Wanted: Alessi Creates The Ultimate No-Mess Bathroom Set
Inspiration can arrive unpredictably, almost on impulse. Why sully your ideas with impressions of a floral Kleenex box?
If you're of the opinion that the bathroom is a good place to think -- and many of us are -- then it couldn't hurt to surround yourself with a purposeful set of objects while you're in there.
Birillo by Alessi is made up of 10 minimally designed bathroom accoutrements assembled out of "imperfect squares" and "wrong circles," according to the designer, Piero Lissoni. And while they are clearly designed to camouflage themselves, items like the soap dish (with its shell-like ribbing) can't help but stand out as particularly pleasing forms. The Cotton Swab holder, another salient item, can't help but appear to be the offspring of a Tylenol and a roll of toilet paper (with compliments to both).
Lissoni has designed these pieces as if out of porcelain (or toilet paper?) and the shapes here are reminiscent of the low, tubby forms that live in your bathroom. Many of the pieces also come in stainless steel, if you want a more purposeful operating-room feel. But what's more, there's a hard-core attention to detail: The wastebasket has an inner lip that prevents the trash bag from ever showing; the soap dispenser is designed so that gummy knots of soap never accumulate around the nozzle or rim.
Sold individually; prices range between $32 and $146 at Alessi.
