Luxury Housing Trends & Home Improvement Ideas

If you like the rustic look and love the idea of furniture made from reclaimed wood instead of new timber, then here’s a piece you can check out:

This douglas fir platform bed is sustainably hand-made using wood from old buildings found in the Los Angeles area. The boards are 12″ – 13″ wide and frame the queen-sized bed, replacing the need for side tables. “Substantial and airy at the same time, the clearing underneath the bed allows for tons of light to pass under.”

The bed is the work of Croft House, an Etsy seller with a number of reclaimed furnishings to offer. This particular piece will run you $1750.

Tired of all that flimsy, wobbly furniture from the big box stores? You know, the kind you have to assemble yourself… Well, there’s nothing like sturdy hand-made pieces to stand the test of time.

This coffee table will do just that. Offered on Etsy by Thai Slab Furniture, the one-of-a-kind piece is made from exotic mango wood. The use of cross-sections of the trunk rather than boards gives it a unique look.

You can have the piece custom made as a coffee table or dining table with parameters to fit your home. The version seen below costs $1,600.

Browse the seller’s store for other slab-wood furnishings.

Looking for an outdoor furniture set that will stand up well to the sun and rain while looking good as well?

You might check into this Outdoor Patio Cantina Egg Conversation Set.

Egg, you ask?

“The five-piece set includes four chairs and a matching round conversation table. For storage, the smaller chairs stack into the larger ones, fitting together to form egg-shaped units.” That makes the seating set easy to store at the end of the summer.

The furniture set is made from “an ultra durable” woven rattan PE that “looks great and stands up to the elements.”

You can order it online for $2,500.

If you enjoy selecting pieces of beautiful furniture as opposed to assemble-it-yourself doodads from the big box stores, you’re likely to appreciate the idea of cabinets made by graphic designers.

The Cabinet Tout va Bien is the work of Parisian graphic artists Antoine Audiau and Manuel Warosz. While it’s not a one-of-a-kind piece, it’s certainly unique enough that your guests will think so.

“The cabinet they have designed for this new collection brought out by BD Barcelona Design is a surprising mixture of applied arts, hieroglyphic language, contemporary graphics, fantasy and optimism. It is produced with the quality of yesterday but using today’s technologies.

Body and shelf made in black or white MDF laquered. Doors, plain top and sides in integral polyurethane injection. Feet of solid alder wood in one piece, lacquered and micro-textured in the same colour as the doors.”

More information.

Are you a wine connoisseur who wasn’t blessed with the space needed for a dedicated wine cellar down in the basement? Well, join the club. That doesn’t mean you can’t keep lots of your favorite vintages on hand though.

The Vinotheque Connoisseur Corner Wine Cabinet from Wine Enthusiast can hold up to 260 bottles while occupying a relatively small footprint in the corner of your dining room or kitchen.

“The Connoisseur’s Cabinet represents a completely new and innovative style of fine, furniture wine storage. Designed to fit perfectly in the corner of your room, it saves space while making an absolutely beautiful wine focal point. The front of the cabinet is a showcase where you can display as many as 28 bottles of your best wine. The Cabinet stores up to 260 bottles at ideal temperature and humidity, with Vinotheque’s world famous Whisperkool technology. It’s top-vented to fit flush to the wall. Options include a choice of door styles and finishes as well as interior light and security locks.”

This cabinet is no Ikea special though. It’ll cost you $6,000+ and don’t forget shipping!

If you love your weekly poker game, but you don’t have room in the house for a dedicated man (or woman) cave complete with poker table, there may be a solution….

The folks over at Stine Game Tables do all sorts of custom work, including poker tables of various colors, sizes, and shapes, as well as some handy versions that double as a dining table. A custom wood top fits over the gaming area, so it looks just like a standard eating surface most of the time (actually, these are pretty nice tables, so “standard” might not be the right word). And then, when it’s game night, you simply remove the top portion and voila: your beautiful poker table awaits beneath.

The company offers all sorts of customization options as well, such as choice of colors, pedestals, chip racks, and even non-standard table shapes. Want a logo or perhaps your initials monogrammed on the surface? No problem. Browse their gallery for cool ideas.

If you live in a big industrial loft, and you want to fill the space with furniture with some heft and a style that’s suited to all those exposed bricks and ducts, then look no further than Railroad Studios.

This outfit makes desks, beds, tables, and lesser household accessories using reclaimed railroad ties. These aren’t the ties that were actually on the ground and treated with creosote–these are seconds that weren’t good enough to go into rail use:

“These ties were singled out because of excessive knots, splits, warps or other imperfections. While those features make those ties less than ideal for running 180,000 pound rail cars over them, they add great character to our pieces.”

If you do grab one of these pieces of furniture for your loft (or anyplace else), make sure you’ve got some help to move it to the proper place. If you’ve ever hefted a railroad tie for a landscaping project, you know how much mass they have, so expect these desks and beds to be heavy! Hey, no need to worry about burglars breaking in to steal them….

Check the Railroad Studios home page for a blog and lots of cool gallery pictures.

Looking for a more contemporary dining table? Maybe you need to mark the new dining area with an ‘X’, literally.

The Simon X Table Base from Pier 1 Imports is a fun way to do dining. This table base features a classic graphic design, and it’s available in both white and red, depending on how colorful you want to get. The base measures 33” W x 33” D x 29.5” H, and it’s made to fit glass tops measuring 36”, 42” or 48”.

Add upholstered or wood seating to this table base for a beautifully simple yet elegant look. You can seat four to six people with the largest glass table top option, so it’s perfect for immediate family, or you can use it as the kid’s table for holiday meals.

Always on the go? Well, maybe you need to make your kitchen more efficient for your lifestyle. If you don’t have time to sit down at the table, you can make yourself something quick right at the kitchen counter and eat there.

Add Swivel Bar Stools to your kitchen counter or island, and enjoy quick breakfasts, lunches or dinners right where you prepare the food. Kitchen bar stools are ideal when you have kids too, because you can have them sit right at the kitchen island for breakfast, prepare the food, have them eat it and rush them off to the bus.

Adding bar stools to the kitchen also increases the seating capacity too. So you will have more chairs for guests as well as family.

Teak furniture is becoming a hot trend for summer outdoor living this year. With a weather-hardy exterior and rich tones, it’s no wonder why this wood is popular for furniture.

The Anderson Teak Bahama Rectangular Extension Table makes for a nice addition to your patio or backyard. If you always have extra guests or are just a type of person who likes to be prepared, a user-friendly extension table is exactly what you need.

This table features a built-in butterfly pop-up leaf, enabling you to easily open and close the table when you need or don’t need more space. This table measures 29” x 39” x 6.5′, and it extends to 10′, providing you with space to seat 10 to 12 people if necessary.