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6 Products to Make the Most Out of Your Fire Escape This Summer

6sqft’s series Apartment Living 101 is aimed at helping New Yorkers navigate the challenges of creating a happy home in the big city. This week we’ve found products that can help turn your fire escape into a mini warm weather oasis.

June 8, 2016

6 Products to Make the Most Out of Your Fire Escape This Summer

If your fire escape is the closest you'll get to a backyard this summer, fear not--6sqft has dug up some products that will turn this tiny space into much more than a place to set up some potted herbs. From grills to desks, we've found six clever items that require nothing more than the railing of your fire escape. Of course, consult your lease and talk to your landlord before installing them (technically putting objects on the fire escape is illegal, however they're becoming a thing of the past due to safety concerns), but once you get the go-ahead these designs are sure to maximize your outdoor enjoyment.
See them all this way

June 7, 2016

New ‘Solar Canopy’ Can Be Installed Atop Any NYC Building to Provide Solar Power

Brooklyn SolarWorks and Situ Studio have devised a clever and flexible solar panel system that not only adheres to the city's strict building codes, but has been developed specifically for the characteristically flat rooftops of NYC. The "Solar Canopy," as it has been named, is designed as a tent-like structure with a coverage of 2.5-feet by five-feet and a head clearance of ten feet above its pathway—plenty more than the nine feet required by the city. SolarWorks and Situ have already installed their Solar Canopy at several properties in Brooklyn, including atop homes in Bed-Stuy, Park Slope and Crown Heights.
find out more here

May 31, 2016

Lift-Bit Is the World’s First Digitally-Transformable Sofa

For the first time, a remote will control a section of your living room furniture that doesn't include your lights or home entertainment center. From the international design and innovation studio Carlo Ratti Associati, Lift-Bit is the world’s first digitally-transformable sofa. The wired furniture was created with the support of Swiss-owned furniture company Vitra and is made up of a series of modular seats fully stacked with the Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies. Each separate seat has the ability to raise or lower independently, thus introducing a multitude of seating configurations and functionality that can be controlled with the click of a button.
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May 27, 2016

Uroboro Is a Simple Yet Stylish Home Composter That Feeds Your Plants Using Worms

New Yorkers tend to be pretty environmentally conscious, but when it comes to composting, we just don't have the means to make it work without backyards or bulky, high-tech appliances. With these limitations in mind, Portuguese designer Marco Balsinha has come up with a solution. His home vermicomposter called Uroboro is a simple design of stacked pots that hold dirt and food waste, which is broken down by earthworms. Explained by Core 77, it's corked on the bottom and topped by a planter that indicates the level of decomposition.
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May 25, 2016

Colorful Flat-Pack Furniture Can Be Hung on the Wall Like Art

The selection of furniture for those living in cramped apartments continues to evolve beyond the plastic folding chair. And this flat-pack seating collection by Jongha Choi is the latest ingenious design to emerge from the small space realm. De-dimension _ From 2D to 3D rethinks seating by adding an artistic bent to a functional product. As seen in the animation above, each seat easily unfolds when needed, and can just as easily be collapsed back into a "2D" form and hung on the wall like art.
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May 24, 2016

This Lamp Only Turns On If You Turn Your Phone Off

If you don't posses the willpower to put your smart phone down once and for all, this lamp will give you that extra nudge -- that is, if you don't want to walk around in the dark. Tranquillo, created by industrial designer Avid Kadam, is "an interactive piece of lighting where the user’s phone acts like a switch." Basically, if you want to see, you'll need to put your phone on the dock, where it'll go into do-not-disturb mode.
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May 23, 2016

Bjarke Ingels Designed the VIA57 Chair As an Homage to His West Side Tetrahedron

For those of us who love the unusual shape and dramatic angles of Bjarke Ingels' famed VIA 57 WEST tetrahedron, but aren't in the market to pay $3,800 a month for a one-bedroom (or didn't qualify for the building's affordable housing lottery), there's now a way to bring a piece of the starchitecture into our own homes. Dezeen reveals the VIA57 chair, designed by Ingels for furniture brand Fritz Hansen along with KiBiSi to mark the completion of the pyramid-shaped building. "The rotated corners allow a variety of social configurations while also evoking the tetrahedronical geometry of its parent architecture," he explains.
More this way

May 23, 2016

‘All My Plants Are Dead’ Tote Bag Lets Black Thumbs Laugh Off Their Misfortunes

With spring in full swing, farmers markets and corner bodegas are teeming with plants, begging bright-eyed New Yorkers to take a pot or two home with them. While some of these verdant gems will enjoy a long-lasting life within their new indoor confines, a larger percentage will end up a droopy mess or a dried up skeleton of their former self. If you're one of those whose plants have been (or you know will be) doomed to such unsightly fate, don't let your black thumb ruin your day; instead take it all in stride and wear your private shame like a badge of honor for all to see.
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May 23, 2016

Browse the Catalog of Joan Rivers’ Prized Possessions Headed for Auction Next Month

As 6sqft previously detailed, when the beloved comedian Joan Rivers passed away in 2014, she left behind a lavish Upper East Side penthouse packed with a collection of glittering designer gowns, gilded furnishings, jewelry and collected items that reflected a lifetime love of pretty things. Rivers herself once described the decor of the 5,100-square-foot triplex as “Louis XIV meets Fred and Ginger.” Christie's has issued a catalog listing the opulent collections of Rivers' home that will be included in the live auction, scheduled for June 22 with viewing times beginning June 17. Items from Harry Winston, Tiffany's and Fabergé will join art and small personal items–like Bob Mackie gowns, a silver Tiffany & Co. water bowl engraved "Spike” and a silk pagoda dog bed (h/t Curbed).
Find out more about the auction

May 19, 2016

‘Amalgamated’ Vases Are Made From Hundreds of Pencils Glued Together

Pencils are used in a variety of applications and can be a powerful tool of expression for people who associate themselves with the written word or visual arts. "Amalgamated" is a collection of vases from Finnish designer Tuomas Markunpoika in collaboration with Gallery FUMI and Faber-Castell, created to explore the relationship between the mass produced "tool" and the potential individualism it facilitates. By repurposing the objects as raw material, this project aims to provide commentary about how the pencil when being used for its intended purpose, goes unnoticed.
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May 17, 2016

Clever Pour-Over Coffee Maker Poses As a Decorative Water Tower

Pour-over coffee makers are most-definitely favored by coffee connoisseurs, loved by those obsessed with the nuances that each bean carries. While the craft is considered cool, the large, bulbous glass vessels used during the process are hardly such. To improve the design of this method, Damon Ahola created TOWER, a single-serving pour-over coffee maker that masquerades as a decorative water tower—"the epitome of the New York City skyline," says Ahola.
Find out more here

May 16, 2016

Sander Mulder’s Ghostly Josephine Lamp Glows With Its Whole Body

Less is more for just about everything when it comes to cramped NYC apartments; the notable exception, of course, being light. So here's a brilliant design that strikes a perfect balance between being hidden but also visually arresting when it needs to be. Sander Mulder's Josephine Lamp is a standing luminaire that takes on an almost ghostly form, only becoming apparent when one switches its on-off button.
Learn more about this magical lamp

May 11, 2016

Grow Vegetables in Your Apartment Effortlessly With Foop and Your Smartphone

Caring for plants at home is a nice idea, but growing food inside your city apartment is an even better one. Now with Foop, a hydroponic pod from Japan, you can grow vegetables and herbs, like lettuce, parsley, basil, and mesclun with almost no effort. The process couldn't be easier; The first step is to purchase of your desired vegetable seeds, and the second to place the seeds into Foop's "cultivation cup." After the seeds are in place, you set a time frame for them to grow using Foop's app. When the vegetables are ripe for picking, you'll get a notification on your phone!
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May 9, 2016

20 Kitchen Cleaning Hacks for Lazy People

Our ongoing series Apartment Living 101 is aimed at helping New Yorkers navigate the challenges of creating a happy home in the big city. Last week, 6sqft rounded up a list of 15 air-purifying plants to add indoors. This week we've pulled together 20 kitchen cleaning tips for the lazy (or busy) man and woman. Most of us would probably agree that keeping a home clean with any regularity can be a formidable challenge; because really, who wants to pour hours and hours into a tedious and thankless job that only promises to return with another layer of dirt? But while housekeeping is in general a groan-worthy task, the kitchen often poses its own hell, especially when shared with roommates who seem almost clueless as to how a sponge and soap work. Though we don't have a solution for making those dirty dishes in your sink disappear, we do have 20 cleaning hacks for keeping a (reasonably) clean kitchen that even the laziest person can squeeze in between Netflix and chill sessions.
20 tips for quick and easy cleaning here

May 6, 2016

Livi Transforms the Traditional Flower Pot With Biomimicry and a Smart Stick-On Design

There's no denying 6sqft is a huge fan of incorporating greenery into the living space, both for their aesthetic appeal and numerous health benefits, so we're always on the lookout for new ways to house our favorite green friends. The latest innovation is Livi, a modern take on the traditional flower pot that uses Biomimicry to create self-adhering pads that replicate the way frogs' feet attach to glass or other smooth surfaces. Livi's fancy feet add life and functionality to the flower pot, allowing you to position your plants on both vertical and horizontal surfaces.
Find out more

May 6, 2016

Quirky Playing Cards Are Designed With History’s Most Iconic Architects

Federico Babina is an Italian illustrator who's previously brought us clever illustrative works like Archisutra and Archidirector. In both series, Babina replaces images of people with personified buildings, and with his new series, Archicards, he adopts this same approach but with a twist. Instead of replacing people with buildings, Archicards replaces the standard images found on playing cards with famous architects throughout history. So, the king of hearts is now Corbu, while the king of diamonds is played by Frank Lloyd wright—just to name a few.
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May 4, 2016

Use BrickBox Modular Shelving to Store Books, Create Room Partitions or Move Homes

Kazam Design's BrickBox is a simple yet innovative storage system that consists of wooden boxes designed to easily fit together without screws or assembly. The units can be stacked or arranged to not only provide ample and flexible shelving, but to create sideboards or room separators. Each "brick box" also doubles as a wooden box perfect for transporting your belongings when you move from one space to another.
More on this design here

May 2, 2016

Christopher Duffy Unveils His ‘Abyss Dining Table’ Inspired by the Ocean’s Depths

Furniture designer Christopher Duffy recently unveiled a new dinning table inspired by the ocean. The conversation piece, which replicates an underwater geological cross section, will add several layers of magic to any dinner party held on it.
Learn more about this magical dinning table

April 27, 2016

Tips for First-Time Renters and Students Leaving the Dorm

Rents across the city may be climbing, but that’s not keeping college students from wanting to flex their newfound autonomy even further by leaving their dorm for digs off campus. Unfortunately for many of these young scholars—and many first-time renters like them—searches typically start off with head-in-the-clouds expectations (“I had this fantasy about scoring a place with a fireplace and […]

April 27, 2016

Subway-Style Poster Uses Infographics to Celebrate the History of the Yankees

Baseball's history in the Big Apple is as rich and turbulent as that of the city itself, and this super-sized canvas tells the story of the iconic New York Yankees. The stylish infographic from Pop Chart Lab plots out the player positions from 1975-2015, tracking the careers of long-standing baseball legends like Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera, as well as short-lived superstars like Jack Clark and Cecil Fielder. Fittingly, its design is similar in style to the graphics of the NYC subway system and also includes stats, scorecards, and all of the sluggers from East 161st Street.
Find out where to get your own print

April 22, 2016

Karim Rashid’s Bump Is an All-In-One Charging Device That Can’t Get Tangled

Being away from a power cord or charger has become a source of great anxiety, and colorful product designer/architect Karim Rashid has a new device to solve some of the problems associated with our cord-ridden lives. He and partners Richard Smiedt and Phil King recently created a new company called Push and Shove. Their first product is called Bump, a wall charger and power bank that includes a one-meter cable housed perfectly in a compact frame, eliminating the tangled mess of power cords. It's bulbous shape is reflective of Rashid's longline of "blobjects," a term he coined to describe his effort to soften our physical landscape.
More on Bump

April 21, 2016

Nola Money Jar Is Stylish Home Decor that Helps You Save Both Cash and Coin

Everybody knows that New York City is an expensive place to live, and collecting coins will help to put every cent to good use. However, in order to save some real dough, paper bills need to be a part of the mix, and these decorative money jars, also known as Nola, from Italian product designer Giulio Iacchetti account for both coins and bank notes.
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April 20, 2016

Nendo’s Minimalist Line of Pet Lifestyle Products Is Designed to Match Your Decor

Nendo, a well-known Japanese design studio, has taken a minimalist approach to the current trend of pet furniture and lifestyle goods that we can't get enough of. Their line of pet products, appropriately titled Cubic Pet Goods includes a dog house, soft toy, ceramic bowls and of course a ball. Each piece in the collection was carefully selected to coincide with dog's need and human's desire for aesthetic quality.
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April 19, 2016

Transport Beer on Your Bike With This Hip Leather Growler Satchel

For many New Yorkers bicycles are their main mode of transportation, and with the summer months ahead we welcome any addition to the bike-arsenal that'll help us stay cool, and in this case also look cool. This hip leather satchel from Pedal Happy Designs makes it super easy to transport your favorite growler anywhere in the city -- bikes and beers here we come!
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April 15, 2016

Quirky Transforming Table Features Fur and Wood for the Indecisive Mind

The conundrum of indecisiveness is a frustration everyone can relate to, and this quirky table from designer Karolina Fardova translates this experience into some truly playful furniture. The table is titled "Fifty Fifty," in reference to its dualistic surface which is equal parts wood and fur. In addition to a bevy of surface textures, this clever table also unfolds and can be placed flat on the floor offering functionality beyond your standard table design.
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