The Modern Materialist : Love it or Leave it

Love It or Leave It? Skin Furniture

Laureen Mahler — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:56:00 GMT

My, what a lovely desk and chair set. A little on leggy side, but pretty sleek and... oh dear god, what is that man doing to his desk? It's almost as if he's reaching under its skin! Wait, what? He is reaching under its skin? Ew.

More skin furniture, plus the designer's explanation after the jump:

[Nacho Carbonell]

Designer Nacho Carbonell debuted his Skin Collection at Milan Design Week, and he says it's intended to merge style and convenience. Each piece is covered in a thin elastic layer that serves as "skin," or an extra place to store any number of objects. He also says that his furniture will make you "feel like playing hide and seek." To be honest, I think I just feel a little grossed out.

[via Dezeen]

Love It or Leave It? Show Off Your Armpit Hair

Steph Auteri — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:31:00 GMT

[$38, Miss & Lady's Boutique]

To be perfectly honest, armpit hair grosses me out on both men and women. It tends to trap moisture and smells in a way that makes me feel less than fresh.

If you feel the same as me, perhaps you're wishing you had one of these:

[$47.75, Amazon]

Yup! Your handy dandy weed wacker.

Love It or Leave It: Wool Jewelry

Diana Vilibert — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 21:11:00 GMT

Loving artist Hisano Takei's wool jewelry creations--what do you think? Check out some of the more subtle pieces after the jump. Would you wear them?

[Hisano Takei]

Love It or Leave It? Ram's Head Coffee Table

Steph Auteri — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:19:00 GMT

[$5,200, Belvedere]

On the one hand, this sort of looks like the type of item I wouldn't allow a man to bring along when he moved in with me.

On the other hand, I'm sorta digging the graceful curve of those horns.

Other things I made my man keep under wraps when we combined our stuff:

the CSS poster that came with one of his Sitepoint books
his shot glass collection
his old, ugly bedspread
a cheap-looking napkin holder
his Jarvis Cocker post...um, oh wait. That poster is hot.

[Via Product Dose]

Love It or Leave It? Kashmir Cabinet and Tables

Steph Auteri — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:27:00 GMT

[Cabinet - $293, Plumo; Set of 3 Assorted Tables - $221, Plumo]

Perhaps the real question is: Love it and leave it?

I definitely love this Kashmir cabinet and these side tables, for their personality, and for their bright, cheerful pops of color. But how does one successfully incorporate such a unique piece of furniture into their overall design scheme?

Have you incorporated something similar in your opwn apartment? For the love of god, send pictures! If we get enough, we'll show them off in a followup post.

Love It or Leave It? Boot Pull

Steph Auteri — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:07:00 GMT

[$100, Pedlars]

I love how this product manages to be both practical and completely impractical at once.

This boot pull pulls off those pesky, too-tight boots for you, so that you don't even have to bend over!

But where are you gonna put the damn thing?

Love It or Leave It? Butterfly Table

Steph Auteri — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:01:00 GMT

As much as I love this butterfly table, there's one thing I can't stomach...

...the price! With each butterfly hand-painted at an atelier in Milan, it's no surprise that this table will cost you $14,838.

Is this a job for decoupage?

[Via Apartment Therapy]

Love It or Leave It? Swimming with Jellyfish

Steph Auteri — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:56:00 GMT

The ocean makes me nervous, what with the big waves and the strong undertow and the blood-thirsty sharks. What scares me more than anything, though, are the jellyfish (just looking at this photo makes me reflux).

So basically, if you have this in your backyard pool, I'm never coming over:

[$29.99, Target]

Jellyfish lights? Why? Why!?

[Via Product Dose]

Love It or Leave It? Birdcage-Style Seating

Steph Auteri — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:01:00 GMT

I've already posted about this desktop birdcage caddy. And now it seems I'm seeing purely decorative birdcages everywhere!

If I only had the space, I would so jump on this trend myself. But I don't know about this new offering from Anthropologie:

Pretty? Maybe. Pretty uncomfortable? Probably.

The table is $498, while the chairs are $248 each (available in white, blue, and green).

[Via Apartment Therapy]

Related: Inventory I Lust After: Room Service Home, Design Synthesis: An Office in the Country, Trend Watch: Birdies, Trend Watch: The Nesting Instinct

Love It or Leave It: The Naked Dress

Diana Vilibert — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 19:27:00 GMT

So I think I'm supposed to mock this and denounce it as a crime of fashion, but I must admit, I think it's kind of artsy and badass. And I'm loving that it's not a Playboy body, which makes it a little more wearable. Am I the only one? The backside view after the jump:

What do you think--love it or leave it?

[Cloud Outloud]

Love it or Leave it: Stuck Up Magnet Set

Wendy Atterberry — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:02:00 GMT

If I were a kid, I'd totally want these magnets that look like chewed up pieces of gum so I could stick them on the firdge and freak out my mom. But I'm not s kid. Oh fine, I still kinda want them, and sometimes I eat ice cream for breakfast, too. SUE ME.

[$6, Perpetual Kid]

Love It or Leave It: Five-fingered Slippers

Shaun Seneviratne — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:38:00 GMT

Looks like the Crocs set have found a new comfort shoe that is even more ridiculous looking.

There are just so many things fundamentally wrong with these shoes!

It doesn't take into account that some big toes are fatter than others. And what about people whose second toe extends past the big toe?!

Vibram's tagline "Walk barefoot. Wear fivefingers" is a sham. From what I remember, the best part about walking barefoot is feeling the ground underneath your foot. But maybe that's just me.

[$70, Vibram FiveFingers]

[via Rare Bird Finds]

Love it or Leave it: Sky Planter

Wendy Atterberry — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:05:00 GMT

With a special internal resevoir system, the Sky Planter allows you to hang your plants upside down from your ceiling. Why would you want to do that? Well, the designers say it saves floor space (eh) and you can go a whole month without watering your plants (awesome). But is that really worth the goofiness of hanging a plant upside down from the ceiling?

[via Boskke and Outblush]

Love It or Leave It: Personalized Condoms

Diana Vilibert — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:29:00 GMT

Hm, well I suppose these could be a great way to be remembered at a networking event, in lieu of business cards. I'm voting "leave it"--how about you?

[$31.25, RipNRoll]

Love It or Leave It: A Shitty Lamp

Diana Vilibert — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 14:32:00 GMT

Well, nothing makes a statement like having a toilet plunger lamp hanging in your home. Yes, it's made from a real toilet plunger, and the description claims it's a great addition to the bathroom or kitchen. Thanks, but no thanks. What do you think--love it or leave it?

[$75, I Love Blocks]

Related: Don't Take The Plunger!

Love It or Leave It? Hand Vase

Diana Vilibert — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 17:58:00 GMT

Last week I posted about the coolest vase ever. Today, I'm posting about the most questionable:

Love it or leave it? While I certainly like receiving flowers, this perpetually outstretched hand is a little much. Besides, when it's not holding flowers, this hand vase just looks like it's about to punch you in whichever one of your body parts is unfortunate enough to come across it first.

[$95, Elsewares]

Love It or Leave It? Venetian Blind T-Shirts

Steph Auteri — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:30:00 GMT

[$65, Zakka]

Designed by alt-t-shirt designers Shikisai, the string hanging from the blinds on this shirt is real, allowing you to pull on it in order to bare your midriff.

For those too lazy to flash others the conventional way?

[Via Gizmodo]

Love It or Leave It? Musical Dining

Steph Auteri — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:30:00 GMT

This table — still in the design stage — has a mechanism like a marimba. When you put objects on various points of it, you hear various sounds. Could this be fun? Or would it get old fast? Vote after the jump.

Related: Bang the Air Drums Slowly

Love It or Leave It? Upper and Lowercase Scarves

Steph Auteri — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:30:00 GMT

[$52, Little Factory]

[Via Design Milk]

Love It or Leave It? Nintendo Wall Decals

Steph Auteri — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 19:30:00 GMT

[$75, Blik]

Though I've since proven too lazy even for wall decals, the nostalgic in me finds these appealing.

[Via geeksugar]

Love It or Leave It? Nostalgic Polaroid Pin

Steph Auteri — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:00:00 GMT

[$14, Fred Flare]

These laser-cut wood brooches are large and unwieldy-looking but, after since the death of Polaroids, Polaroid nostalgia has been popping up everywhere. So does the nostalgia factor make these pins hip, or are they just hideous? Vote after the jump.

[Via geeksugar]

Love It or Leave It? The Webble

Steph Auteri — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:00:00 GMT

[Available in August]

What's the Webble? It's...um...something to do with your feet if you're the fidgety type. Demo tape and poll after the jump:

[Via Product Dose]

Love It or Leave It? Portable Cardboard Table

Steph Auteri — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Though I suppose the question isn't so much whether or not you love it as what in heck you'd need to carry around a table for. Leave your ideas in the comments!

[Via Inhabitat]

Love It or Leave It? Trophy Wall Lamp

Steph Auteri — Fri, 16 May 2008 18:30:00 GMT

Does high cost equal good taste?

[$7,500, Generate]

I'm thinking no.

[Via GearCrave]

Love It or Leave It? BBQ Sword

Steph Auteri — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:30:00 GMT

[£14.95, Luckies]

I have trouble understanding myself...ah, well. Vote after the jump.

[Via GearFuse]

Love It Or Leave It: Shadow Magic

Alex Zalben — Tue, 06 May 2008 22:00:00 GMT

There’s no way I can properly write about this toy without talking about the terrible event in history it reminds me of, so I’m not even going to bother, and just give you the specs:

Made up of a light emitter, a slice of reusable photo sensitive paper, and a light pen, the Shadow Magic let’s you capture your shadow on paper, then draw lines and other little bits of cartooning around it, with the light pen. That’s all I have to say!

[$25, Perpetual Kid]

[Via Nerd Approved]

Love it or Leave it: Hand Soap

Wendy Atterberry — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:00:00 GMT

And you thought this hand soap was creepy. This soap is perfect for...?

[$9.99, Spencers]

[via Gearfuse]

Love It or Leave It? Fake Tat Tees

Steph Auteri — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:00:00 GMT

I remember reading awhile back about fake tattoo sleeves on Gawker or whatnot, but I didn't realize that there was an an entire clothing line!

Now, I used to wear temporary tattoos all the time growing up, mostly because of my biker-wannabe phase.

And I once got myself an upper-arm bracelet, because I thought it was vaguely tattoo-like.

But. Well.

Additional pieces after the jump:

[$80, Sleeves]

[$64, Sleeves]

[$30, Sleeves]

[$24, Sleeves]

[$98, Sleeves]

Love it or Leave it? Inflatable Toast Mattress

Wendy Atterberry — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:00:00 GMT

I love toast. And I love my bed. I even love eating toast in bed...But an inflatable toast bed? Um...I don't know about that. Your thoughts?

[$169,95, McPhee]

[via ProductDose]

Love it or Leave It: Stinky Hippie Body Wash

Wendy Atterberry — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Urban Outfitters is hawking "hippie body wash" now, which begs the question: what's the difference between a hippie and a hipster? And which group is really shopping at UO?

[$15, Urban Outfitters]