The Shiny Squirrel

Jessica recently emailed me to tell me about The Shiny Squirrel. Featuring a select group of young artist such as Lisa Congdon, Nicole Poko and Ashley Goldberg, The Shiny Squirrel is a wonderful platform for emerging talents to showcase their work in limited edition pieces. New artists and products are updated every 1st and 15th of every month. Lovely site to browse and purchase the exclusive work of really talented people. Do check them out!

Bearskin Rug

Each rubber bear rug is specifically casted and made to order. It comes standard in the colours white, brown and black (other colours on request). via Designmilk

RELISTED! HURRY! Concentric Circles - 2008 Calendar

Wow!! I love these beautiful limited edition calendar by one of my favourite blogger Debi van Zyl. The circles are hand cut and hand assembled. Each calendar is slightly different. I liiike! Really think it is so wonderful that Debi has turned her current (still?) obssesion with concentric circles into something so beautiful and functional!

These calenders were initially sold out but have just been relisted ... it's still limited edition with a total of 50 in all. Debi will be taking pre-orders and will ship no later than December 20th. And for those in the Los Angeles area, Debi will also be selling more of these at the Holiday Gift Bazaar in Santa Monica, CA on November 17.

Obsessive Consumption

Kate Bingman-Burt’s Obsessive Consumption is a documention all of her purchases for a period of 28 months. Each item purchased and credit card statement gets obsessively turned into a drawing every day

Do check out the lovely drawings at her flickr page and blog called: What Did You Buy Today. You can also buy her daily purchase drawings at her etsy shop.

Animal themed products by Ibride

Created by 3 members of the same French family, the inspiration for each Ibride item comes from "both the very close environment and travels around the world. The word 'ibride' itself is a play on words in French meaning 'hybrid', and many of the pieces combine several forms and several functions." Some of my favourites below...and more at their beautiful website.

I just love this gorgeous deer tray below. (Available at Velocity Art and Design.) Their animal themed series of bookshelves and tables are also quite magical.
(Above) Joe. This will be wonderful for a child's room.

(above) Diva. This will make a wonderful coffee table.

Roc Apeldoorn classroom by Jurgen Bey

This is an interior project by Jurgen Bey at the Roc professional training school at Apeldoorn in the Netherlands. I just love the use of graphic design elements in this space. Practically all the classroom walls, floor and furniture are decorated with images taken from reference books used at the school. The moveable screens (I like the fact that they are of various lengths) also allow the room to be subdived into smaller intimate spaces depending on the activities taking place.

For more pictures, click here.

Ingenius ways to hide your wires

Some creative and elegant solutions to wire clutter in the house by Boiler Design Office. (via DesignSpotter)

(above) The Picket Fence was designed for the 2006 MUJI International Design Competition. By sticking these pickets onto a typical wall baseboard, a space is created between the wall and the picket points. This space serves as a track for routing all of the wires cleanly around the room.

(above) Wall Cleats. A neat way to moor your electrical plug when not in use.

Paristic

Here is a great way to add a little French style to the walls of your home. Showing typical parisian sights in the form of baroque and art nouveau lamps, lanterns and cityscapes, these beautiful vinyl wall stickers are available in plenty of colours. Available here and ships internationally. The stickers also come in a beautifully packaged tube. (via Elit Alice)

"The end" sticker

This removable sticker will look quite cool on a laptop! Available here. (via)

Jeu de Paume

Jeu de Paume is a small group of family-run Japanese publishers that work closely with artists and designers in Europe and explores their creative work and living spaces. The end result is a series of creative publications overflowing with inspiration. I particularly like their documentation of children's rooms in London, Paris and Stockholm. Absolute inspiration!

There is even a Jeu de Paumes flickr pool! (via This is love forever)

(above) Female artists' studio. Who would imagine that lychee tin cans would make such beautiful stationary holders!
(above) Children's rooms "Stockholm"
(above) Children's rooms "London"

You can get Jeu de Paumes books at Japanese bookstores such as Kinokuniya or directly from the Paumes website.

Concetta Gallo

I have seeing a lot of horses lately, like on these wonderful patterns from Habitat by Concetta Gallo. Aren't they gorgeous! Really think that the graphic mix of motifs and real life pictures of horses gives it a whimsical/fantasy feel. (via nebo peklo)

Klein Dytham Architecture

Japanese architecture has always intriqued me, especially the simplicity of their forms, their masterful use of modern materials and the creative ways they use to fit a building into a small footprint.

This is is a project by Klein Dytham Architecture. It is a home cum salon for a couple of young hairdressers in Jingumae, a hip area in Tokyo. I really love the powerful graphic images that seem to engulf the entire building. Like a large wall decal but for a building exterior...wonder if anyone makes these?

(via)

Baroque radiator

There is no need to disguise the bulky radiator any more with this clever design by Joris Laarman. "Designed with both form and function in mind, the baroque-like twists and turns of this piece are full of hidden details just waiting to be discovered with a close inspection! The design is not however just a pretty face; the form itself has more surface area than the usual radiator, hence more radiated heat! " Available here for a hefty US$11,119.00!!

Makes me wish someone would come up with an equally clever design for an air-conditioning unit. I am frankly quite tired of the ubiquitous white box.

Jamie Hayon's Camper stores

This new Camper store in Milan is the fifth one designed by Spanish designer Jaime Hayon. I just love the oversized shades and matching kitchen-like floor tiles. The dining table with various mismatched legs also appeals to me. What we need is a fridge of shoes to complete the whole domestic dining scene. To see more of Jaime Hayon's designs for the other Camper stores, click the links below.

Jaime Hayon in Barcelona

Jaime Hayon in London

Campana Brothers in Berlin

Campana Brothers in London

Uta Barth

I love these deceptively simple yet powerful photographs by Uta Barth. By photographing in ordinary, mundane and anonymous places, Barth's work questions the traditional role of pictures and our expectations of them. (via Hoping for Happy Accidents)

“My primary project has always been in finding ways to make the viewer aware of their own activity of looking at something.”

Uta Barth

RESULTS - Top 10 New Design Blogs to Watch

Finally, the moment we have all been waiting for... The results of the "Top 10 New Design Blogs to Watch"!!

My big CONGRATULATIONS to the following blogs that have been nominated and have made it to our "Top 10 NEW Design Blogs to Watch" list! Before announcing the results, I have to say that (perhaps due to the sheer number of new design blogs) the nominations were quite varied and many came close to each other in terms of number of votes received. On the other hand, some really "watchable" blogs didn't receive many votes probably because not many of their readers knew about this poll. As the primary objective of this exercise is to discover the "NEW" design blogs to "WATCH", I thought it would be fair that I calculated the final score not by simply counting the number of votes but also take into account other factors such as the actual length of time the blogs have been in existence and the quality of content (from a design point of view). This is to avoid this ending up as another popularity contest.

Ok, without further ado, druuuuummmroooll please! The top 10 are.............

That's it! Hope you agree that these are wonderful blogs worth watching. Some of these blogs such as "Desire to Inspire" and "Swissmiss" are not exactly new as many of us have been watching them already. Can you believe that these blogs are less than a year old and even made it to The Home Rejuvenation's "Top 10 most Influential Bloggers"? That is no mean feat and their passion for what they do is definitely an inspiration to other newer design bloggers like myself.

Having announced the top 10 by laissezfaire, I have to say that there were so many other wonderful new blogs that were nominated during this process that are each unique and inspirational in their own way. As it would be a pity not to share them with the world, I have decided to reserve a spot at the top-most right corner of this blog to introduce a new blog that was nominated each week. So do visit these new blogs when it is up!

Now that you know the "Top 10 NEW Design Blogs to Watch", wouldn't you like to find out who the current movers and shakers of design blogland are? If so, hop on to The Home Rejuvenation to find out the results of the "Top 10 Most Influential Bloggers"!

Martha Stewart

A big thank you to Martha Stewart for being Laissezfaire's first proud sponsor! I am such a fan of Martha Stewart and her blog. You cannot imagine how excited I am to have her as our first sponsor! Thanks Martha!

If you would like to join Martha Stewart in sponsoring Laissezfaire, please contact me! Thanks!

Ferm Living Wallpaper Contest at CasaSugar!

After posting about Ferm Living below, I got an email from the editor of CasaSugar telling me that they are currently running a contest and will be giving away a wall's worth of wallpaper from Ferm to one lucky reader! Click here to find out what you need to do to enter this exciting contest!

Liberty of London Swatch Portraits

A reader pointed me to this wonderful link at The Purl Bee. This gallery display was made by filling a handful of simple wooden embroidery hoops with swatches of fabric from Liberty of London. If you're interested in making a similar display of your own Liberty of London collection, do visit their Swatch Portraits Project Journal. Thanks for sharing, Celine and Viv!