Dezeen's favourite furniture and lighting from October

Marbled stools made from old car plastic and a sculptural lamp woven with silk are among the standout pieces of furniture and lighting spotted by Dezeen's design and interiors reporter Jane Englefield over the past month.

Perron Pillo Lounge Chair by Willo Perron for Knoll

Launched in late September by Canadian designer Willo Perron, this lounge chair is formed from five connected cushions that give the impression of freestanding pillows stacked on a bed.

On closer inspection, you'll also find that the furniture conceals an in-built 360-degree rotation that allows the user to swivel round at their leisure.

Perron's enviably tactile chair is an obvious visual feast that doesn't compromise on comfort or usability. I'd call that a surprisingly rare find.

Baku Sakashita lighting — Photo courtesy of Baku Sakashita

Haku by Baku Sakashita

Haku is the latest lighting collection from Japanese designer Baku Sakashita, currently on display in an exhibition at Tokyo Midtown Galleria until 5 November.

Floor lamps made from boxy stainless steel structures were woven with silk threads coloured with natural dyes sourced from various indigenous Japanese plants, borrowing from a technique Sakashita said has long been used to make kimonos.

Ultra-fine LEDs were woven into the silk, enhancing their natural sheen. The designer wanted to amplify the beauty of singular threads – "a beauty that is often lost once they are woven into fabric".

The project is a smart example of how lighting can do more than just illuminate a room. It might serve as a grounding reminder of ancient craft techniques cultivated outside during the gloomy winter months, when artificial indoor light so often dominates.

Plasticiet for Jil Sander — Photo by Pim Top

Mother of Pearl furniture by Plasticiet, CMK Architects and Jil Sander

Mother of Pearl is a colourful marbled material made by Dutch studio Plasticiet, developed into squat stools in collaboration with London studio CMK Architects and German fashion house Jil Sander.

The material was handmade from discarded polycarbonate casing once used to cover old car headlights.

Beyond Mother of Pearl's deliciously veiny appearance, it is an intriguing application of a waste material, and proof that the much-desired visual qualities of stone can be emulated without the carbon cost.

Originally produced as podiums and benches for Jil Sander stores, the stools debuted at Dutch Design Week as part of the Forward Furniture exhibition.

Cabinet from Dutch Design Week — Photo courtesy of Studio Rens

The Jesus Quintana Cabinet by Studio Rens and Maarten Baas

Also at Dutch Design Week, local practice Studio Rens joined forces with Dutch designer Maarten Baas to make this striking cabinet, intended as a mashup of the duo's different visual languages.

Baas created the furniture's raw brass body, arranged in his trademark patchwork style, while Studio Rens sought to showcase its experiments with glass by making a delicately layered pink and orange door.

Despite its standout appearance, the furniture was actually created to highlight "light doing its thing" through the door – an example of a piece made to respond to its surroundings.

Corner Light from There's Light — Photo courtesy of There's Light

Corner Light by There's Light and Neoz

Corner Light is a compact cordless table lamp by London studio There's Light and Australian manufacturer Neoz.

Recently designed for London's Tate Modern cafe, renovated in 2023 by Holland Harvey, the light features an attractively ribbed lampshade that casts a subtly opaque glow. Its confident lines are a nod to the Tate Modern's industrial architecture, too.

The lamp's brass base was chosen for its ability to weather over time, making it a long-lasting choice for pretty much any setting.

Furniture by Teun Zwets — Photo courtesy of Teun Zwets

Wardrobe by Teun Zwets

Rising Eindhoven star Teun Zwets was another Dutch Design Week exhibitor, who showed a series of new pieces during the city-wide event.

Zwets has made a name for himself creating strikingly cartoonish furniture crafted from split Douglas fir wood, which is then finished with a gleaming coat of colourful lacquer. This towering yellow wardrobe is one of his latest distinctive-looking pieces.

The designer first got the idea to work in this way when splitting wood with an axe to make a campfire, and was struck by the graininess of the material. The result is always furniture that you want to reach out and touch.

Monomaterial shelving — Photo courtesy of Sebastán Alarcón

Standard Shelf by Sebastán Alarcón

Ecuadorian designer Sebastán Alarcón has released the debut collection from his studio, Aset.

Among the pieces is Standard Shelf, a beautifully crafted modular storage system made of two different-sized units that effortlessly stack and interlock without additional hardware.

The stainless steel components are solid enough to create stable shelving, but lightweight enough to move easily.

Another project that featured at Dutch Design Week, the storage system is a masterclass in sleek simplicity.

Joyce Lin chair — Photo courtesy of Joyce Lin

Wood Grass Chair by Joyce Lin

This plywood chair is one of a handful of mind-bending pieces by Houston-based designer Joyce Lin.

In an undeniable feat of engineering, Lin has managed to create furniture that looks as if it has been sliced from a single tree. She used a mixture of oil and acrylic paint, epoxy clay and raffia fibres to create the effect.

"In recent years, I've found myself losing track of where truth ends and fiction begins," said Lin, whose deliberately uncanny work explores how we impact the environment.

"The natural and human-made, too, have merged into one bizarre and unpredictable landscape."

Lin's pieces will be on display in a solo exhibition at R & Company in New York City, which opens on 7 November.

Josh Page lamp — Photo courtesy of Josh Page

Lamp by Josh Page

There's something enchanting about soft light being emitted from wood – a solid material so often associated with denser pieces like cupboards or coffee tables. This lamp by emerging designer Josh Page is the perfect example.

Page carved playful cutouts into slabs of redwood pine, which cast illustrative shadows onto the surrounding walls when the lamp is illuminated.

Stone bench — Photo courtesy of Sereen Hassanieh Architects

Fluvia Bench by Sereen Hassanieh Architects

Lebanese architect Sereen Hassanieh debuted this undulating bench at We Design Beirut.

Formed from slim slices of marble, the outdoor seating was created in a nod to the stacks of pilae tiles that were once used to heat local Roman baths.

Despite its strength, the bench looks a bit like a pile of dominoes poised to collapse on top of each other. You want to investigate its configuration as soon as you see it, which is often the mark of an interesting piece of furniture.

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