There’s no winning in the game of blogging home decor and accessories and design because you can’t please all of the people all of the time. That’s cool; it’s all part of the fun. I know that utramod isn’t everyone’s cup of tea – when I’ve gone through my mod phases, I’ve gotten complaints – but I have to show off some of the sweet gear from Germany’s Pulpo. The brand, if that’s what you’d call it, works in cooperation with some absolutely fabulous designers to release furniture, lighting, and accessories that explore the essence of the things we find in our homes.

This table, it is the bomb?

A classic clock, pared down some. Or a lot.

Simply natural tea towel hangers, or nature made better.

Don't toss that box!

The essence of lamp?

A pair of antlers I can actually get behind.

I love them all – even the box table, which I think may be the most controversial product in the lineup. And even though nothing from Pulpo comes cheap. What do you think? Could you find a place for a little ultramod in your own home, even if you’re more of a traditionalist?

First it was kitchen chairs versus kitchen benches, not it’s beds versus hammocks. Before you say ‘Whaaaa?’ consider that I’ve featured some pretty weird beds in the past: a bed without a mattress from Linda Topic and beds with feelings and a bed made of filing cabinets, all spring to mind. But all of that seems pretty normal to me compared to a small space solution I read recently. Which was ditch the bed, and get a hammock.

A hammock? A hanging-from-the-walls honest to goodness hammock. And not a chic queen size hammock bed like this fancy number from Le Beanock:

Now this I could do...

I’m talking about a straight up piece of fabric hanging by two points that is a bit more, er, enveloping than your average bed. A bed like the sailors of old crashed out on between watches. A hammock like you might buy at Amazon and is meant for outdoor use. A hammock like this one perhaps. I guess I can see it as a space-saving measure in the tiniest of New York or Tokyo apartments.

But does anyone else’s back hurt just thinking about ditching a traditional bed to make space and sleeping in a hammock instead? Because mine sure does!

Designer Bjørn Jørund Blikstad’s unusual bookshelves, known as Imeüble, fool the eye and bend the mind. At least from far away. As optical illusions go, at least these colorful and weird bookshelves serve as storage, as well as acting as art. Blikstad’s creation appears to be 2D from far off – and even in the pictures, my brain is trying to tell me two things at once – but Imeüble exists squarely in the 3D realm.

But it’s all smoke and shadows – every nook is capable of holding books and plants and whatever else needs storing.

Every square is a shelf!

And yet my brain says Q*Bert

This project is apparently Blikstad’s attempt to understand the concept of storage by “looking at it, not as a practical issue involving the storage of known objects, but in sync with our memory; comparing the mental storage capacity with the actual.”

I don’t know if I get all that from it, but still. Very cool, no?

Here’s how it works:

Step: Acquire a pile of thick comforters

Step 2: Pile up prettily

Step 3: Cuddle up and sleep

It’s a design by Linda Topic and certainly an interesting bed concept, but the impression I get is that it would only be comfortable until all that bedding compressed into a dense pancake of feathers and fill.

Ladies and gentlemen, I need your help today. I’m in one of those mental places where I find myself torn between two different opinions. So you tell me, because I just can’t decide… Is this chair from Meritalia ugly? Or really, really freaking ugly?

Now that The Beard and I are on the verge of having a bedroom again, I find myself inspired by this bedroom in the tiny apartment now deceased Canadian designer Tobi Wong lived in from 1998 to 2003. Specifically, I find myself drawn to the bed, which is nothing more than a a futon mattress placed on a large piece of plywood balanced on five steel filing cabinets.

Maybe I wouldn’t use filing cabinets… how about two beautiful desks or dressers that one could use to contain all of the detritus of living? Or similarly, a few low-slung benches with drawers? All in all, there are lots of ways to create a DIY platform bed that looks cool and gives you some serious extra storage space, and most of them aren’t as industrial as this.