Johanna Eliason, a student at the School of Design and Crafts at Göteborg University, has created a classy shoe rack called Skorder (sko is shoe in Swedish). The rack resembles a stack of shoeboxes and each shelf or cubby is covered in gold leaf. Perfect for any shoeaholic. Skorder spruces up any shoe collection by providing a display venue that makes shoes look as good as they once did in the store.

+ The Long Life Light by Anatomic Factory takes its cue from UHT milk, but in the place of milk uses a long-life bulb.

+ Smokers’ Island is an ashtray by Alessandro Loschiavo for Alianteedizioni that will be launched at the upcoming Salone del Mobile. The candle in the centre of the ashtray absorbs the cigarette smoke. Via Elmanco.

+ The Hevruta Mituta by Studio Armadillo is a chessboard that uses hand-knitted skullcaps made by female Yeshiva students in Israel.

+ Copenhagen’s Philip Grass proposes a prototype for Accelerate, a high-speed sofa.

+ The Arquiteta bookshelf by Eduardo Baroni was just released in Sao Paulo. Arquiteta, plywood with a wood veneer, is easily assembled without tools.

Around the Corner is the name of an exhibition of four pieces of furniture by architect Amanda Levete of Future Systems for Established & Sons. These pieces focus on how to make use of the corner of a room and are sexy, intelligent designs that are very organic and fluid. Levete looks at the relationship between space and object, and each piece is named after a point on the compass. North is a fibreglass shelf and South is set of two Corian shelves. East is a marble table/desk and West a wooden bench.

+ establishedandsons.com

We were impressed with Cate&Nelson Design at IMM Cologne. Now the Swedish-based studio is showing three products at the Stockholm Furniture Fair. The Oz is a low chair that offers a variety of coloured felt to sit upon, almost like the pages of a book. When the mood changes, turn the page. The Fiat Lux lamp is also book-related, with a slot to hold the book you were reading when you turned off the light. And Tacto is a felt-covered sideboard that functions as a seat and hides a spacious drawer.

+ catenelson.com

+ Inspired by abandoned Christmas trees, 5.5 Designers created these lamps out the trunks. Tiny Christmas baubles hang as part of the switch.

+ Beth Fuller’s Junkture Table is made from a magnesium wheel rim, rescued from a New York junkyard and surrounded by opaque black glass, giving it an LP (remember those?) sort of look, floating above the ground.

+ The Snee-oosh cabin by Zero Plus Architects is a getaway from urban Seattle in what Zero Plus hopes will become a style of new modern reservation architecture. The cabin is an assembled lean-to that works with the 100’ fir trees that surrounded it.

Storage systems that are easy on the eye are always sought after and here are a few - some familiar, some quite new - that were worthy of a second look at IMM. The Draw chest of drawers by Morgen is a practical way to keep a lot of small items out of sight. The Shelving Chair by Jun Murakoshi is a modular system made up of chairs, while Piegato by Matthias Ries folds out as needed. Also interesting were pieces by Lifegoods and Cubeseven, and it is fun to see Wrongwoods by Established & Sons in context.