Cool Hunting

Toaster Challenge
The household toaster serves a simple purpose, but some models do it better than others. At CH we take this responsibility very seriously, and in hopes of separating the best from the average, we recently pitted four models from different manufacturers in a head-to-heat toast-off and recorded our highly subjective results. The toasters we used were the Alessi SG68, Viking VT200, Breville Smart Toaster BTA820XL...

Bottoms Up Doorbell
A winner of a Red Dot award last year, Peter van der Jagt's Bottoms Up Doorbell is perhaps one of the best examples of repurposed objects we've come across. It's no surprise that it comes from the fertile Dutch collective that is Droog, circa 1994. A magnet (which adds bonus points for its exposed wiring) between two different sized crystal wineglasses creates the classic...

Rise and Fall Floral Love Pillow
Just in time for Valentine's Day, Cool Hunting favorites Rise and Fall created a romantic heart-shaped pillow that wouldn't be complete without their hint of macabre. The Brooklyn-based design collective designed this black and white floral print with skulls cleverly hidden into the pattern (click on image for detailed view). Made by hand, the pillow fits in nicely with Rise and Fall's other efforts...

Liberty Tiles
Trend USA's new collection called Liberty, designed by the skilled Italian mosaic artist Giulio Candussio, is a modern update to the ancient artform perfected by Greek and Roman artists thousands of years ago. The way the hand-cut glass tiles catch light is simply exquisite. (See another image after the jump.) With a material make-up of at least 25% recycled content, your empty beer bottles...

FluffyCo Apparel and Home Decor
Inspired by the San Francisco lifestyle, FluffyCo is an apparel and home decor line featuring original designs printed on high-quality, California-made clothing with environmentally friendly water-based inks. In addition to t-shirts, hoodies and skirts, FluffyCo also features a line of accessories made from Naugahyde and lined with felt, including wallets, iPod cases, eyeglass cases, bag tags and passport covers.Their new home decor line features...

P.A.M. x Undercover Shade Lamp
Using macabre imagery to form an eerily symbolic sculptural piece, Jun Takahashi of Undercover joined forces with P.A.M. to create the Shade Lamp. The scene depicts a tree growing out of (or through?) a skull in a cemetery somewhere with the branches (fittingly) holding the shade. For mood lighting, I like the green and gold eyes, but my favorite part of the lamp has...