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Hot or Not? Madam Rubens Collection by Frank Willems

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This furniture from Dutch designer Frank Willems gets its unique shape from recycled mattresses. Willems learned that mattresses are the one of the more difficult things to dispose of and decided to attempt creative re-use of them. More pieces from the collection after the jump...What do you think?

 
 

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"Willems repurposes old mattresses, bending and folding them like giant pieces of bubblegum, then lashes the volumes to the bases of antique furnishings, creating quirky hybrids. The entire piece is then sprayed with a hygienic, water-resistant foam coating, and finished with a pliable, soft paint."

For more on Madam Rubens visit Frank Willems' site. Via: Coolhunting.

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Hot or Not?, seating - misc., beds & mattresses

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Comments (31)

yeah, it's hot. a hot mess.

posted by kahlil19107 on 2008-06-06 10:03:22
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Ok, a couple things here. first of all, a recycled mattress as my new chair or ottoman, yeah, gross.

Second, let me just guess here that the price of it will not reflect at all that it is made out of someone's old mattress. Instead it will be ridiculously over priced. Yeah, just as I thought.

Last, if you get past it being a used mattress, couldn't you just stuff regular chairs with them, so it would look like a nice chair but be recycled? That way you could also make more instead of using an entire mattress to make one chair, you could make like 4 chairs.

plus those are fugly

posted by jmorey on 2008-06-06 10:15:00
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It looks like it's going to eat me.

posted by Otherkate on 2008-06-06 10:18:29
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Has anyone seen those specials on tv about the people who drive around picking up old mattresses, "repurposing" them and then selling them in a warehouse for $5... then they open them up and find bed bugs and stains and all kinds of grossness? Where are they getting these mattresses?!

Also, those are all just horrible. There's gotta be a better way.

posted by -haley- on 2008-06-06 10:19:35
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Well...the intention was good.

posted by Cassis on 2008-06-06 10:19:49
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i'd like to see someone try to sit on that

posted by little flower on 2008-06-06 10:23:31
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Nice try but yuck. Most mattresses are an accumulation of dead skin, mites and bodily fluids. Even though these look like they've been coated with paintish stuff, no way one could get these clean enough for reuse.

In addition to being fugly, as jmorey says, they also looked damned uncomfortable, unless one were about 6'5" tall!

posted by Tammy Blue on 2008-06-06 10:23:40
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What about running the old mattresses through a wood chipper, sterilizing the "shavings" and creating new throw pillow/couch/whatever stuffings? As opposed to just folding in the bugs and what not. After recovering a chair that had been in a bad place and seeing just what was in there I'm never just reusing soft goods without a thorough cleansing.

posted by pbblythe on 2008-06-06 10:27:20
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Could these possibly be more grotesque? I don't think so!

posted by gordon on 2008-06-06 10:28:17
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This is one of those cases where "Reuse" isn't the right answer...

posted by bepsf on 2008-06-06 11:25:18
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"Mattress chair for sale. Slight urine smell. $1 or best offer."

posted by Melissa82 on 2008-06-06 11:27:37
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The first chair looks like an angry boil.

posted by LilyC on 2008-06-06 11:44:41
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It looks vaguely like an intestinal tract.

posted by jick on 2008-06-06 11:58:02
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1) Old mattresses are gross. Could we break down and process them a little before reuse?

2) This looks like the back of an obese person's neck. Now all I can think about is neck sweat. Thanks Frank, I'm going to skip lunch now.

posted by ChristopherB on 2008-06-06 12:07:17
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Well it was a nice thought but I'm with everyone else about the material, ick! They look like split hotdogs.

posted by girlonthem00n on 2008-06-06 12:12:43
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The intentions are good, but honestly, this is not hygienic.

posted by kuroneko on 2008-06-06 12:14:35
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Oh, the horror!

posted by RobertTheChicken on 2008-06-06 12:27:30
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Ohhh, I wish I were an Oscar Meyer weinnnnner....That aside, I think it's interesting art, but I would never want to own one.

posted by squidlette on 2008-06-06 12:27:45
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I wonder how green the "hygienic, water-resistant foam coating" is?
If it's polystyrene-based then it's bioaccumulative and not very green, which sort of defeats the (re-) purpose.

posted by lightspeed on 2008-06-06 12:40:37
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Oh, come on, people -- why not have the Rubens plump lady chair on one side of fireplace and yesterday's green lady's rear-end chair on the other?

(actually, I can think of several reasons why not, but I am beginning to wonder about what's going on in AT's psyche and/or love life)

posted by Deborah on 2008-06-06 12:44:17
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The form factor screams Simpson's butcher shop. My first reaction is that it looks disgusting and unappetizing. It's also humorous in a cynical and disturbing way.

I think this piece works better as a social commentary than as furniture.

posted by raven on 2008-06-06 12:44:54
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Yeah, using a foam coating doesn't strike me as green. And I would think the texture of the foam would be grosser to sit on than a used mattress covered in a natural fiber.

posted by bright_as_yellow on 2008-06-06 12:59:22
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Recylcling is good...up to a certain point. This line of "funriture" crossed that line and is now treading back in the garbage area. It looks like someone folded up a sleeping bag, tied it to a chair and spraypainted the whole thing (most likely in a drunken stupor).

posted by goldfixe on 2008-06-06 13:31:58
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I have never seen anything more hideous.

posted by jooly on 2008-06-06 13:51:30
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it looks like it has what southerners call "saddlebags"

posted by inkstainedwriter on 2008-06-06 14:01:12
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DISCRUSTING!

posted by Monica on 2008-06-06 14:05:56
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wow! you can have a chair that resembles your colon? HOT!!!


not.

posted by animalhouze on 2008-06-06 15:01:36
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I'll pass.

It is interesting to see really bad furniture design though.

Just when you think you've hit rock bottom (furniture design-wise) something even more worse (worser?) comes along.

posted by Mr. Dangerous on 2008-06-06 15:09:40
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Did someone really spend money on this?

posted by plain jane on 2008-06-06 19:35:05
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looks like aliens...

posted by looksgood on 2008-06-06 22:19:59
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You couldn't pay me to take that chair.

posted by bemyescape on 2008-06-07 21:44:10
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