Who could be blamed for lounging around reading all day when you’ve got a cozy built-in nook surrounded by books or overlooking a scenic landscape? These nooks, niches, window seats and bunks create tiny sheltered spaces within larger rooms, sometimes stacking enough sleeping spots for eight people onto a single wall.

La Refuge by H2O Architects

H2O Architects created an entire apartment full of nooks called ‘La Refuge’ in Menuires, France, embedding multiple levels of twin beds, reading areas and storage space into an oversized wooden cabinet that curves along the wall of the room.

Seating at Raheen Library by Woods Bagot

Architecture firm Woods Bagot inserts cozy reading spaces right into the bookshelves at Raheen Library on the campus of Australian Catholic University in Melbourne.

Space-Age Sleeping Nook by Van Staeyen Interior Architects

Inspired by an Alpine chalet but looking more like something you’d find in a spaceship, this clever bedroom by Van Staeyen Architects fits a partially-hidden bed, closets, a fold-down table and other amenities into a wall-mounted cabinet system in a tiny space.

Pull-Out Reading Lounge

An elegant curving chaise pulls right out of a bookshelf with the Recamier Reading Corner by Inbar Paradny Kalomidi, and can be tucked back in when you’re done reading.

Teeny-Tiny Reading Nook in a NYC Apartment

A 240-square-foot apartment in New York City gets a more spacious, organized feel with a wooden built-in that adds tons of storage, countertops, a loft and even a tiny ‘library’ nook next to the bed.

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Lounge In An Alcove 14 Nooks For Napping Relaxing

What about this chaise lounge makes it worth the equivalent of approximately ten middle-class suburban homes, or 5,000 Ikea couches? The Lockheed Lounge by Marc Newson set a record for the world’s most expensive design object created by a living person after it sold for more than £2 million (over $3 million USD at today’s exchange rate.)

One prototype, four artist’s proofs and ten editions of the seat have been created since the Lockheed Lounge’s design in 1990, and it’s perhaps best known to people outside the design community for being prominently featured in Madonna’s 1993 video for the song ‘Rain.’ It’s this particular lounge that got snapped up for millions – over the phone, no less – when it recently went up for auction.

The aircraft-inspired furniture design was an immediate success when an early version of it debuted at a Sydney gallery, and it’s been in demand among the world’s wealthiest design collectors ever since, especially since the shape was refined to become smoother and more free-flowing. It’s made of thin aluminum plates welded together and riveted from the inside. The core is made of fiberglass-reinforced plastic.

The sale cements Newson’s status as one of the world’s highest-grossing designers. His works collectively brought in over £8.5 million in April alone.

Everybody knows that there’s no better place to take a nap than a hammock hung in a scenic location, but what about when you’re stuck at home, or at the office, or on a city bus? Instead of making do with an upright chair, the hard surface of your desk or a stranger’s shoulder, try these 15 nap-worthy (and sometimes ridiculous) loungers, sleep suits and head-supporting pillows.

Energy Pod

Among the perks of working at Google is escaping every now and then to take a nap in one of these bizarre-looking EnergyPods, which cost about $8K each. Reclined at just the right angle for optimal blood flow throughout the body, the pod has a visor that flips down to envelop the user in a private, soundproof space, and it even has built-in Bose speakers if you’d like to drift off to music.

Vitrea Living Tower

This classic design, first introduced in 1969, is an organically shaped seating tower that allows you to recline in a variety of positions. The unit can be used alone – either freestanding or pushed up against a wall – or put together to create a sort of seating cave.

Human Burrito

Turn yourself into a human burrito with the Blandito, a transformable pad for lounging in virtually any position you can think of. The pad can be rolled, bunched and scrunched in all sorts of different ways. The idea was to make the simplest possible product – essentially a sofa with no arms, legs, back or any real structure whatsoever – as multi-purpose as it can be. That’s achieved with just a little bit of fabric, foam and some elastic connectors.

DIY Hammock Bed

A fun twist on the conventional hammock design, this DIY creation is simply some net strung across an open space leading from one level of an office to another. Would you be able to get any work done if this thing was installed right next to your desk?

FEEL Seating System

Over 120 soft foam balls make up the ‘Feel Seating System‘, which can be bunched up in any number of configurations to reflect “the ever changing emotional state of the body.” Sit on it, lay on it, or wrap it around you like a cocoon.

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Luxe Lounge 15 Tempting Places To Take A Nap

Spatial separation can be as much about a feeling of enclosure as a physical divider, like this set of portable lounge structures that provide a semi-secluded experience in an otherwise wide-open space.

Proposed by Malcrew for a co-working office space in an old Singapore warehouse, these mobile mini-rooms offer seating and shelving that can be deployed in a variety of personalized configurations.

Better still, like slices of a house set side by side, the disparate units can be slid back together to form gathering or meeting spaces on demand.

Individual cushions can also be removed from each structure to make legroom for sitting upright and, in turn, be used as stools as well.

Inspired by treehouses, white oak frames reference wooden home construction, while brightly-colored interior cushions and walls distinguish the different modules from one another.

A hammock can be as simple as some woven rope stretched between two trees, or it can be a massive, built-in ‘outdoor room’ for four people with a price tag of $20,000. These 13 hammocks run the gamut between crazy DIY creations and amazingly relaxing deck hammocks over water to beautifully designed urban hammocks and luxury loungers for the uber-rich.

Hammock Boat

(images via: tobo)

Spotted at a UC Davis Picnic Day in 2003, this evidently DIY creation is probably the most creative use of a hammock ever captured on camera. It’s got a sun shade, a hammock for both lounging and sitting up to row, extra-long oars and a floating base that stabilizes the whole thing.

Deck Hammocks Over Water

(images via: cn traveler, dive safari asia)

Do hammocks get more picturesque than this? The idea is so simple, but feels so luxurious: simply stretching some net off a deck so you can lay down and relax, and see the water beneath you. The pictured hammocks are at the One & Only Reethi Rah resort in the Maldives and the Misool Eco Resort in New Guinea.

La Seora Hammock

(images via: design milk)

This high-end hammock not only looks really cool and sleek with its steel base, it’s also made with plywood beams that prevent your back from slouching. Plus, it’s got an adjustable footrest and armrests that open when you need them, a pillow and a side pocket.

Hammock Bed

(images via: techeblog)

Located inside an office, this hammock bed is probably pretty irresistible for those midday naps. Stretched across an opening in the floor of the second story, the hammock bed resembles a giant spiderweb.

5-Story House Filled with Hammocks

(images via: impact lab)

Why have just one hammock when you could have an entire house full of them? Heri & Salli architects created the Flederhaus as an urban getaway in Vienna, Austria. It’s an open, five-story structure with dozens of hammocks that provide a relaxing view of the park below.

Leaf Luxury Hammock

(images via: yanko design)

Here’s one durable hammock that won’t collapse on you or trap your limbs in its netting. The Leaf hammock by Pinar Yar & Tugrul Govsa has a plastic rim for support, and a woven center for comfort.

Cocoon Hammock

(images via: luxist)

The Cocoon Hammock is certainly inviting, with its large surface that can fit a group, and optional curtains for privacy. Designed by Henry Hall, this hammock is a permanent installation measuring about 12 square feet and weighing over 400 pounds. All of this luxury comes at a cost that nearly equals that of a vehicle: about $20,000.

Wave Hammock

(images via: royal botania)

Looking a lot like the sail of a ship, the Wave Hammock has such a small base, it appears to be floating in midair. Designed by Erik Nyberg and Gustav Ström for Royal Botania, the hammock has a semi-transparent canopy that blocks 86% of the sun’s rays.

Urban Balance Wave Hammock

(images via: spacify)

Ergonomically shaped, the Urban Balance Wave Hammock also makes a nice style statement for modern yards and gardens. It’s got an aluminum frame covered in woven wicker and comes with a colorful pillow.

E-Z Hammock by Royal Botania

(images via:  unica home)

Royal Botania’s E-Z Hammock is another modern choice, this one ideal for outdoor spaces where trees or other hammock supports aren’t readily available.

Le Beanock

(images via: le beanock)

A cross between a bean bag and a hammock, Le Beanock is meant for indoors, and it’s one of the comfiest looking hammocks ever. Ranging in price from $200-$500, this might just be the ultimate lounge item for rainy days.

Four-Pole Hammock

(images via: coveiter)

Like two hammock frames put together, the Chesapeake four-pole hammock from Pottery Barn easily fits two people in comfort and style.

Fox Fur Double Hammock

(images via: yanko design)

When you’re rich enough to demand over-the-top glitz and glamour in absolutely every object that you own, laying down in a silky-soft fox fur hammock is within your reach. That is, if laying on dead animals is your thing. German design studio Bless created this fox fur double hammock with a dyed fox fur blanket lined with cashmere.