Design news: tidy ideas for tight spaces

Book of the Week

Designs for Small Spaces by Jennifer Hudson (Laurence King £19.95)
For the growing number of people renting properties who want to transform a tight space into a functinal designer home that they can pack up and take away again, this book is a brilliant source of information. Divided into chapters headed Structural, Compact, Flexible, Multifunctional etc, it offers product descriptions, websites and lots of advice.

Foppapedretti

This Italian company has cornered the market in smart storage solutions but only just launched in the UK. Its solidly-built laundry dryers, ironing boards, clothes’ racks, tables and chairs all fold, flap and disappear. The Lilliput (£150/£169) is a laundry dryer designed to fit into the shower. Stand-Up sits over the bath (£95/£99) and the Copernico table (£650/£690) seats two to eight people, while its hidden compartment stores up to six folding Moon chairs (from £85 each). See colours.ltd.uk/foppapedretti.

Timorous Beasties

An Italian company called nobodyandco has designed an ingenious chair that also stores books called Bibliochaise. Made from wood and leather, it is available in a variety of colour combinations but it is a hefty £4,270. From Timorous Beasties, 46 Amwell Street , EC1 (020 7833 5010); see timorousbeasties.com.

Dyson

Earlier this year Dyson launched its smallest-ever bagless vacuum cleaner called CD26, aimed at space-poor city-dwellers. It could sit onto a piece of A4 sized paper. All the 275 parts have all been re-engineered, to retain all the suction power of its bigger cousins, and it works all on surfaces - carpet, wood or ceramic. Listed on dyson.co.uk as costing £264.37 but currently £184 on amazon.co.uk.

John Green

John Green’s single broomstick-style coat rack ticks all the boxes. Made from lightweight ramin hardwood and sturdy powder-coated steel in various colours it looks good and will accommodate lots of clothes and coats. It costs £80. Call 07746 131 871 or see johngreendesigns.co.uk.

Indian Ocean

Perfect for renters wanting to create atmosphere in a small room without a fireplace this Bio Fuel fire has no need for installation, no chimney or flue, no connection to mains fuel and it is easily transportable. Since it runs on sustainable, renewable Bio Fuel, which is made from sugar components of plants. it releases no emissions either. The fuel costs £4 a litre which will burn for around 6 hours. Available in green, white or black Vulcan costs £995 from Indian Ocean, which has just launched its first collection of indoor fires.
Call 020 8675 4808 or see indian-ocean.co.uk

Joseph Joseph

Morph’s nest of coloured plastic stacking bowls is one of the many space-saving ideas in the kitchen from Joseph Joseph. The collections range from Nest 3 (two bowls and lemon squeezer for £15) up to Nest 8 (£35), which comprises four measuring cups, a small mixing bowl, a seive, a colander and a large mixing bowl. See josephjoseph.com.

Kate Malone

Internationally renowned ceramicist Kate Malone doesn’t do things by halves. Her newest exhibition is a riot of beautifully coloured pots, 6 of them big enough for Ali Baba. Inspired by organic forms, her shapes are generous and the highly-coloured crystalline glazes both inside and out are luscious. Her pots look as if they are still growing, almost bursting out of their glowing clay skins. Malone is widely collected but the prices of her smaller pieces remain affordable. For more information, visit katemaloneceramics.com.