Coming soon to California: the prefab G-Pod

The world of prefab has a new entrant with G-Pod, a prefab sphere designed as a living or entertainment space for backyard gardens. The G-Pod is designed and produced by Farmers Cottage Lamps in Birmingham, England, and it premiered at the Chelsea Flower Show in Britain last year. For the U.S. market, the G-Pod will be transported by the UK firm Leisure Shelters and distributed through Mars Lab in Redondo Beach beginning in late May.

There are four types of G-Pod. The $14,000 Lounger and Seater models are 7.5 feet in diameter. They rotate, so the entrance can be shifted to capture sun, shade or wind. The waterproof interior contains seating for at least six and a height-adjustable table. The furniture can be flattened into a full circle and covered with the cushions to make a bed. A snap-on cover closes the entrance.

The $30,000 Diner and Summer House models are 10 feet in diameter and stationary. They can be wired for electricity and equipped with solar panels. The Diner and Summer House seats up to 14 people and is made in custom colors.

All four models are made from laminated pine with UV-protected, polycarbonate tinted windows. Assembly is required and is not included in the price.

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-- Susan Carpenter

Photos, from top: G-Pod Seater and G-Pod Summer House. Credit: Leisure Shelters

Sweet little cupcake pots in 'Concrete Garden Projects'

What says “I like you” more than a concrete cupcake? They look sweet and are half-baked in a humorous way. In terms of potential holiday table decor and DIY gifts, these little treats — one of many in the new book “Concrete Garden Projects” — have all the ingredients.

Part of the appeal of Malin Nilsson and Camilla Arvidsson’s book is simplicity: Most of the pots, vases, candle holders, stepping stones and decorative figurines in the book were created using the same easy steps: Find an interesting mold, fill it with concrete, let it dry. 

If you’ve picked your molds well, the results look great. The pots pictured here were made with jumbo cupcake molds made of silicone, which was firm enough to hold its shape but pliable enough to remove the concrete with incredible ease.

The authors recommend brushing molds with vegetable oil; I spray my silicone forms with Pam. Plop in wet mixed concrete, push in a smaller object to create the interior well (I used cheap IKEA glass votive candleholders, also sprayed with Pam), then level and smooth the top with wet fingers. After two days of baking in indirect sunlight, the silicone molds and the votive holders can be removed. Your cupcakes are ready.

These things work best as tea light holders, but if you want to use them as miniature pots with drainage, put a half-inch piece of oiled-up wine cork at the bottom of the mold before pouring in the wet concrete. After the pot has dried, the cork should pop out.

The Deal: Modernica Case Study bed sale begins Monday

No tax refund this year? Don't be discouraged. While the state of California may have been no help, Modernica is offering its own tax incentive: Beginning Monday, the Los Angeles-based manufacturer of modernist furnishings is offering free shipping and zero sales tax on the V-Leg and Bentwood Case Study beds (priced $1,050 to $1,845).

The promotion includes single, full, queen, standard and California king bed frames with metal or bentwood legs. Alpine and Fastback beds are excluded, and shipping must be within the continental United States.

The offer is good through April 30 both online and in the showroom, 7366 Beverly Blvd. For more information, contact (323) 933-0383.

-- Lisa Boone

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Photo credit: Modernica

Expressive vessels for all that remains

Ashes to artwork? Dust to decor? This week the cover story of Home's print section explores the inventive turn funerary urns have taken and why. As writer Jeff Spurrier explains in the introduction to this fascinating piece, "cremation rates have risen from 23.6% in 1997 to a projected 39% in 2010, according to the National Funeral Directors Assn., and the figure is expected to hit 60% around 2025. With this rise in cremation comes the emergence of a related field: urn as decorative art."

Click here to read Spurrier's full story on this emerging phenomenon, and click here to see our photo gallery of funerary urns.

-- Deborah Netburn

Photos clockwise from top right: "Planets" by Shawn McDonald is a sand-cast bronze kinetic piece that spins silently on a steel mount; artist Darin Montgomery's irreverent "Urn-a-matic Vend" and his "Urn-a-matic" incorporating a vintage vacuum cleaner; artist Nadine Jarvis created a memorial in the form of a birdfeeder made of bird food, beeswax and human ashes. All photos courtesy of Funeria.com.

A necklace for your floor? A sofa in need of a diet? It's all just part of London Design Week

Events timed with London Design Week included a Brompton Road circuit starting near the Victoria and Albert Museum and an inspiring show called "The Escapists" at Mint, one of the city's most exciting design shops. The exhibition featured “modern day storytellers who use the medium of design and craft as the interpretive voice of imagination.”

Some of the surreal offerings included Charlotte Kingsnorth’s At One, the grotesquely compelling sofa pictured at left. It's upholstered with a skin-like material that is meant to look as if it “has been devoured by its obese occupier.”

Bling Bling Light Adornments, pictured at top, is a Penelope Batley floor lighting fixture in the form of a giant necklace made of handblown and cut glass.

Gleaming silver-plated brass trays from Fabio Novembre took the shape of Italian piazzas from Turin to Lucca and doubled as architectural models when not in use.

-- Kristin Hohenadel reporting from London

Photo credits, from top: Kristin Hohenadel, Mint, Kristin Hohenadel

100% Design London: Laser-sharp silhouettes make their point in paper, cork and felt

The intricately cut silhouettes used as a motif in home furnishings everywhere in recent years emerged in new forms at the 100% Design London show, which closed Sunday.

The most dramatic cut-outs were made of paper. The Tord Boontje-esque Cloud Walk chandelier from London designer Yu Jordy Fu loomed like a low-flying cloud or a giant puff of smoke, pictured above. Lighted from within by a strip of LEDs, the recycled paper fixture was crafted using a three-dimensional Chinese cutting technique. Fu said the cloud, which can be purchased as smaller lamps, “is a simple and sustainable approach to add magic and intimacy to domestic lighting.”

Tactile Wonderland, the London design duo of Rebecca Otero and Ninette van Kamp, showed their delicate and beautifully impractical handcrafted bespoke wallpaper.

Jo Angell of the textile design collective Puff and Flock created the laser-cut Alight Cork blinds decorated with abstract birds, acorns and leaves, pictured above right. It's a design that “aims to raise the profile of cork with an elegant and tactile product,” Angell said.

To see photos of the Tactile Wonderland wallpaper, Selina Rose's thick wool felt acoustic panels and Michelle Mason's tabletop decorations, which featured bright colors to counter our economic gloom, click to the jump.

100% Design London: Tuft it yourself? New buttoned furniture lends an idea for that old couch

One of the most satisfying pastimes at a design show is finding DIY ideas that are good enough to steal. Here's one from the just-closed 100% Design London show:

Everyone knows that changing the buttons is a cheap and easy fix for a tired jacket, but what about upholstered furniture? The show featured two examples of buttons deployed for cheeky doses of color -- inspiration, perhaps, for perking up your chair or sofa when you can’t afford to replace it.

Bespoke upholstery buttons in varying hues and textures from Bute Fabrics adorned the new Capsule Collection couches and armchairs by Ziglam & Brook, above. (The pieces are available via Deadgood Products.) And a gray couch from & Then Design was given some added personality with blue buttons, right.

Both are effects that DIYers could try to replicate themselves. And if you're not that brave, hiring a pro to handle the button work would still cost less than buying something new.

-- Kristin Hohenadel

Photo credit: Kristin Hohenadel

100% Design London: Flooring made of old belts, deer horns turned into mosaic tile

The Dutch publisher Materia, which architects and designers such as Zaha Hadid, Renzo Piano and Frank Gehry call upon for the latest on building materials, presented an eyeful of innovation at the 100% Design show in London.

Among the displays: Ting's handsome, hard-wearing leather flooring crafted from vintage belts that have been cleaned without chemicals and shaved for uniform width, above left. The tiles are available by the square meter and also can be used for walls, tables or bar tops.

Sustainable choices included Brazilian coconut tiles, above center, made by Ekobe from Bahia coconut shells. The natural resin found in the material helps it to resist decomposition by microorganisms and insects. The small squares have concave shapes, are subtly varied in color and, when put together, form a surface with no discernible seams.

Interesting mosaic tiles could found throughout the show. Above right: Cubo tiles made from thin slices of tree branches or deer horns, then filled in with translucent resin.

-- Kristin Hohenadel, reporting from London

Photo credits, from left: Materia, Materia, Kristin Hohenadel

100% Design London: Tomoko Azumi's birdhouse goes Victorian with a reclaimed tile roof

At the annual 100% Design London show, the contemporary architecture and interiors extravaganza that closed here Sunday, design consultant Tomoko Azumi showed prototype birdhouses and bird feeders made from reclaimed Victorian roof tiles. The result was inspired shelter for London's blue tits, wrens and small garden birds.

Cut with a laser and water jet, each oddly shaped tile forms a waterproof roof. A delicate, laser-etched Victorian facade adds a note of craftsmanship and whimsy. The weight of the roof tile keeps it securely on top of the house, and it can be easily removed for cleaning.

“Birds come back next season only if the house is emptied and cleaned,” said Azumi, a member of the Ten design collective, whose mission is "an exploration of our varied perspectives on the complex issues of sustainability within design using digital manufacturing technologies."

-- Kristin Hohenadel reporting from London

Photo credit: Kristin Hohenadel