Get the pots and pans under control

Glideware

Chances are there’s a cabinet in your kitchen right now where your pots and pans (and who knows what else) are all jumbled in together. Glideware organizes that mess by vertically hanging your cookware (and other hard-to-store items — mops and brooms, for instance) from a beam that pulls out out from a storage space. In addition to keeping your pans more organized, Glideware will help prevent them from getting scratched, prolonging their life. We also like how the sliding mechanism (photo, below) allows you to add or subtract hooks as needed. But our favorite part: You can hang a lid together with the matching pot!

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Strategically hide the paper towlels

Faux Paper Towel Holder

Do you keep your paper towels out on the counter? They’re taking up valuable space there. And they make your kitchen look more cluttered. Clear things up by mounting a paper towel holder under a counter or cabinet. We love the look of the Faux Paper Towel Holder in the photo below — it’s an easy DIY project if you already have an appropriately sized and located drawer. Alternatively, you could install one of several pre-made under-the-cabinet paper towel mounts.

Declutter the storage containers

Stackerware

As with pots and pans (see above), food storage containers are items that many people have thrown haphazardly into a cabinet. Simply getting that under control can go a long way towards kitchen decluttering. And that’s where Stackerware can help. The storage system comes with three different sized containers with identically-sized lids. But here’s the cool part: The container and lids fit onto mountable holder bases. So you can attach them to your cabinet door or underneath a shelf or anywhere else that’s convenient. Very cool.

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[ ALSO ON SCS: 3 Creative, Crowdsourced BBQ Grilling Utensils ]

Add a kitchen pantry . . .

If you don’t currently have a pantry, it’s hard to 1) store a lot of nonperishable food and 2) keep said food organized. But “installing” a pantry needn’t involve knocking down any walls. It can be as easy as moving a stand-alone cabinet into your kitchen. The one in the photo below is a converted clothes dresser. It holds copious odds and ends yet makes everything look tidy when the doors are closed.

But what if you don’t have space for an entire cabinet? Get creative, as illustrated in our next idea.

. . . or extra storage area where you can

The smaller the kitchen the harder it is to keep clutter at bay. And the more creativity that’s required to optimize the space you have.

Two sections of a kitchen that often go unused: the top of the walls (eg. the two or three feet below the ceiling) and the area between the wall and the refrigerator. To make use of the latter consider installing a DIY sliding doors canned food organizer like the one shown below. It was built over the course of a single weekend; all the materials to build it only cost US$110.

Stack your mixing bowls

Joseph Joseph Nest

Regular Spot Cool Stuff readers probably remember us discussing the Joseph Joseph Nest in previous posts. For you newbies: The Nest is a colorful set of mixing bowls, colanders and measuring cups. What’s cool is the way the components are designed to all stack neatly together. So, when they’re not being used, those mixing bowls, colanders and measuring cups stay organized while occupying minimal space. For more, read Spot Cool Stuff’s review of our favorite Joseph Joseph kitchen items.

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Organize your spices

YouCopia SpiceStack Bottle Organizer

There are several systems on the market that will help you tame that wild jungle of spices that’s taken over your kitchen cabinet (and/or drawer and/or counter top). Of them, we’re partial to the YouCopia SpiceStack Bottle Organizer. Sliding drawers hold spices in clearly-labeled sections. We like the modular design of the SpiceStack — they can be combined and come in several sizes. Unlike some other spice organizers, which require you to pour your spices into their specific bottles, the SpiceStack will work with most any round container that spices are sold in.

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Also on Spot Cool Stuff:

10 Cool Ideas For Creating a Nature-Themed Bathroom
Install a Trap Door Wine Cellar in your Kitchen
3 Cereal Bowls That Kids and Parents Will Love
Living Fern and Moss Wall Art

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Coolaroo shade sails are not your grandparent’s patio umbrella. They look bolder than that, brightly colored in square and triangle shapes. It’s remarkable how one lone shade sail can lend an outdoor space a contemporary touch. String up a group of shade sails — like in the photo, below — and you can transform a space into something you’d expect to find at a modern art museum.

[ ALSO ON SCS: 3 Cool, Crowdsourced Grilling Utensils ]

What you can’t see from the photos is how durable the Coolaroo material is. This isn’t like hanging out a sheet. The shade sails are made for life outdoors — perfect to shade an above ground pools or outside patio. The sail’s nylon edges will not tear or fray. The color of the material remains bright even when permanently hung outside and exposed to moisture, intense sun and temperature extremes. The D-rings on the corners of the Coolaroo will stay anchored to the included stainless steel poles.

And it isn’t just Spot Cool Stuff saying so — Coolaroo products come with a 10 year warranty. If your shade sail becomes damaged the company will replace it for free.

Best of all, the Coolaroo fabric blocks out 90% of the sun’s harmful UV rays while allowing breezes to pass through. So life under a Coolaroo is cool in more ways than one.

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Purchase locally: USA | UK | GERMANY | CANADA

Other Coolaroo Products

Coolaroo Square Sail:

Coolaroo Pet Bed:

Coolaroo Patio Umbrella:

Coolaroo Outdoor Window Shade:

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3 High Design Hammocks
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Install an aquarium

The video below (and photo above) is of the women’s restroom in the Mumin Papa Café in Akashi, Japan. The idea behind the design, which cost US$270,000 to build, was to create the feeling of “relieving yourself while swimming in the ocean.” Nevertheless, the cafe discourages its customers from peeing in the fish tanks.

Move the bathroom to the garden

It’s not unusual for upscale rural houses in Japan to have a useable bathtub located outside in a traditional garden. The owner of this house took the concept a step further, putting an entire bathroom — sink, toilet, bathtub and all — out among the backyard fauna and koi ponds.

Install a waterfall

The suites at the Peace Lodge — located an hour’s drive into the hills north of the international airport for San Jose, Costa Rica — has the most amazing hotel bathroom Spot Cool Stuff has ever used. Among the cool features is this in-bathroom waterfall. A standard light switch turns it on and off.

Make one wall all glass . . .

Opening up an entire wall can open up a bathroom to nature. It can also open you up to voyeurs, which is why the bathroom shown below is so cool — there’s tons of green and natural light, but also tons of privacy.

. . . or make all walls all glass . . .

This public bathroom, a piece of art titled “Don’t Miss a Sec” by Monica Bonvicini, sat for a time outside the Tate Britain gallery in London. The bathroom’s walls are made of one-way mirrored glass — a fact you’ll have to keep reminding yourself of when you are inside with a clear view of everything around.

. . . or make the floor glass

Another bathroom designed as a art project, “The Superlative Space” By Naruse Inokuma features a toilet and a sink sticking out from a wall of thick, green foliage. There’s foliage underfoot too, albeit protect by a glass floor. We love the look of this bathroom but worry about the bugs.

Move the tub outside

A protected space outside can make a superb location for a tub. You can test this out for yourself as the bathroom in the photo below is part of a resort. Find it at the Eagle Island Camp, which is one of the Orient Express Safari Camps in the Okavango Delta area of Botswana.

Make it rustic

There’s something about a rustic bathroom that is evocative of nature — even when there’s no greenery or much natural light. Stone, pewter and unfinished wood can add together to give a bathroom an outdoorsy country touch.

Grow a living moss bath mat

Wet moss on rocks is slippery. Wet moss on a bath mat feels lush and comfy. And it looks cool too! If you live in a dry climate you’d need to shower more than once per day to keep this bath mat alive. Though we’ve known people for which that would be a good thing. Click here for DIY instructions on how to grow your own.

Do nothing

If all else fails, abandon your house and wait a decade or two. Eventually, nature will reclaim your bathroom.

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Also on Spot Cool Stuff:

10 Cool Outdoor Lights and Lamps
6 Cool, Clear Bathtubs
Living Fern and Moss Wall Art

The Suitecase Scooter made us wonder what other products have been combined with skateboards. One surprising such product we found: baby strollers!

Two stroller-skateboard hybrids especially stood out to us. One, the Longboard Stroller from Quinny, is still in the concept phase. The other, the Sidekick Stroller Board from Orbit Baby, is available for purchase today. Spot Cool Stuff takes a look at each:

Longboard Stroller

Quinny

Nothing says “responsible parent” like zooming along with your baby strapped to a skateboard. Or so hope future users of the Longboard Stroller. The self-proclaimed “experiment in urban mobility” is exactly what the name describes — an elongated skateboard with a child’s stroller seat attached to the front for balance and steering. (And, oh yeah, it can hold a brave child too). The potential deathtrap unusual stroller is being jointly developed by Studio Peter Van Riet, a Belgium-based design firm, and Quinny, a Dutch seller of baby products.

It is Quinny’s involvement in the Longboard Stroller that has us excited about being able to try one for ourselves one day. The company is known for their success at bringing highly innovative strollers to market. So the potential, at least, is there for the Longboard Stroller to extend the distance parents can travel with their young ones. Skateboarding, after all, is faster than walking — especially when one avoids the temptation to attempt tricks à la Tony Hawk en route.

Quinny has already built several prototypes of the Longboard Stroller (seen in the photos on this page) and are testing out several different possibilities for adding brakes. The stroller is expected to accommodate kids from nine months to four-and-a-half years of age. Follow us on Twitter or Facebook for updates on when the Longboard Stroller is available for purchase.

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[ ALSO ON SCS: A Review of the 4Moms iPhone-Charging Stroller ]

Sidekick Stroller Board

Orbit Baby

Orbit Baby makes a pair of very cool strollers with a distinctive feature: They’re modular. Once you have the base you build out the stroller that best fits your needs from Orbit Baby’s assortment of seats, cargo containers and accoutrements — including the Sidekick Stroller Board.

The Sidekick is essentially a skateboard, but wider and with wheels on one end only. The other end attaches to the base of the stroller. The idea being that older kids (up to 50 pounds / 22 kg) can stand on the board as their parents push the stroller. It’s absolutely perfect for children who are too old for a traditional stroller but too young to walk long distances. Plus, since children aren’t strapped into a seat it is easy and instantaneous for them to hop on and off — though we suppose that’s not necessarily a good thing at certain times. Still, we’re huge fans. $120

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^†  Check out our review of the best wheeled carry-on bags for other examples of luggage we love.

Related posts on Spot Cool Stuff:

Cool Furniture That Can Grow As Your Kids Do
7 Creative Playgrounds Around the World
3 Unusual Cereal Bowls For Kids
4 Humorous Baby Board Books

Read the rest on our cool travel blog

Ferry Berries

Fortune Products

No fairies are harmed in the production of Fairy Berries. Which is good, because there’s no other light that can add nighttime whimsy to a backyard as easily, as cheaply and in as cool a fashion.

Each 3/4″ (1.9cm) width “berry” contains a tiny LED light that glows and fades randomly. There are several colors to choose from: red, purple, blue, yellow and white among them. With the typical Amazon.com discount, Fairy Berries tend to run between $17 and $22 per pack of 10 depending on the color.

Berries don’t have an on/off switch on them, so unless you possess fairy powers you’ll have to remove the batteries to help preserve them. Berries can also break if stepped on too forcefully. But those are the only downsides. At night, Fairy Berries look amazing sprinkled around a yard or lining a walking path. They’re waterproof, so you can float them in a pool. Hang them from a tree or from the top of a wedding tent (as in the pics below) and the effect is magical. Just like fairies.

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Stone Outdoor Lamps

Oluce Stone

They look like large, and especially smooth, pieces of moon stones during the day. But at night, these Stone Outdoor Lamps shine brightly — like large, smooth and especially radioactive-looking pieces of moon stones. In fact, these stone-lamps have a more terrestrial source (ie. Italy) and they are made of an especially weather-resistant form of polyethylene. Stone Outdoor Lamps also come in an egg-shaped pink version.

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[ ALSO ON SCS: Puerto Rico’s Amazing Bioluminescent Bay ]

Hanging Solar Garden Light

Britta

If the look of the Hanging Solar Garden Lights remind you of Christmas tree ornaments, that’s probably because its designer, Sven Ono, was inspired by a Christmas tree ornament. A Nordic cornet, to be specific. Though, unlike most ornaments, these lights have a solar panel on the top. It charges a 600mAh NiMH battery that powers an LED bulb that, in turn, shines through a frosted cone. Weatherproofing lets you happily leave Hanging Solar Garden Lights outside for long periods of time. Their price — $50 for a set of three — should leave you feeling pretty happy too.

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Solar Powered Glass Lanterns

Allsop

These Solar Powered Tea Lanterns are similar to the solar powered cones (above) except that they are made from hand blown glass. That means they are heavier and more fragile and, at $55 each, more expensive. But the it also means that the light emanating out from the internal LED bulb is warm, natural and inviting — perfect for a more formal occasion or for a dinner tabletop. The light is sold by perveyor of cool things AHAlife.

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Sponge Lamp

Pott

Handmade in Spain, no two Sponge Decorative Lamps are exactly alike. Nor are any of them perfectly round, though they do come in four approximate sizes ranging from roughly 23cm (9 inches) to about 80cm (31.5″) wide. The porous, uneven surface of each orb feels a little bit like a dried sea sponge (hence the name). But the lamp looks like almost alive when lit — the effect is like light shining through skin. The effect buying one will have on your wallet is altogether less pleasant.

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More from Spot Cool Stuff:

A Review of the Coolaroo Outdoor Shade Sails
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First, there’s the way the structure’s design came about. It’s the product of an unusual collaboration between an architectural firm (BLDG) and a furniture maker (608 Design).

Indeed, it is hard to tell if The Bunkie is a small piece of architecture or a large, complex piece of furniture. The Premier Plus model of The Bunkie (pictured right) comes with a wall bed, drawers, shelves and a fireplace built in (along with a table and four chairs). With its small 106-square-foot (9.8 sq m) footprint, you could place The Bunkie in your back yard as you might furniture set^† (albeit one that’s especially hard to move). A building permit is not required and there’s no need to hook up utilities.

Which brings us to the second feature of The Bunkie we appreciate: the glass sides. Instead of being predominately solid, two of the walls are transparent, helping preserve your backyard view. We’re also fans of The Bunkie’s silhouette. The chimney is purely ornamental — the fireplace inside runs on ethanol and doesn’t require ventilation or a fuel line — but combination of that and the classic “home” roof shape makes The Bunkie look inviting.

[ ALSO ON SCS: Go Glamping at Switzerland’s PodHotel Flims ]

Finally, the entire structure is built from sustainably-sourced materials. And there’s something to admire about the reasonable cost of The Bunkie — prices range from US$26,900 for the basic unit to US$39,900 for the Premium Delex model mentioned above. That’s not cheap. But it isn’t much more than the much smaller and less livable OfficePod.

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^†  The Bunkie does require a foundation to sit on, such as grade beams, sonotubes or a concrete pad.

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The World’s Narrowest House
The Backyard Office Pod
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A Review of the Best Wheeled Carry-On Bags

Picking out baby furniture can be especially daunting. Much of it is as expensive as adult furniture. Except, unlike a quality sofa or bed, you can’t enjoy baby furniture for long before your little one outgrows it.

Or maybe you can. Some baby furniture is designed to grow with your child from baby, to toddler, to kiddo and even into the tween years and beyond. Here’s our review of five especially cool examples:

Andensen Smart Kid

crib/changing table/drawers ↔ bed/desk/dresser/chalkboard

A transforming all-in-one kid’s bedroom set?! The Smart Kid, from the Estonian design company Andensen Furniture, is as close to that as we’ve seen. In “baby mode,” the Smart Kid is a changing table and a crib that’s conveniently surrounded by drawers. But rearrange the pieces for an older child (up to 10 years of age) and you get a junior bed, desk, shelf and dresser, plus — how cool is this?! — a chalkboard. Smart, indeed.

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Stokke Tripp Trapp

infant chair ↔ high chair ↔ kid chair ↔ adult desk chair

The Stokke Tripp Trapp was first piece of furniture we acquired for our newborn cool spotter¹. It’s a fabulous piece — solid feeling with a form factor that manages look cool and distinctive while also fitting in with many decor styles.

Our little guy has been sitting in his Tripp Trapp since he was about six months into the world. We hope he’ll still be using it when he’s in his teenage years. How’s that possible? The Tripp Trapp’s adjustable seat and footplate. They can be scooted back and forth in addition to being moved up and down. So as a child’s back and legs grow, the seat and footplates can be rearranged to provide a perfectly sized seat at table height. Eventually, we’ll remove footplate entirely, turning our Tripp Trapp into a regular chair.

We do wish that the straps — the ones that are part of the “baby set” — weren’t so fussy and that the chair came with the tray included (instead of being an absurdly pricey extra). Still, we love the Tripp Trapp’s choice of colors and cushion patterns, its extremely high build quality and its versatility. Recommended!

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¹  It was a gift from Grandma Cool Stuff, aka Mimi, to whom we own big thanks.

Stokke Care

changing table ↔ dresser ↔ table ↔ bookshelf ↔ desk

A changing table is among the first pieces of furniture babies outgrow — unless said table is a Stokke Care. That’s because the Care can transform into a dresser, table, bookshelf or desk.

Stokke, not incidentally, makes several transforming kid-centric products in addition to the Care and their Tripp Trapp (above). Among them: the Sleepi that’s four beds in one and the Crusi that transforms from a newborn to toddler stroller.

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[ ALSO ON SCS: 3 Super-Cool Cereal Bowls For Kids ]

Land of Nod Activity Table

low table ↔ medium table ↔ regular height desk

The Activity Table from The Land of Nod is not the only table that comes with multiple sets of legs at different heights. But it is the best executed.

Our 1-year old learned to stand by pulling up on the Activity Table with the 15-inch (38cm) legs attached. At that height, it also works well as a coffee table. Rolling bins provide underneath storage (though they aren’t nearly as spacious as you’d think from looking at the first photo below).

Toddlers can make use of one of the coolest features of the activity table: the paper roller. Roll open paper and cover the entire table for an art project. Once they grow large enough, attach the 23-inch (58cm) legs.

Starting in the teen years, the Activity Table grows to full height with the 30-inch legs. Two draws in front provide storage.

The table is made from sustainable rubberwood and comes in three color options: stained honey, stained espresso and painted white.

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GRO Convertible Bed

crib ↔ toddler bed ↔ daybed ↔ playtable ↔ desk

Among the market’s multitudes of convertible cribs — cribs that transform into larger beds — most provide the worst of both words. They don’t work well as cribs. They don’t work well as beds.

The GRO Convertible Bed is one of the happy exceptions. It was invented by two architects who clearly thought about how design worked in the practical world. As a crib, the GRO Convertible is sturdy, adjustable and safe². Convert it to a toddler bed and you’ll get a safety railing and a built-in ladder step. After the toddler years, you can convert to a napping bed, a play table or a desk. The design is such that each step in the conversion process takes less than three minutes!

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²  For example: there are no drop-sides, all joints and parts fit tightly, the bars are less than 2.4 inches apart. Since 2007 over 9 million cribs have been recalled; sometimes we wonder how any of us who were born before then survived.

More from Spot Cool Stuff:

New Parent Gift Ideas: 4 Humorous Baby Books
Family Vacation Ideas (That Are Too For Adults Too!)
The World’s Best Playgrounds
The Best Tablet Computers for Kids

Know of any other cool, transforming baby-friendly furniture? Our built-in comments section awaits: