What do you get when you combine an up and coming Belgian designer with Brazilian inspiration? Belgilian desperation? Actually, the result looks like some pretty astonishing home furnishings courtesy of 2004 Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Pieter Maes. Having spent a good deal of time in the South American country, Maes found himself gaining an appreciation for Brazilian culture, as well as its long history of modern contemporary furniture. So, it’s not much of a surprise that Maes teamed up with New York based-company Brastilo, who are known for their line of home furnishings “inspired by the Brazilian love for an easy lifestyle and stunning design.” Maes’s creations are marked by an equal fondness for geometric figures as well as elements of the natural Brazilian landscape. His stunning collection — consisting of everything from chairs to cabinetry — is expertly made by Brastilo’s own craftsman using the finest eco-friendly wood from their private reserve in southern Brazil, enhancing the authenticity of these aggressive, edgy designs.

Plenty of people use their desk as a space to separate their work lives from their personal lives, but often times those hulking masses of wood and marble end up taking on a life of their own. They tend to inherit loads of clutter that pertains to both personal and business matters and it doesn’t help that they’re certainly not so easy to move around either. Well, we think it might be time for you to get rid of your business-time behemoth. After all, you don’t really need something that big, it’s not like computers are so massive nowadays. We think your life and space would be better off with OneLessDesk, a sleek space saving stainless steel work station from the inventive folks at Heckler design. Comprised of two independent decks that give you plenty of flexibility in terms of personal space, and featuring a rear facing shelf that hides the unsightly mess created by all of your electronic attachments, OneLessDesk is a fantastic alternative to a traditional office space. However, if you want one you’ve got to act immediately, Heckler design is only producing 20 of these babies during their limited Spring 2008 production run.

It takes a certain amount of audacity to fundamentally rethink something as simple as a desk. Everybody knows what a desk looks like: it’s just a table with some drawers. Okay, now think fast…does it have legs?

The LAX wall mounted desk from MASH Studios doesn’t (have legs, that is). Sure, the wall mounted desk still has plenty of work space on top and storage space below, but gone are those familiar knee-trapping pillars that keep one squarely in working position. Those who demand structure in their endeavors might want to look elsewhere, but the open-minded will find the wall mounted desk’s airiness — as well as its crisp simplicity of design — a welcome change of pace. The desk is available for purchase at Design Public. Incidentally, some of the other MASH products available at Design Public are legless as well.

–Dan Steckenberg

Glancing at other peoples’ workspaces is a voyeuristic habit of mine, so with NowNow (virtually) publishing desktop//desktop, a study of designers’ desks and their immediate surroundings, I’m tickled pink. If you’re anything like me, you instantly consider about how you would rearrange any or all of the items on a desk, and this site just sent me overboard. Much like the products he designs at ATYPYK, I am more than intrigued by the workspace of Jean Sebastien Ides, although it might be because I’ve never seen an iron, a life-size fake deer, and five images with containing the word “kamasutra” framed in the same picture. A deep-seated extension cord phobia prevents me from falling in love with Robert Bolesta’s work area, but I am naturally drawn to Giuseppe Demaio’s chaos of an office because it reminds me of teenage years when I thought writing on the ceiling and having mismatched pictures of places I’d never been was like, totally friggin’ awesome.

–Stephanie Young

Come August, my household will lose a roommate (to grad school in Austin) and gain a whole extra room which, if I have any say in the matter, will be a sleek new office. The timing is perfect, really, because September sees the launch of Knú, a line of office furniture from the Industrial Woodworking Corporation, who’ve been at the forefront of sustainability and environmental stewardship since 1995, and have just been certified as offsetting 100% of their carbon emissions through Carbonfund.org’s CarbonFreeâ„¢ business program. From their manufacturing process to a paper-free marketing campaign to their management’s air travel and company vehicle usage, the company is producing a line of home office furniture that’s not only totally sexy, but totally green in every sense of the word from start to finish. For now, the site is informative in nature (it’ll go live for orders in September), and you can read all about their extensive efforts to reduce their carbon footprint here. As for me, I think the only trouble I’ll have here is making up my mind which one to add to my home office.

Check out this incredible desk concept by Danish designer Soren Kjaer (serial entrepreneur behind Castit, the online casting agency, and founder of new media agency In2media). He teamed up with Holmris Hansen A/S to create this futuristic desk simply called Milk. The desk includes a hydraulic raise/lower feature, cable drawers and wire exits throughout, an innovative box feature along the left that serves as a place for a small fish tank, pen holder, trash bin and storage box. The desk was made to perfectly match Apple’s brushed aluminum look and accessories. No word on pricing or availability yet but I know I want one!