For as beautiful as it often is, sleeping outdoors can also be quite a pain. Maybe you enjoy trying to decipher your tent-pitching instructions by your headlights, and making sure your sleeping bag doesn't touch the tent wall (in case of rain), and waking up much more aware of that rock under your back than you were the night before, and burrowing into all your clothes before hopping outside the tent to shower. But you could stay home, with all the comforts and conveniences you're used to, and use Amenity bedding instead. Mother Nature will never know the difference.

Most of the modern products we see today strive to announce their arrival through bold colors and graphic patterns. Area bedding, however, bucks the trend. Everything about the collection appeals to our organic, serene modern side. Basic colors that are always in style. . . whites, blues, greys, tans. . . on fabrics that feel like a breath of fresh air against your skin.

Area's mission is simple: original designs, natural fibers, and long-lasting beauty and comfort.

Area bedding isn't designed to rev up a room the way some of our other lines are. Instead, it brings calmness into what should, by rights, be the most relaxing room in your home. Theo coverlets and pillowcases come in muted shades that help your eyes and mind relax, and the even, repeating pattern of rectangles is slightly hypnotic, if you let your eyes unfocus just a little bit. Add to that the feel of the woven lightweight cotton--soft as a dream--and you're a good way toward a great night's sleep.

Blu Dot has seen the future, and it turns out there is some Barbarella involved. Not that the whole planet will be ruled by Anita Pallenberg (although I'm entertained by the prospect of a global ruler who'd say to me, "You're very pretty, Pretty-Pretty"), but that the Barbarella table will be in every fashionable household. As with the 2d:3d collection from Blu Dot, the Barbarella table ships flat, and then you fold it into shape. (It has a core sheet you put in the middle like a spine, to make it a workable table.) And now that I think about it, the "stripped-down" visual quality of the Barbarella table has a little something in common with the movie's opening credit sequence....

"No, honey, you can't-- Sweetie, listen to me: my hands are full right now pushing your baby brother's stroller. I need you to walk on your own. ... I know you're tired, sweetie, but that's why I said we shouldn't go back and see the polar bears again. ... I wish I could carry you right now, but I can't.

... Okay, here's what we'll do. Let me attach this to the stroller. Now, I want you to stand on this--there's a place for each foot, see?--and hold on to the handlebar of the stroller with me. I'll be right here, with my arms around you the whole time. It'll be just like you're pushing your baby brother's stroller, except you get to rest too. Does that sound like fun?"

Look at the circle of owls. (Who? You. Who? Hoo!) Look into their eyes, one owl after another, all around the circle. Then move inward one circle, and do the same. You are getting very sleepy. Keep working your way inward, one owl at a time. When you get to the center, your eyes will close, and you will be asleep. You are asleep.

You are also positively in love with these Plume pillows from Eleventwentyfive. You adore the cross between mod and psychedelic that artist Amy Ruppel has achieved. You think the backs of the removable covers, with their miniature versions of the patterns on the fronts, are cute. You decide Plume pillows would look positively perfect in your home.

And you're awake!

Cats are just the most glamorous. You can tell they know it--all that languorous stretching, haughty preening, and indolent draping of themselves over furniture. They keep their eyes half-closed so often because they're imagining the tribute of hundreds of camera flashbulbs. Don't make your little darling sacrifice his or her dignity on ugly pet furniture--the Couchette from Elizabeth Paige Smith, made of corrugated cardboard, has a classic Hollywood elegance to it that will flatter any feline.

We know what you're thinking: "How can I use my furniture to make a statement about industrialization and the rapid depletion of natural resources without having to buy an armchair made of cardboard?"

Either that or: "There must be some way to hang up hats and coats that doesn't involve knobs and pegs and curved wooden legs--or my hall closet." (Give us a break, this isn't Crossing Over.)

Erich Ginder's Ghost line of entry furniture is witty and interesting, and can mean all kinds of things depending on who's looking at it. If you're having a bunch of grad students over for chicken fettuccine, it's a criticism of urban living; if your family's visiting their very own City Mouse, it's a way to make them feel a little bit more at home. But above all, this stuff is cool.

Anyone who tells you romance is dead is wrong (and bitter, and likely to die alone). As evidence, I present the Sarah Clock. Designer Jim Doan named this beautiful, graceful piece after his fiancée--just as he named his company after her. And what a compliment: with its flexible graphite stem and unmistakably botanical appearance, the Sarah Clock is like the one perfect flower that puts any bouquet to shame. Plus, it tells time.

As well as being interesting and handy, the Stainless Steel Magazine Rack from Gus Design Group gives you a new way to store your magazines--by rank! You can put the fun, fluffy magazines at the bottom and the significant, responsible ones at the top; you can work your way up the ladder from People and Entertainment Weekly to the very heights of dwell and The Economist. Or, you know, the other way around. People has reporting in it too.

In Design Public’s secret scheme to take over the whole Internet (and then the world!), you--the customer--are the basic piece. Without you, we couldn’t exist; everything is built on you. We have to convert you to our way of thinking, and then fill your house with our carefully selected merchandise. As a side effect, it will make your house incredibly attractive. But it all begins with you. You are our pawn.

As technology and manufacturing techniques advance, there will always be a push toward more and more complicated, baroque, show-offy objects. “Look what’s possible!” they say, “look how fancy I can be!” And a lot of them will actually be justified by their final quality. But at the same time, there will always be a countercurrent that says, “I don’t have to shout. You’ll come back from that precipice of wild abandon, back to serenity. That’s how it happens every time.” And when the history of early-21st-century design is written, it will include jefdesigns as a voice of that countercurrent.

jefdesigns is the brainchild of Joe Futschik, whose degree in fine art led initially to a long and captivating career in waiting tables. A move to Portland, Oregon, began his transition to professional designer, and since founding jefdesigns he has captivated clients and consumers alike with his calm, thoughtful, ordered aesthetic.

"If Percival has six tame chamoix, and he gives two of them to Eglantine in celebration of her first published book (devotional poetry written between ages nine and twelve), how many chamoix will Percival have left?" You remember these story problems, right? And you probably also remember wondering, as you stumbled zombie-like and half-asleep through high-school geometry, when you would ever use this stuff in your real life. John Kelly knows when: in furniture design, of course!

In designing the various lines his company produces, Kelly first reduced the idea of furniture to its abstract components, and then began simply subtracting. For his first line of furniture, he stripped away every element but three: frame, container, and surface. His next three lines he condensed to various combinations of only two elements. What's remarkable is how much Kelly's designs actually gain from being restricted like this. The quality and visual interest of these pieces are clear testimony that thrilling furniture doesn't have to be frilly. We eagerly await the time when Kelly unveils his line of furniture comprising negative one element.

Ornamentation is for wusses! Handles and drawer pulls are admissions of aesthetic weakness! We know some people who think like this, but thankfully we don't let them dictate furniture choices for us. They would approve, however, of the Tau Bedside Table--and so do we. Strong lines and subtly different shades of bamboo veneer make it at least as attractive as any decorated furniture we've seen. The drawer opens with a push latch: press and it slides toward you.

Speaking of children she’d known, a wise woman once said to me, “They grew up, as children tend to do.” Okay, it was Mrs. Doubtfire--not really a woman, and not really real--and she wasn’t talking to me specifically; but it’s still true. And while it probably seems to you like your baby’s growing up too fast, it’s also exciting! Think of all the new things there are for your child to learn and experience--like big-kid furniture! The twin bed from Nurseryworks comes in the same color and carving options as their nursery furniture, but in configurations more suitable for a growing child: you can order it as a regular platform bed, or with a drawer or trundle bed underneath. Best of all, it coordinates with other Nurseryworks furniture, so you don’t have to start all over again with your decorating when your child advances to a separate bedroom.