Automotive enthusiasts and racing fans are always looking to inject a little octane into their everyday lives. For some, that could mean carrying a carbon fiber briefcase to work. For others, it could mean sitting on chairs modeled on racing seats. But if you're looking for something a little simpler, a little more low-key than the racing-bucket office chairs we reported on earlier, the Formula.Chair by Matthias Demacker could fit the bill. The award-winning German designer styled these chairs – available in a variety of configurations, colors and trims – after the molded bucket seats found in F1 racing cars. Its simplicity is its beauty, and suddenly other chairs look like they belong in the slow lane.

Ligne Roset, a high-end, family-run (since 1860) furniture line that offers a range of products from furniture to lighting to upholstery, opened its first concept store, in Austin. The company focuses on smaller-scale, more design-forward pieces, and, unlike many of its competitors, allows consumers to purchase select pieces from the showroom and take them home directly. Some of its signature pieces are the origami-inspired Facett collection and Pierre Paulin's 1954 Tanis Desk. See the gallery for a few shots of the store.

Every morning on my way to work I pass by a piano store that is going out of business. Pianos are a luxury item not selling too well in this economic climate. But one piano maker has found a way to adapt. The Czech piano maker Petrof is switching from making beautiful wood grand pianos to making lacquered kitchen furniture and other home deocr items.

Petrof makes pianos all by hand and have seen their orders plummet over the past year. The company has decided to start making luxury furniture to help diversify. It is currently making equal amounts of pianos and furniture. The brand has outlasted both world wars as well as a communist regime and this isn't the first time Petrof has had to get creative. In the 1930s, it produced wooden railway sleeper cars and in times of war it made grenade boxes.

On the Petrof website the company shows a pictures of a glossy conference table, kitchen cabinets and a wood and glass cigar humidor. So far, according to an AFP article, the business strategy has worked. Orders for the furniture are up and they have found that clients in Russia are willing to spend 70-100,000 euros to redecorate their kitchens.

Luxury car company, Bentley has found a new way to help keep jobs, it has put its employees to work making furniture. The factory in Crewe employs a team of skilled woodworkers to make the gleaming walnut Bentley dashboard and wood trim. The Daily Telegraph reports that 140 members of the staff are using off-cuts from the walnut wood to make cabinets, occasional tables and furniture for the reception area at the Crewe factory. It also plans to use the furniture in Bentley showrooms and could even come out with a line for the public if there is enough demand. One of the cabinets is on display at the Geneva motor show. It's a clever move for the company which has recently had to cut jobs and slow production to keep pace with a decline in orders.

It's the most iconic image in rock 'n' roll: that sleekly contoured and lustily potent electric guitar commonly known as the Strat. With that in mind, two entrepreneurs in Portland, Oregon, have designed a boutique line of furniture based on the Fender Stratocaster and the company's almost-as-recognizable amps.

The outfit is called Fender Custom Furniture. It is independent from the instrument manufacturing company founded by Leo Fender in Fullerton, Calif., in 1946, but licenses its products through them. Hence the unmistakable detailing on the Deluxe Stratocaster Coffee Table ($750), a 4-foot-long version of the Strat's solid maple, vintage-finished headstock. The piece, which sits on three chrome-plated legs and is 15 inches high, has six tuning peg caps (made of inlaid steel disks) and silk-screened Fender lettering. For a third the price, there's the Standard Stratocaster Table, with the same dimensions only composite wood and silk-screened pegs.

The line also includes "hot seats" ($180) in the shape of Fender's Blackface and Tweed amps. They're essentially hollow cubes with a cushioned seat that pops up to reveal storage space when you turn a volume knob that's straight out of the Fender inventory. You can practically hear the reverb.

Miami-based furniture designer Facundo Poj believes in the freedom of the line. His bamboo designs extend from the idea of continuing a single stroke of a line on a paper. His pieces are made of Plyboo, bamboo-based plywood. He layers the Plyboo with non-toxic glue and threads them with oak dowels to create designs that are solid but soft-edged. All of his pieces are limited editions or unique.

He also makes" re-incarnated" pieces from airplane parts, antique bathtubs and other finds. My favorite is the 727 jet lounge made from two aluminum Boeing 727 emergency exit doors, steel legs and a covering of Argentine cowhide. The cow hide comes from Argentinean "Holando-Argentina" cows, milking cows which are allowed to grow old and live a full life before they are sacrificed. This is, as Facundo Poj puts it "experienced skin." I asked Facundo just how he got his hands on a pair of airplane doors. He says he lives near an airline graveyard in South Florida and established a relationship with the manager and buys some parts before they are recycled. The piece above is at the Avant Gallery in the Miami Design District and sells for $4500. He has also made a long sofa out of the landing flaps from the wing of a large DC-10 jet.

A video of Facundo Poj hard at work is after the jump.

Wow, this looks like a comfortable chair -- nothing like a big luxe beanbag for relaxing in after a long day at work (that guy modeling looks totally passed out). The ROO chair is part of Woodnotes' Spring 2009 collection, and although it looks and feels like a beanbag it's filled with a material that's guaranteed to maintain its shape. There's also a smaller version, the MY chair, that's more for sitting comfortably, as opposed to lounging or laying down on the ROO. MY $1,500, ROO $1,900.

Via ForbesLife

More than just the La-Z-Boy for the wealthy, Inada's Sogno massage chair (above) can give you a healthier back -- and shoulder, arm, and fingertip.

The Sogno chair (pronounced "SOHN-yo") was the winner of the CES Innovation Award for 2009, for its impeccable balance of comfort, functionality, and design. Songo, which means "dream" in Italian, can massage over 1,200 square inches of you as you sit in it, including from your shoulder to your fingertip. That's more than any other chair on the market. Doesn't that sound nice? It gets better:

"Every Sogno massage begins with an infrared body scan that compares a user's profile to 106 stored body profiles. Advanced robotics and differentially applied then mimic the hand movements of a human massage therapist, providing the widest range of variation and choreography in kneading, tapping, and sophisticated stroke combinations." -- Inada

$6,000 doesn't seem like too much to pay for an infrared scan and a full-body massage every time you sit down to watch TV. You can purchase the chair from HealthyBack.

What do you sit in after taking off your $150,000 Hermès crocodile peacoat? A $24,000 Hermès crocodile chair, of course. The newest incarnation of the French luxury goods house's classic Pippa folding chair design is finished in the world's finest matte black crocodile skin, with an ebonized maple frame and nickel plated hardware. The limited edition crocodile Pippa is based on an original designed in pear wood and saddle leather 20 years ago by architect and designer Rena Dumas, wife of Hermès President Jean-Louis Dumas-Hermès. It has now expanded into a collection of elegant foldable indoor and outdoor furniture.

[via JustLuxe]

Nothing brightens up a room like a mirror. It distributes light and creates the illusion of more space. In Feng Shui, it is recommended to hang a mirror opposite the door of a room (harmony or vanity, the world may never know).

One way to take even greater advantage of the reflective benefits of mirrors is to incorporate mirrored furniture. Nothing looks cleaner than a perfect mirrored panel, and nothing sparkles day and night with such pristine glamour.

Horchow currently has an excellent selection of mirrored furniture, for example the "Autumn" mirrored chest at right. As you can see, the mirrors make the decorated chest a standout piece of furniture, and special enough to give as a gift. See the gallery for more items, and pick up a pair of vintage gloves from Vintage Hat Box to avoid smudging.

I'm somebody who loves to switch things up pretty regularly, but with most furniture there's only so much you can do, like put it on the left side of the room or the right, under the window or across from it, etc. The swiTCh Table & Chair by Ellen Ectors, however, opens up a whole new world of function and design possibilities. Created to serve the multi-purpose needs of today's modern consumer, swiTCh can be a table, a chair, or a table and a chair at the same time. It combines cube and sphere with hard and soft to be a truly versatile and interesting addition to a room. Each set is 100% Belgian, 100% handmade, and numbered to be 100% individual.

Via cut 'n' paste weblog

The latest furniture collection from Florence Collections is the Atlantique Collection.

As you can see above, the style is eclectic art deco, with warm colors and sparkling details. Every single item looks like the featured item in the room, and yet together, the pieces don't look garish or over the top. Even those chandeliers seem classic and understated when complemented with the warm chairs and dark wood.

The Atlantique Collection is aptly named, as many of these items look as though they belong on a yacht or cruise ship; there is a strong element of maritime heritage in the shapes and smooth surfaces. Visit the Florence Collections website for a look at more of this and other collections.

[via Home Design Find]

The Gorenje SmarTable: It's a sleek, albeit fairly plain, dining table that turns into an all-inclusive wine and dessert mini-bar at the press of a button.

Awesome.

I think this is the perfect furniture/gadget for a sleek outdoor gathering on the patio -- after dinner is finished and everybody is relaxed but too lazy to get up you can have a cool glass of wine ready with just the flick of a finger. And clean-up, at least for that moment, is as easy as pressing a button and closing it all up again!

I want one.

£1000

Heckler Design calls it "The Last Desk You'll Ever Own."

This minimalist desk, the OneLessDesk, is simple, chic, and clearly designed with Mac in mind.

It looks so beautiful, but could you really run your life with no hard copies of anything? Maybe it should be called OneLessDesk-OneMoreNearbyFileCabinet.

It comes in white or silver, and when you nestle the lower part in? It's about one foot deep. Just a foot! That's probably less space than your side table!

And, there's more that you don't see. The top shelf there is hollow, so there's a place for any usb and wifi ports you may need. Very smart design, Heckler. We approve.

I spend a lot of my day sitting at a desk so I'm always interested in seeing the latest in unique and interesting desk designs. This leather desk from Bottega Veneta is a little dark for my taste but it's also sleek and masculine, with a minimalist vibe. It's available in five different colors and features leather handles on both the drawers (there are three along the front) and on each side of the desk itself (makes it look a little like Transformer luggage to me), plus all the corners are accented with protective matte metal trim. Very chic. $19,700

Via Bornrich