8 inventions that will revolutionize your kitchen
Quit slogging it out with the same old dish towels, dryer racks, and non-whimsical refrigerators your ancestors used
Even if you missed the movie, you've probably still seen that scene, the one where half the city rises and bends like rubber above the heads of the main characters. That inspired designer Luca Nichetto to create this piece of practical art. Made of silicone rubber, the Inception dish drainer can also be used as a desk organizer or as a comfortable nest to hold any number of totems which tell you whether or not you're still dreaming.
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Created by the Russian design studio Art. Lebedev, the Swissarmius has at least two things going for it. One, if you're a serious foodie and paid $40 for the finest serving spoon La Creuset could offer, it shouldn't be shoved in a drawer. And second, everyone secretly loves oversized stuff that looks totally real. Makes you feel like you're raiding a giant's kitchen!
Okay, it's not as big as you wish it was. It's a little over a foot high and weighs 10 pounds. And it's definitely not bigger on the inside. But that's good, because it makes your TARDIS portable, and what's the point of a TARDIS that can't go anywhere? Plus it can be made to heat as well as cool. It's not time travel with a 1000-year-old charmingly frantic alien, but it may be as close as you're going to get.
4. Sapore Dei Mobili (Furniture Tasting)
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This is not just a waffle iron that produces incredibly cool breakfast food. It's art, created by designers Ryosuke Fukusada and Rui Pereira. It's meant to inspire people to question the high turnover of furniture design, and how new styles are coming out faster than the public can properly digest them. I can guess that only a very small percent of the population will get that message. For the rest of us, look at the teeny lamp! I can eat it!
My mother relied on disgusting "wash cloths" for kitchen clean up. I use paper towels, at about the rate of one tree per month. Etsy designer mamamade has come up with a perfect compromise with her reusable "paper" towels. They roll off fresh and clean from the spindle, but are thrown in the wash instead of the garbage after use. Plus they're so much prettier than any previous option.
My husband and I have had warred for 15 years over where butter is stored. In the fridge, where it is too hard to use when you want it, or on the counter, which though apparently safe, just feels wrong (it's dairy!). This product allows you to keep the butter refrigerated, and click off as thin or thick of a slice as you want, when you want it. How many homes might this product bring peace to?
7. Cooka, the foldable electric stove top
The Cooka comes from the workshop of Maurizio Maioran. Now your kitchen is wherever you want it to be. It uses real silver (because of its excellent conductivity) to sandwich an electric coil. The liquid silicone rubber surrounding it is imperious to heat, not to mention extremely flexible. Goodbye, hotplate! The cause of small fires in college dorms just got a lot classier.
The Etsy shop dirtsastudio has breathed life into the finest pun in all of kitchendom with her "paper" towels. She captures college rule, graph, legal pad, and kindergarten lined in her cotton creations. A perfect addition to the literate kitchen.
Therese O'Neill lives in Oregon and writes for The Atlantic, Mental Floss, Jezebel, and more. She is the author of New York Times bestseller Unmentionable: The Victorian Ladies Guide to Sex, Marriage and Manners. Meet her at writerthereseoneill.com.