When my wife and I were building our house, we were given an option/spec sheet, much like buying a car. One of the options was a deck upgrade, from 10X12 to 10×16. I know, it doesn’t seem like much, but that extra space would have been very helpful for a grill, or a larger table. We went with the smaller deck so that we could put hardwood down throughout the bottom level. Good decision at the time, but we were stuck with the smaller deck, which sometimes makes outdoor living space a bit tight.

Our solution? Two fold. One, the gazebo you see above. At 10X10, it fit snugly, but perfectly on our deck. This has made it a good living area, for outdoor couches and stuff. Two, we had a stamped concrete patio put down, which makes the deck area flow a lot better. We’ve been extremely impressed with the gazebo, though. A very simple, and inexpensive idea, it really adds a lot more than the price tag would suggest that it could.

Make sure that you watch it in high winds, perhaps take off the canopy, and it looks to be a good all-weather space that you can enjoy year ’round. Even if you were too cheap to buy the bigger deck.

Check out the product page at Home Depot.

Any product listing for a bin that begins with…

…the “Claremont” is an accurately rendered, medieval sculpture…

…wins points from us right away.

Obviously, a majority of those who’ll eventually own this will just think of it as the vaguely amusing piece of crap that it is.

However, we’ve all met the kind of obsessive medieval revivalist collectors who’d be bitterly disappointed if, even though it’s just a novelty wastepaper basket, they discovered even the slightest historical inaccuracy.

Hence the cleverness in all that detail.

But it’s $60 and it’s a wastepaper basket. We’re not going to tell you not to buy it, because it is kind of cool. But we’re going to let you weigh up your priorities and decide for yourselves.

“The Claremont Helmet” Lidded Bin [Toscano via Neat-o-rama]

In October, we showed you the chair that looks like a car. Now we present the opposite – the drivable couch.

The brainchild of Demotte, IL pair ‘Ferg and Super G’, the Armchair Cruiser is a couch that comes equipped with either an electric or gasoline engine, some form of steering lever and are available with such accessories as coolers, nitrous kits and stereos.

The craftsmanship and engineering seem quite impressive, as the guys themselves will tell you:

This is not a chair strapped to a lawnmower frame or something goofy like that. Each frame is hand made, purpose built, from prime raw stock and the finest materials.

And never fear, the cruisers can be custom made – the orange is just for demonstration.

Armchair Cruisers [via Coolest Gadgets]

It’s rare that we discuss crockery around here. However, kind of like the House of Manfred ties we featured in September, these plates set themselves apart because, put simply, they have naked ladies on them.

That’s kind of how things work here at TSL.

That’s not all, naturally. Apart from the ‘Naked Lunch’ series, two of which are pictured, Pop Ink make a whole range of other impressive pop art plates that we really like, too. Complimenting these risque silhouettes, designs include camp 50’s nature imagery, pastel paisleys, imitation woodgrain and myriad other retro iconography.

$40 (for a four-piece set) is a pleasantly vintage price, and the manufacturing process has a similarly old world feel:

Saturated color images are molded into 10 inch heavy-duty Melamine plates manufactured by the same company that makes them for the US military.

We have a feeling these aren’t the actual plates used by the military, for some reason…

To maintain the dignity of the girls (and because the manufacturers advise against it) keep these suckers out of the microwave.

Pop Ink ‘Naked Lunch’ [French Paper via Boing Boing]

Couches made out of old cars were always the ultimate bachelor pad accessory (at least in movies) in the 80s. The ultimate sign that you were willing to plunge offensive amounts of money into a bulky and uncomfortable piece of furniture because, let’s admit, it looked pretty cool.

And this Porsche 917-inspired couch is exactly that. Really damn cool. Rather than echo a classic 50s convertible or 60s muscle car, this is a flashback to the Le Mans 24-hour winners of 1970 and 1971.

It fulfills our other criteria, too. At $75,000, it’s about 1.5 million dollars less than you’d pay for an actual 917, but a kajillion times more than what any sane man would spend on a one-seater couch. And, with what appears to be some thin leather cushions on a fiberglass base, it’s definitely the seat you’ll offer to guests as you sit in something far more comfortable.

But if you had the spare money and space, you’d be a fool to pass it up. You get the choice between the Gulf and Martini liveries, and only 17 of each will be made.

And now we lay down the challenge – could you sit in it for 24 hours?

Porsche 917 seat [Inspired Design via New Launches]

If you were always impressed by the startled, insomniac fish swimming in the walls of any number of try-hard inner-city nightclubs, or perhaps by Karl Stromberg’s decorating in The Spy Who Loved Me then today’s your day to bring the ‘fish in the walls’ look to your very own apartment.

Okay, so there’s a couple of catches. It’s not the wraparound floor-to-ceiling look that a true nightclub boss or evil genius really prefers, and it kinda hangs on the wall like a painting, rather than becoming the walls, like in Stromberg’s hideout.

But it’s a start. And costs several million dollars less than building a underwater mansion that rises magically out of the sea on demand.

Wall Aquarium [via Cool Buzz]

So you live in luxury while your dog sleeps each night on a filthy old blanket in a basket outside?

Time for the guilt to stop! Your dog deserves to live better than the homeless. Are we right?

That’s surely why the furniture world has brought us this luxury dog bed. Apparently inspired by classic modernists such as Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe, its sleek lines, stainless steel details and durable and stain resistant faux-leather cover is sure to impress. Because dogs are really hard to impress.

(Maybe it’s just because the photo features a particularly evil-looking dog, but we’re reminded a lot of the villian chair when we look at this.)

Postmodern Pets [via Neat-O-Rama]

This floating bed is too cool for words (which is handy, because we don’t speak Italian).

Actually supported by a beam running from the center of the bed’s base to the wall, the Fluttua comes from Italian design firm Lago.

The catalog (or cataloghi) is entirely in Italian, so we couldn’t figure out anything about price or availability. Our guess is expensive and rare…

Lago [via Moco Loco]

This bedside table, which doubles as a club and shield, falls under one simple category – it’s better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it…

As designer James McAdam explains,

It is reported that 50% of people in London are worried about security and sleep with some form of self-defence to hand, for use against intruders.

You know it makes sense.

James McAdam [via Neat-o-Rama]

On TV, you only ever see people using cardboard boxes as furniture when their house has been burgled. Or all their worldly goods have been repossessed. Or they’re homeless.

Now that stereotype has been blown away by the surprisingly attractive ZenTable from NYC’s Cardboard Design.

It’s made from recycled cardboard and eco-friendly glues, requires no assembly and can even be custom decorated if you don’t want to feel like you own furniture made out of carboard.

For only $105, you can finally ditch that milk crate coffee table, and replace it with boxes…

Cardboard Design’s ZenTable [via Treehugger]