For fireplace-starved apartment dwellers, here’s an alternative way to bring in some woodsy warmth as we approach the cooler months. Designer Paul Foeckler’s Split Grain lighting collection is made from firewood he forages himself in California and then slices uses a splitting technique that reveals the grain patterns of the cross sections. These intricacies are then highlighted when the light emanates from the sculptural piece.

See more of these beautiful lights

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.

Read more

Simon Morris — a New York City-born, Stockholm-based scientist — has created a revolutionary wireless light bulb that floats and gently rotates while it shines. Called Flyte, a combination of Flying and Light, the magical high-tech lamp takes inspiration from Tesla‘s magnetic levitation technologies to defy gravity, hovering above a wooden base. Flyte can be switched on and off by touching its base, it need no batteries, and has an amazing lifespan of 22 years. Plus, the base doubles as a wireless charging station for smart phones and other devices.

Learn more about this anti-gravity light

In New York City we’re almost always strapped for space, and more often than not we’re also left wanting sunlight and greenery. While there are many different products on the market that attempt to help us solve for these deficiencies, our current obsession is with the Mygdal Plantlamp.

This amazing new product allows users to grow plants anywhere without sunlight, regardless of how dreary your space may be. It employs LED technology to replace natural sunlight and is almost totally self-sufficient. According to its designers, the plant can grow for years without water, as the “self-sustaining ecosystem” imitates the process of photosynthesis.

Find out more here

In a city where hundreds of interesting happenings occur each week, some days, you just want to make magic happen from the comfort of your own home. If you live alone, or just happen to hold an impromptu party once in a while, have a look at this incredible expanding design. Created by Dutch designer Wieland Vogel, “Aureool a.k.a Halo” is a brilliant chandelier that contracts and expands with a simple flick of the hand.

Learn more about this clever design

Inspired by ancient Greek mythology, Ludovic Falédam from Barbadine Design created a series of sculptural pendants that will make any living space shine. When creating the lamp, the French designer was particularly interested in the story of queen Cassiopeia and her daughter Andromeda, both of whom in their tale abandon their human bodies to become a constellation of stars. Beautiful and intricate like the story itself, these luminaries will bring the celestial patterns into your home—something we don’t see much of in New York City.

find out more here

The buildings of the skyline have been illuminating the dark city nights for centuries, and now with Stalaclights they can light up your home as well. These awesome 3D-printed shades from Studio David Grass were designed to replicate the Art Deco skyscrapers of New York City and Chicago while providing a nice warm glow.

More on the lights here

6sqft has featured lamps made from natural elements like mushrooms and seaweed, but it’s always nice to see design that upcycles materials that would otherwise end up in the landfill. Though you wouldn’t know it by looking at these beautiful pendant and standing lights, they were created from discarded espresso machine boilers. According to Design Milk, Finnish designer Willem Heeffer embarked on a project called “The City as a Mine,” which explores ways to turn trash from local factories in Helsinki into stylish home decor products; these copper Boiler Lamps served their first incarnation for ten years at the Paulig coffee factory.

More on the lamps

Talk about space-saving design. We’re all for products and furniture that help us use space efficiently, but we like these 2-dimensional LED desk lamps either way. At first glance it’s difficult to understand how this lamp is flat, but at closer inspection you’ll see the 3D illusion is achieved with a flat laser-carved acrylic surface. The clever desk accessory comes from Studio Cheha, a design firm located in Tel Aviv, and can be pre-ordered through their Kickstarter project.

More on the lamps