Recently at Maison & Objet, Paris's premier, semi-annual home interiors show, one booth featured giant hot dogs, hamburgers and pickles – the size and vibrancy of which might result from a nuclear experiment gone awry.
No, it wasn't an homage to Claes Oldenburg, or a parody of Andy Warhol's pop sensibilities. Irreverent Dutch design house Studio Job (which once designed a cabinet shaped like Chartres Cathedral, flipped on its face) was unveiling its latest furniture collection for Italian manufacturing company Seletti. The hot dog, with a mustard-covered wiener, is a sofa. The hamburger, with a tomato-slice backrest, is a circular side chair, and the pickle is an accessory pillow.
But Studio Job designers aren't the only ones making food illustrations into furniture. It's a trend, with veggies sprouting into cushions and pendant lights that look like candy bracelets. Perhaps it's a backlash perpetrated by people who have always felt that food should be allowed in a nice living room (untouchable white sofas be damned). Perhaps this is just the next evolution of our culture's obsession with all things culinary.
U.S. designer Amy Brown, owner of Jumbo Jibbles, makes giant-sized, produce-shaped pillows. (Her company's slogan is: "It's okay to hug your veggies.") According to her, she likes food-shaped furniture because "everyday objects take on a layer of magic when their size is altered." Which is part of the charm of the aesthetic – it makes the mundane seem extraordinary and reminds us of the value (nutritional or otherwise) of what's all around us. Plus, it's all just seriously fun. Here, five of the freshest examples:
Studio Job's food-themed collection for Seletti is called Un_Limited Editions, and is a serious send-up to our cultural fixation on fast food. But rather than being slapped together as though a drive-through meal, the details are exquisite, right down to the embroidered bumps on the pickle-shaped throw pillow and the sesame seeds on the hamburger bun. The only thing missing is a giant container of fries. ( seletti.it)
Jumbo Jibbles makes the kind of vegetables that even the most salad hating among us would gladly pull up to. They are all playful, oversized and plush (covered in fleece). The four-foot-long carrot is especially apt for when you just need to hug a vegetable after a long hard day (it can happen!); the adorable asparagus seems like an ingenious way to get kids to like their greens. ( jumbojibbles.com)
What to serve with a sofa full of vegetables? The only reasonable answer seems to be confectionery-shaped accessories (for dessert, of course). Germany's Candy Company makes an array of furniture inspired by our collective love of sweet things. A pendant light is suspended by a giant candy necklace. A rainbow-hued stool looks like the top of a Hawaiian doughnut. Fear not that the pieces will become giant magnates for flies – they are handmade from beech wood, not fructose or sucralose.
(candy-collection.de)
Because Fido shouldn't be left out of the look and because bone-shaped chews are cliché, Ware of the Dog makes a series of food-shaped toys of all varieties, including pizza slices and cannoli. The cherry pie, complete with squeaker, is fair-trade, hand-knit from lamb's wool, coloured with organic dye and made by craftswomen in Nepal. That way, it both fits into your house as well as your heart.
(wareofthedog.com)
The Fresh Cut side table, by L.A. design legend Fred Segal as part of a recent collaboration with CB2, is the perfect balance of kitsch and clean lines. A simple glass top is perched on the exaggerated fronds of a golden pineapple, like an ice cube dropped into a vibrant glass of fruit punch. ( cb2.com)