Do you remember 80’s pop legends, Thompson Twins? I’m not quite old enough to have a good memory of the 80’s music scene, but I do know that the Thompson Twins were a big part of it. So what has happened to the band members since then? Well, If you’re Alannah Currie, one third of the synth-heavy pop group, you become an “armchair destructivist”. Part artist, part upholsterer, Currie combines upholstery and taxidermy under the moniker Miss Pokeno to create surreal furniture artworks. Who would’ve thought that a red velvet armchair combined with two entwined foxes (Currie is a vegetarian and the animals in her work are either roadkill or died naturally) would produce such a beautiful but disturbing place to sit and read the newspaper?

See A Collection of Chairs to honor the Godless by Miss Pokeno from the 8 May 2008 - 8 June 2008 at The Ragged School, 47 Union Street London, SE1 1SG

Where next on the map? I love to travel, and maps hold a special allure for me. They present suggestions and possibilities of new experiences to be had. Which is why I quite like Future Maps by Digitile. The company has created a modern redesign of the Cylindrical Equal Area Projection and made it available for people to cover their walls with on a massive scale via wallpaper or tiles. It’s an opportunity to cover your walls in something more interesting and educational than a tin of white paint

Tables, algorithms, trees and elephants legs. I’m completely taken with the organic branch like legs of the Arborism Table by Eisuke Tachikawa of Nosigner. Although they remind me of the long spindley legs of the surrealist elephants that Dali often featured in his paintings, the design was actually born out of the calculations of a fractal algorithm.

See more work by Nosigner.

Create your own Persian rug! Made from a recyclable mixture of synthetic and natural rubber, this modular flooring design from Katrin Sonnleitner allows you to create your own persian style rug from jigsaw shaped pieces. Everytime you get bored of the pattern, just break it all up and start all over again.

See more work by Katrin Sonnleitner.

Ashamed of your cheap corporate style office chair? Day in, day out, you’re sat in that horrid aesthetically unpleasing office chair. Isn’t it time you gave it a new lease of life? Thanks to the designs of Chenhui Su, with a quick cover you can transform your everyday seating into a Victorian style chair, or perhaps an Eames Lounge Chair or Eero Saarinen Tulip Chair.

Visit the website of Chenhui Su.

Did you know that on average, two new Starbucks have opened every day since 1987? With Starbucks attacking on all fronts, it’s refreshing to see something as uniquely glorious as London Tea shop Teasmith fighting back against the growing coffee mono-culture.

Owner John Kennedy, a self-confessed ‘tea geek’, runs the contemporary teahouse offering customers the world’s best teas amidst a beautifully designed interior created by Jonathan Clark Architects. Accompanied by Miss Random Fashion Coolness, I visited the teahouse this weekend, and instantly fell in love with the place. As if the beautiful hanging bare bulbs of the interior design weren’t enough to turn me on, the teas, biscuits and chocolates (by master Chocolatie William Curley, no less) certainly finished the job. Although, the absolute jewel in the crown is reserved for the owner, John Kennedy. Never have I experienced such warmth and enthusiasm from the owner of any establishment. Even though we were just another couple of customers off the street for all he knew, he took the time to educate us in the culture of tea and the skills involved in making the perfect cuppa. Christ knows how he gets anything done if he’s as attentive to every customer as he was to us this weekend.

I’ve completely forgotten what teas we tried, as I was so engrossed in Kennedy’s tales of the tea world, but guided recommendation using his wealth of knowledge, resulted in experiencing some of the finest tea I’d ever tasted. However, I can definitely recommend accompanying your tea with the chocolate dipped fruit, and salty Miso flavoured biscuits (I know, right? Salty biscuits? Sounds so wrong, but incredibly it works so right!)

If you live in the capital, or you’re just passing through, make sure you take a pit-stop at Teasmith. Saturday is a great day to go, when the nearby Spitalfields market is closed, and it’s quiet. I can’t recommend it enough. Go and experience the best the world has to offer in tea, guided by one of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet.

Teasmith is located at 6 Lamb Street, London.

Without sounding like a character from Willy Wonka… I want a Golden Egg! To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the iconic ‘Egg Chair’ designed by Arne Jacobsen in 1958, Fritz Hansen have produced a very special limited edition of the chair. The 999 limited edition chairs available are made with “wild elegance leather” and suede in a soft chocolate brown colour, with a hand polished solid bronze base and christened The Golden Egg

See The Golden Egg microsite from Fritz Hansen.

Waste not, want not. The award winning London designers Steven Smith and James Wosiek, collectively known as Thabto have produced a range of products produced from salvaged car seatbelts. The highly engineered safety components, which would of otherwise been destined for life in the scrap yard, are transformed into desirable products.

As I keep misplacing my keys, I could really use one of the keyholders they’ve produced. This wall mounted key holder cleverly changes the context of the buckle, while retaining the “arriving and leaving” element of using a seatbelt. Over time, plugging in your keys becomes as much of a habit as putting on you’re seatbelt.

See more from Thabto.

Fresh home and interiors porn. As people might have gathered by other posts such as this,
this or this, I like looking at cool houses and interiors. So I’m glad someone pointed me in the direction of Fresh Locations for another junkie fix.

See all the wonderful media shoot locations available at Fresh Locations.

eBay - the international flea market. Sometimes, you’ve gotta love eBay. Whilst it’s often full of scams and cut-price junk, if you’re lucky (and by ‘lucky’, I mean ‘obsessive’) you can occasionally find vintage gems. I’ve been an eBay convert ever since I bought an amazing vintage chesterfield sofa for 50p, but now my love for eBay is strengthened by another recent purchase. I managed to nab a vintage 60’s Semi light pendant.

These arc-shaped enamelled metal lights were designed by architects Claus Bonderup and Torsten Thorup in 1967 and produced by the innovative Danish lighting company Fog & Morup. The Semi was produced in a number of sizes, with each one being individually manufactured by hand by a skilled metalworker. The process involved spinning a 1.5mm thick aluminium plate onto a steel form and moulding it into shape with a thick leather-covered baton. I’ve seen several smaller versions of the Semi pop up on ebay, but never one of the huge large versions - so when I found someone in Denmark offering one, I had to have it! So eBay comes through for me again.

Find your unique vintage treasure on eBay (just don’t outbid me on all the cool stuff I want!)