Style Tuesday: Playing house with Qubis

If you have small children at home, you know how hard it is to keep your house tidy and the kids entertained at the same time. In order to give a solution to a seemingly impossible task, a British design company called Qubis came up with the idea to put together the aesthetics of modern architecture and the functionality of toys.





The theory behind it is that children enjoy sitting on the floor. Due to their small sizes, their field of vision is no higher that half a meter. Nothing better than to adapt a place for their toys at the bottom of your home furniture.





Although it looks like an old fashioned toy, it is possible to keep the kids entertained with the addition of a few extras. The walls of the doll house, for instance, can be changes. So can the furniture and decor.





The population of the tiny houses is also provided by Qubis. When the playtime is over, the kids must simply stuff everything inside a bag. Attention moms that are fond of that idea: it's perfectly OK to join the playtime. It's not OK, however, to obsess about cleaning the doll house. That space doen not belong to you!

Other posts from Style Tuesday:

MYcord

Style Tuesday: MYcord

Many people still don't know about it but one of the biggest trends we've been tracking around the globe is the Crowd Funding. It's about websites where new, creative minds, announce the ideas they're willing to put in practice and look for people to help fund it. In that way, if you come across a project that really interests you, you can contribute to it's developing so that the makers are able to complete it. For us, consumers, is a great way to learn about new products even before they hit the shelves. For the creators, is a great way to get their projects running. 

Crowd Supply is one of those Crowd Funding companies, and is the newest partner of the blog. Based on the profile of Around and About's readers, they send us tips of great projects that are still lokking for funds to be developed. That's how I got to know about MYcord. 

The creator of this ear plug had his Eureka! moment while seating in the Brooklyn subway. He noticed that almost everyone was wearing colourful headphones and the all the wires were tangled. He, then, remembered a trend he has seen recently, called Yarn-bombing. It consists of covering any given object such as posts, benches, bike, in colourful knits. Why not covering head phones? Besides giving it an artisanal feel, it would also prevent them from tangling.  The project is still looking for money to start being produced, which means that you can either pre-order yours or fund the idea so that MYcord gets out of the paper quicker. 

Other posts from Style Tuesday:

Sofa, Bed or Cocoon

Design News

Style Tuesday: Sofa, Bed or Cocoon?

At a first glance, you might not notice anything out of the ordinary with that sofa, created by Stephanie Horning. The Camp Daybed, however, is the materialisation of two trends that are proving to be very strong to the near future and will certainly be part of our lives in a couple of years: solutions for small apartments (because the spaces are shrinking as the prices rise) and the cocoons (hibernating inside comfy closed spaces give us a feeling of protection).

The Camp Daybed work in the following way: during the day it's just like a regular couch. At night, however, the great idea comes to life. Instead of unfolding like a regular couch, it opens a zipper and you can sleep inside the mattress. The solution is ideal for people who regularly have guests over, for those who live in tiny places or even if you have those days when you just want to disappear...

Other posts from Style Tuesday:

Design news

Style Tuesday: Little White Lies

Cast the first stone who never said "I'm already in the car" while stepping out of the shower! Graphic designer Justin Barber, born and raised in Japan but currently living in Savannah, USA, created a series of posters with our most thick faced lies. Ideal for a not so subtle message on the social networks or just for hanging on your wall to be reminded that we've all be lying a bit...

Other Style Tuesday posts: 

Trends for the home

Style Tuesday: Shazam in your closet

The tech addicts are old friends with Shazam, that app that allows us to find out what's the name of the song that's playing right on that moment. Well, I don't know if it's for better or worse (it depends on the date of the month and your credit card situation) but you'll like to know that Shazam decided to make things easier for us and help in our fashion choices.

The new version of the app allows us to track the precedence of some piece of clothing we saw on TV immediately. Pay attention to the word immediately. It works like this: you're watching TV and fancy some shoes you just laid eyes upon. Shazam finds out the designer and even tracks down some online retailers where you can get the same pair with the click of a button. Long gone were the days when window shopping was dangerous for your wallet.

To read other Style Tuesday posts:

Trends for the home

Style Tuesday: Trends for the home

Dressing your home is just like dressing yourself, isn't it? Some people prefer to stick with the elegance of the classics, some enjoy the dramas of romanticism. Yet, there are some that can't help themselves around novelties, especially when design is included. Are you part of that crowd? Well, today's posts (and I'm thinking about keeping the subject every Tuesday) is for you.

I'm prett sure you're familiar with the Eames chairs. The transparent and white versions of it are already darlings of interior decorating. Now, they came up with a wooden model, with metal feet. The lines are exactly the same as it's older brothers, the only difference being the materials.

Are you happy with your furniture but could add some energy to your surroundings? Try colour! Keep an eye on Pantone, always concerned about informing us about the "colour of year" for segments as different as makeup and wall paint. Now they came up with a line of duvet covers and sheets, all in their latest shades. 

To read more about design

Modern carpentry

Textured walls