Long live the queen, if she can manage to sit on Niloufar Afnan’s recycled ‘Royal Stool’.
At this year’s New Designers Exhibition in London, Lebanese-born designer Niloufar Afnan decided to poke a little fun at the royal family and demonstrate the possibilities of upcycled furniture. She exhibited Royal Stool (pictured above) and 46 (shown after the jump) – two furniture pieces that show the possibilities of reusing found objects. Both pieces are made from found furniture parts and scrap materials that Afnan collected and assembled in new ways, showing us that with a little creativity and problem solving even broken items can be functional again.
The Royal Stool is made of a British Royal Mall bag that is draped over a plastic bucket and secured with a ring that holds it in place. Alternatively, the bag could be placed over any other type of found object to turn it into a stool.
The 46 table is made out of 46 discarded table legs that have been cut to approximately the same size and melded together. (Afnan’s concept here is somewhat similar to Reddish Studio’s upcycled menorah, made of different sized found candlesticks.)
As opposed to other tables, where the surface of the table is the focal point, Afnan’s 46 table shifts all the attention to the table legs.
A recent graduate of the furniture design program at Central St. Martin’s University in London, we can’t wait to see what else Afnan will make out of the discarded items she finds on the streets of London.
Perhaps her next project will be a chair. On the subject of discarded chairs, Afnan writes that “to create new functions or new forms of present chairs, reveals interesting relationships we trangress to our objects. Whether we chose to discard or to re-arrange, our chairs occupy great space in our habits.”
Read more about recycled furniture:
Godspeed Sustainable Design Team Does Pop Up Shop in Jaffa
Interview with MiKlum Studio, Designers of Furniture Out of Nothing
Ugly Plastic Window Shutters Become Chic, Minimalist Furniture Pieces
Author: Karen Chernick
Much to the disappointment of her Moroccan grandmother, Karen became a vegetarian at the age of seven because of a heartfelt respect for other forms of life. She also began her journey to understand her surroundings and her impact on the environment. She even starting an elementary school Ecology Club and an environmental newsletter in the 3rd grade. (The proceeds of the newsletter went to non-profit environmental organizations, of course.) She now studies in New York. Karen can be reached at karen (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
