apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Cute. But their comment that most Dutch homes don't have smoke detectors because they're unattractive scares me. It's like not wearing seatbelts because they wrinkle your clothes.

My concern about a device like this is that neighbors may not recognize the beeping as a smoke detector. 2 years ago, my upstairs neighbor left her stove on and went out to the gym, and the only way I knew her kitchen was on fire was because her smoke alarm went off. So if I hadn't recognized the beeping as a smoke alarm, I would not have called the fire department anywhere near as quickly. Hmm....

Plastic birds are tacky.

Cat- I would imagine the warning sound is the same, just in a prettier package.

Well, cat, of course you are right about the importance of smoke detectors, and I regularly make sure that mine work. But I am *SO* happy to hear that there are people who won't go along with the uglification of needed household products. I've often wondered what is wrong with people, that no one insists that aesthetics be taken into account in designing life-saving devices.
(Just consider most things designed for the elderly - why all the ugly beige plastic?)
Oh, and I wouldn't like that fake bird in my home, but at least someone's trying to make these things more palatable, visually speaking. I get irked every time I walk by my carbon monoxide detector, crudely installed right by my smoke detector.

I find these detectors so ugly too. I've actually resorted to "hiding" the carbon monoxide detector by laying it flat inside a small box (with no cover) placed on top of my night table.

I'm assuming it's safe and will still work fine that way (the green light still works). Does anyone know/think otherwise?

Thanks

Thermostats are ugly blisters too.

I thought the little plastic bird was better than the plastic disks screwed to the wall in my apartment, but it's also a bit gooey -- consistent with a lot of the current twee fashion in just about everything -- as if 14 year old girls were designing most consumer goods and even art -- like this (from AT) -- http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/artwork/heidi-cody-017065

or this: http://www.domestic.fr/index.php

Haven't we hit whimsy overload yet? I was a 14 year old girl myself, once, but my tastes have changed.

Deborah, I could have lived a perfectly happy life without ever having seen that nauseating Heidi Cody "art"! I agree with you 100%. That type of stuff is very slightly interesting for 15 seconds the first time you see it and then it is disgusting.

These aren't too bad :

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/appliances-small/architectural-devices-the-modern-smoke-detector-013178

http://hometech.apartmenttherapy.com/hometech/slinks/slinksn-slingks-surreptitious-web-links-to-other-good-sites-024708

I actually think it's 'cute.' Smoke detectors are currently plastic, this one's just molded more artistically. I would rather have the bird perched on a item than the traditional round disk that I have now. It's just another option, up until now, we didn't/don't have any other.

If you Babelfish the company's text, you'll discover the bird shape is not purely for the sake of tweeness -- it's a visual reference to the "canary in a coal mine."

Wende beat me to the canary-in-the-coalmine reference, which, for me, is why this hits a mark higher than just "twee."

Or, in this case, "tweet."

The website of the designer Louise van der Veld
http://www.louisevanderveld.com