Mounting maps on walls is nothing new, but getting floor-to-ceiling wallpaper designed to fit in a wide variety of individual spaces and existing color schemes allows a lot of fresh possibilities.

Point Two Design has a collection of maps spanning 30 major global cities (and more on demand), including Seattle, London, Amsterdam, Manhattan, Tokyo and others. Land and water hues, meanwhile, can be set to enhance contrasts or blend into backgrounds.

There are two options, aimed at renters and owners, respectively — a removable vinyl version designed to stick but also come back off, as well as a more permanent suede-finish variant aimed to livening up spaces for years to come.

Bought by the square foot, the featured areas can be selected by the buyer, and cut to fit individual living spaces and selected by color to match existing painted surfaces, furniture, fixtures and other household accessories.

What started as a project to create a few letters for an album cover morphed into an entire alphabet derived from the collective contributions of this Swedish punk band.

Bassist Anton Bolin was working on the new record’s graphic design and “wanted to do something that suits the dirty hardcore punk we play. So I started to pee a logo and when it was done, I realized that it would be a refreshing typeface for the world to see.”

The half-year process involved urinating on bed sheets, photographing them and then turning them into vector formats using digital software. Rapid dehydration was a challenge — in each attempt, a letter had to be made in a matter of seconds if at all.

A lot of testing was involved in the selection and stretching of sheet material as well to achieve the desired effect. To save anyone interested in replicating the process some time and trouble, the band’s album also includes a quick-and-dirty DIY tutorial on making urine-based type.

“It was so limiting to have to adapt to your bladder,” said Bolin. “On a good day you had three maybe four attempts to create a letter.” The results, though, were worth the wait. The resulting typeface looks dynamic and organic, much like the streams of urine that went into its creation. Pissjar Sans (“a typeface made of piss”) is also available for free from the band’s website.

We all want to make a good first impression then leave a mark when we’re done, particularly when it comes to a labor of love, and what better way than with this custom-designed hammer?

This device turned an off-the-shelf hammer into a lovely gift for that special someone by “using the industrial mold-making technique of electro-erosion (EDM),” explains its creator, Dog Ganchrov (images by Moti Fishbain).

The “steel hammering head has been reshaped into a heart, and the hammer has been transformed into a tool for leaving a mark” when you’re hard (or heart?) at work.

“Anything struck by it will now have a signature ‘heart’ shape indented on it,” he explains, “be it a tree, wall or hood of an ex-lovers car. The hammer is a tool for constructing but it can also destroy.”

And anyone who has worked with a hammer knows that even the best and most experienced folks can mess up from time to time, missing the mark or slipping off the head of a nail — but it usually just leaves a semi-circle.

This so-called Love/Hate Thing evolved from the idle musings of its maker: “Is the urge to leave a mark a curse or blessing? How much of a mark? How much of [our] selves? How much of a mark on the ecological system, cultural trend, design students, human well-being?” It is on display at the Periscope Gallery in Tel-Aviv.

Even the smallest, ugliest and most awkward space can become a comfortable apartment when creative custom built-ins are integrated into a brilliant renovation by a truly talented architect. Undeniably the most effective way to save space and reorganize interiors without cutting them off from each other, bespoke built-in elements like storage staircases, bookcases full of beds, transforming self-contained volumes, panel systems and custom cabinetry transform spaces like dingy garages, formerly abandoned slurry pits, historic flats and average urban lofts into highly livable homes.

A Floating Mezzanine & Storage Staircase in London

At Syte Architects’ Studio on Greville Road, a historic building occupied by the same artist for twenty years gets dramatically brighter, lighter and more organized with the addition of double-height glass doors facing the garden, a bespoke wooden staircase packed full of storage customized to the artist’s needs, and a floating mezzanine. The storage, including vertical cubbies that can accommodate oversized paintings, slots right beneath the staircase leading to the second floor, which stops short of the perimeter walls and inserts weight-supporting glass instead. This feature combined with new skylights ensures that plenty of all-important daylight floods into every corner of the space.

‘Sleeping Bookcase’ for a Paris Pied-a-Terre by

French architect Pierre-Louis Gerlier completely reorganized the interior of a Paris pied-a-terre to create a much larger living room and a bedroom with private cubbies for multiple children. This require a whole lot of custom built-ins, which maximize storage for each room and create fun features like window seats. But by far the coolest element of this renovation is that wall of bed cubbies interspersed with storage.

Aluminum Island in an Industrial Loft

What was formerly a 1920s industrial building in Paris’ 11th arrondissement has become a striking apartment in the hands of SABO Project, with a renovation that emphasizes the native character of the space. The concrete walls are aged and highly textural, contrasting with melamine cabinetry and an unusual aluminum island containing the bedroom and bathroom. Cut-outs allow daylight to filter into these more private spaces by day, and diffuse artificial light into the living room at night. There’s a guest loft hidden on top of the island, too.

A Modern Trocadero Apartment in Paris by François Champsaur

Myriad custom surfaces completely transform this Paris apartment in a high-end renovation by François Champsaur, giving it a modern edge with lots of curves. He removed false ceilings installed in 1970 and replaced the parquet floors with extra-long pine boards. The dining room is lined with marble, and the bathroom adds slatted wood to soften it. Custom panels are used extensively to disguise potentially busy-looking elements like televisions and kitchenware.

Renovated Family Duplex in Denmark by Spacon & X

It’s plain to see how custom built-ins can make a tiny space far more usable and enjoyable in this apartment renovation in Denmark by Spacon & X. Created for a family of four, the new living space integrates a staircase full of storage into the kitchen that doubles as a room divider for the living room, a guest bed that folds up into the wall beneath elevated textile storage, a window seat, a fold-down office stations and a super cute kid room full of slide-out closets, desks and play areas.

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Built In Bonanza 13 Mega Apartment Makeovers Packed With Custom Features

Lightweight, durable and compact, this new recycled Zippelin bag series features wheels for rolling like any good luggage. But instead of metal or plastic frames, these bags employ bicycle tire inner tubes that can be inflated instead. This strategy also allows the bags to pack into tiny space for storage when not in use.

Using truck tarpaulins that are made to resist water and withstand wear, the bags have evolved — early versions still included frames, which added weight. These were swapped out for bike tubes which, conveniently enough, can be inflated using a standard bike pump (no need to buy a specialized device).

FREITAG is not stranger to recycling — its headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, is housed in a stacked shipping container building that boasts a similar rugged look, worn materials and an upcycling ethos.

Like the variegated containers that make up its home, the company’s Zippelin bags are all different. Helpfully, this also makes each bag easier for its owner to spot and identify, since each one is unique.

A product engineer at FREITAG and former architect, Nicola Stäubli says he’s “familiar with air-supported structures” and she also “used to be a bike messenger and was impressed by folding bikes that are fully functional when mounted, and compact when you stow them away.”