm not sure how true these claims are, but I'm certainly not convinced "even an environment that makes our spirits soar - an incredible view, for example - tends, over time, to grow stale." Are you sure? Even with a superb seaview? No way!


Stan

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FRONT IS DESIGNER OF THE YEAR 2010 (AS NAMED BY A&W)

The all-female group of young Swedish designers, FRONT was recently named 'Designer of the Year 2010' by German magazine A&W. Here's a retrospective of the design group's works as shown at the IMM Cologne Furniture Fair 2010.

Stan

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REEF BY EVA PASTER & MICHAEL GELDMACHER

At first glance, you might not be able to figure out what it is. But behind those inter-lapping white blocks - which make for a pretty pretty sight - actually lie closet spaces you wouldn't even imagine were there.

Yeah, my wifey would be happy to have this at home...

KUS

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VILLA JULIA HOUSE BY JAVIER MARISCAL

The Villa Julia House from Spanish designer Javier Mariscal is a whimsical cardboard house modeled after American single-family dwellings from the 50s. Easy to assemble and large enough to host friends and a few pieces of furniture, this one will have your kids - and maybe even you yourself - smiling all day long.


Stan

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NARROWEST BUILDING IN THE WORLD?

This is claimed to be one of 'the narrowest buildings in the world'. Designed by architect couple Pieter Peerlings & Silvia Mertenand, the entire plot sitting on Antwerp’s red light district measures just 2.40m wide and 5.50m deep. Every inch of space has been put to good use here, with the ground floor housing the couple’s office, the 1st floor the kitchen cum dining room, the 2nd floor the living room and the top floor the bedroom/ bathroom. From the streets, the whole architecture stacks up like a Lego play set.

And before I conclude, don't you think that main front door and the roof bathtub are so smoking hot?!


Stan

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ULTRA THIN PORCELAIN TILES FROM REFIN

Rejuvenating your bathroom or kitchen is set to be a breeze from now on. Refin has come up with an innovative thin porcelain tile designed by Michele De Lucchi that makes updating your kitchen and bathroom so much easier (listen up, clients!). The skinny Skin tiles measures just 4.5mm thick and can be layed over your existing tile, simplifying what used to be an ultra messy job. What's your view on this?


KUS

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CANVASWORKS BY NOTO FUSAI

Woah, I would love to have either of these - or better still, both - at home. Hangs like artpiece, works like magic...

KUS

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DELFIN & POSTIGO HOUSE

The streamlined, sleek interiors of modern designs often leave room for a nice collection of artwork. Such is the case of the Delfin & Postigo House, "a residence encompassing a strong unique quality in both the design and the aesthetic domain".

Contemporary art - be it paintings, photography, sculpture, glass art, or ceramics - in interior design can often establish a focal point or even be the inspiration for an entire home. In this example, the combination of the photographic art pairs with 1940’s - 1960’s furniture to "create a language that expresses a historical modernity combined with the sexual frustration of the present".

Stan

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2009 IN REVIEW: 10 FAVORITE STORIES ON HOME REJUVENATION

Happy New Year, and welcome to the start of a new decade! To conclude 2009, we’re going to showcase our favorite discoveries as reported on Home Rejuvenation in the past year.

Architect Pedro Gadanho displays his penchant for bold and colorful details in this family home in Oporto, Portugal.

Just how many times would you give your own home a makeover? Hong Kong architect Gary Chang did it 4 times for his 330 sq ft apartment in Sai Wan Ho district (click here to see the 3rd renovation) - the latest renovation being termed the Domestic Transformer. Buying a new house might have been a better and simpler solution, but Chang prefers to stay on as he sees the place as "an ongoing experiment".

Using shifting wall units suspended from steel tracks bolted into the ceiling, the apartment becomes all manner of spaces — kitchen, library, laundry room, dressing room, a lounge with a hammock, an enclosed dining area and a wet bar. An alarming total of 24 different layouts can be configured within this small space!

I'll be keen to see how the fifth renovation turns out...

Cloud is a sofa concept based on magnetic forces: the soft floating upper part is supported solely by the magnetic force generated by the bottom base, thus creating the effect of sleeping or sitting on a cloud.

These furniture typeface made me smile all day long.

Planting nature right inside the house doesn't mean bringing in a few pots of plants and chucking them at a corner of the house. Take a cue from Natsiq Outdoor's artistic room divider - I can only see beauty in these towering branches 'growing' out from the lacquered stainless steel base. Yes, it may not screen out much. But I'm certainly not complaining.

French design graduate Rémi Bouhaniche has designed the unusual Etirement light, which can be dimmed by pulling the shade (made in a translucent membrane) using an attached rod at the bottom.

Other than using words like brilliant and clever, I'm not really sure how else to describe Ink Calendar, a date pacer designed by Oscar Diaz that records the passage of time by slowly absorbing ink.

Stockholm architects Wilhelmson Arkitekter made a bold statement creating windows that look like gilded picture frames for this housing project in Helsingborg, Sweden.

Japanese architect Ryuji Nakamura created the elegant Hechima 4 chair using only paper (vulcanized fibre).

I'm gasping for air looking at this stunning kitchen island designed by Parisian duo Simon Pillard and Philippe Rosetti. They took a basic IKEA island unit and covered it with close to 20,000 pieces of Lego blocks, creating a colorful head-turner in the kitchen instantly!

Stan

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