Small spaces can be a pain to furnish, as so much furniture is made for the average house and not the average city dweller’s apartment. I can remember trying to cram a full size bed, a closet, a dresser, and a desk into the one-room apartment I occupied just out of college. There were no built in storage fixtures, so the closet and the dresser were non-negotiable. As I was working part-time from home, the desk was also necessary. Everything that didn’t fit into those pieces of furniture either lived on top (as was the case with the television) or under something else. It worked, but wasn’t at all nice to look at.

Tumidei in Italy could have saved me some organizational headaches — though not money — with their unique space-saving solutions for tiny bedrooms and apartments.

The company creates clean and modern furniture set ups that incorporate most or all of the furnishings one needs into a single unified whole, and the pieces can be fitted together in numerous ways, meaning you can customize your order to fit precisely into the space you have available. All in all, it’s an elegant solution to a problem many people face… if not a solution that’s exactly easy to implement.

Elizabeth Symington uses found objects to create striking works of art whose meaning isn’t immediately apparent. Though she’s a sighted artist, she developed a fascination with Braille, and has since developed various art projects that use Braille paired with objects to describe color.

As she describes it, “This white plywood flashcard describes color by pairing a material with a color. The Braille says the color that the object represents. Under the object, such as the ballet shoes, it reads white. This means the texture of the smooth leather represents white.” I don’t know how effective her ‘descriptions’ would be to a vision impaired individual, but I do think the idea itself is very, very cool.

Check out Symington’s Etsy shop at NomadicSculptor. Her web site and blog are also worth a look.

German company Surrealien creates custom wallpaper that warps around the “influencing elements” on your walls. Anything from picture frames to outlet covers affect the pattern created using computers and a grid system that generates exact warping functions.

The end result is a playful wallcovering that celebrates continuity in a new way.

Whereas the patterns in traditional wallpapers are broken by anything interrupting the natural flatness of the wall itself, Warping wallpaper functions as a “sensitive gobetween,” according to the company’s web site. Of course, while it is rather clever, installing it in your home does mean that you’re stuck with your current orientation of wall art, windows, and electrical outlets until you’re ready to change up your wallpaper.

Sculptor Margaret Dorfman is definitely a fan of playing with one’s food, if her gorgeous veggie and fruit bowls are any indication. She takes edibles and turns them into art.

Her medium includes beets, cantaloupe, bok choy, papayas, carrots, watermelons, and peppers, among other natural foodstuffs, all of which are preserved in a 10-day process involving no harsh chemicals.

The paper thin bowls are finished with a coating that ensures freshness (and beauty) will be maintained. The fun part, as I see it, is that the finished product looks almost artificial, so those who feel inclined to pay $34 for a bit of fancifully prepared produce end up with a truly unique conversation piece.