Modern Doormats

A few ideas with personality that help set a modern tone from the moment you hit the threshold:




Stainless steel and rubber, TopDeq, $125-$210, or Chiasso, $48, or UnicaHome, $134-245
footprint doormat, Chiasso, $18"welcome in" binary doormat, Thinkgeek, $40barcode doormat, Chiasso, $28


river rock pebble mat, Acacia, $45




or DIY with the help of the local big box home center, $4+









recycled flip-flop doormat, UncommonGoods, $20 or at Re:modern in varying sizes, $22-$77


For more ideas of what folks are picking for their front entry, check out the doormats wist.

BodyMod Mod

Christopher Puzio, a furniture designer and architect in San Diego, has the ultimate statement of taste: the Eames chair tattoo replaces the usual mom-heart expression of fondness. His own designs are lean and crisp, integrating metal and organic materials.

Rick Lee's portfolio

The designer behind American Leather's Menlo Park sectional and the Odyssey recliner has a nearly comprehensive summary portfolio of his works on his personal site. In addition to his work for AL, Rick Lee has designed furnishings for Elite, EQ3, and Urbana. The pieces are seductive in the appparent simplicity of their shapes.

another funky modern art light

A great find from Pan Dan, this Ali Brown light installation called Light Works is a modular configuration of copper piping. As someone who has taken creative liberties with the copper plumbing supplies at Lowe's before in pursuit of modern towel bars, I can both appreciate and contemplate pirating the idea. Cool and attractive for a small art niche, perhaps.

Special Organic Touches

VivaTerra offers an online selection of recycled and organic goods for home, kitchen, and bath. There's also some tasty foodstuffs and comfy women's clothing pieces as well. The company professes a dedication to living in harmony with nature and sells objects that "combine ecology and elegance" with pure, sustainable ingredients. And they have some cool things, too. These recycled aluminum bark vases (now 30% off) are hand-molded. These Sea Spikes are the remains of tree trunks from a flooded- forest-become-lake, harvested and mounted on an artistic pedestal. Each one has a unique shape from the effects of long-term immersion in the lake.

The elegant twisty stool, crafted from a single piece of monkey pod wood, is one of several pieces of furniture that adds a smooth, organic feel to an otherwise slick modern space.