Those of us at Crave enjoy our sleep. So much so that it may show in some of our postings from time to time. It behooves us, then, to have an effective alarm clock so we can do right by you.

We've had our fair share of industrial-strength alarms (with dubious success), but Mr. Sandman may have met his match with the "Sonic Bomb." This master blaster drops a sound bomb at 113 decibels, which Gadgetizer says is "the same thing as a loud car horn" nearby. And if that's not enough, you can use the 12-volt bed shaker.

On second thought, all this might give us a coronary. But we'd still take that chance over a flying alarm clock, which would surely drive us insane.

With my deep and abiding love of all things mid-century modern, I’m not sure I could let the weekend go without mentioning The Pretzel Chair.

The Pretzel Chair is one of George Nelson’s classic designs. It is a lovely gracefully bent wood chair. The chairs were produced from 1952 to the 1980’s. To commemorate what would be the 100th birthday of Nelson, Vitra is producing a limited edition of 1,000 chairs.

Such a handsome chair certainly deserved a resurrection, even if for only a brief time.

Of all the easy-life-gadgets bathroom designs I have seen this one, theVertebrae, is the clear winner. It is an ingenious stacking design that incorporates all of the necessities of a bathroom in to one tiny 4 square meter footprint.

The Vertebrae is a stack of swiveling units. Each unit contains a piece of the bathroom. The upper most sections are showerheads, followed by storage areas, a sink and finally a toilet on the bottom. There are even compartments on the sides of the toilet for toilet paper and a toilet brush.

The unit is entirely self-contained with a drain on the floor and you have yourself a compact bathroom. Each unit is made of aluminum and completely customizable.

The two major drawbacks are the appearance, which is perfectly suited for an episode of Star Trek, but may be a bit ultra modern for less a cosmic decor. The other drawback is the price. At $20,000 it may well be beyond the reach of some consumers, however $20,000 is perfectly reasonable in some markets.

It is a really fine piece of furniture. I love how the use of built in furniture allows for what is really quite a large piece of furniture without feeling large. The floating volume of the piece allows the room to appear more open and less cluttered.

Built in furniture is not inexpensive and good cabinetmakers are quite rare. However, the added home value of built in furniture can make it well worth the investment. Just remember to keep built-ins classic and clean so what ever it is, it will never look dated. This piece is a great example.

Eastvold Custom Woodworks created the desk. Check out their site for more of beautiful designs.

Via Mid-Century Modernist

So by now my love of all things grilled has been well established. I just enjoying grilling — at the cottage it is a integral part of my summer.

I have also covered the fact that I prefer the flavor of charcoal vs. gas grilling. I am aware of the arguments over the environmental impact of charcoal vs. gas, but I am still a charcoal man.

Having said that, if there is a way to lessen the environmental impact of using charcoal, I’m game. That’s where Lazzari comes in with their Baja bbq Firepack. A great deal of VOCs are released by the lighter fluid commonly used to start charcoal grills. The Baja bbq Firepack eliminates the use of lighter fluid. The pack is a 100% recycled biodegradable paper pack that holds 2 pounds of natural lump charcoal. The package is formed with an integrated chimney that stokes up perfect hot coals without the use of additional chemicals.

You simply light the bottom of the pack, slap it in your grill, and let the package burn away starting the coals.

I’m all about grilling, and simple greener grilling is definitely the way to go.

In May I had two posts about Sandy Lam’s Spaceless balcony furniture. It is a system of furniture that collapses into the space beneath it so that you can use the space for a variety of purposes. I was thinking that it reminded me of something I had seen before. When I did some digging, I found it.

Although not exactly the same Optibo is a similar concept. Optibo is the product of Swedish ingenuity I think it’s a bit like a Swiss Army Knife apartment. Although Optibo has been around for several years, I thought it would be relevant here.

Optibo was a research project on future housing and multifunction furniture. The furniture in the apartment lowers into the floor via hydraulic stage equipment. Yes its hydraulics for your couch, well not exactly. The project basically created a dwelling in a 25 square meter apartment. By concealing furniture in the floor it created a space that could transform itself thereby utilizing the space very efficiently.

As far as I can tell, they are not selling the concept yet, but it is a very noteworthy small space.