InteriorsAu editor Cassie Hansen gathers together her favourite design items that have crossed her desk in October 2026.
About ten years ago, my friend Holly had a spare ticket to an all-you-can-eat oyster “frenzy” at an upmarket gastro pub. There was going to be, according to the marketing material, 20,000 oysters prepared. I attended the frenzy and ate 43 molluscs, which is not a sentence you say every day. It’s a wonder I didn’t get zinc poisoning. I am reminded of this story because Brisbane-based design practice Franca Studio is doing something extraordinary with oyster shells. The husband-and-wife team is sourcing shells from restaurant waste, grinding them into fine particles and blending with bio-sourced filament to create soft, off-white lighting forms. They’re doing the same thing with coffee grounds, which produce warm, earthy brown coloured lights. Hopefully these beautiful, sculptural and commercial lights start a new kind of frenzy – one for evocative objects made from waste-derived material.
Exhibited as part of the Momentum exhibition, the glorious Loka Lamp is one of a handful of beautiful pieces now on show at Collingwood’s Useful Objects gallery. This exhibition, presented in partnership with JamFactory, surveys five emerging design talents. Made from oak, Lokta paper, birch plywood and bronze, this lamp is a personal favourite of mine. Object and furniture designer Melvin Josy designed it and while it’s stunning in its expression, it also conjures questions around craft and culture. Head to Useful Object before 28 November to see this piece and others in person.
From what I’ve seen, sofa bed designs come in two options: the fold-out mattress-to-floor option which makes for a hard time for your seventy-year-old mother; and then there’s the squeaky pull-out steel frame with lumpy mattress option. Both are not ideal. Koala has spent two years developing a new option – a pull-out bed that is elevated off the floor with supportive foam layers. And the best part is, it comes in a removable and washable velvet in three elegant colours.
Designed by Hong Kong and Milan-based designer Sean Dix as part of the new Slide Rule collection, the Saturn stool draws on the clean lines and utilitarian spirit of mid-century institutional furniture. For the past three decades, Dix’s work has been found in Michelin-starred restaurants and high-end fashion boutiques around the world, so he knows a thing or two about designing durable, versatile and refined pieces that suit a range of commercial and residential settings. This stool is available in four powdercoated steel options and a concise colour and upholstery palette, and available from Zenith and Obodo.
InteriorsAu editor Cassie Hansen gathers together her favourite design items that have crossed her desk in September 2026.
Velux has launched the Velux Walk-On Skylight, a trafficable glass floor system designed to help architects bring natural light deeper into residential projects.
