inVisiBle design
By Margaret rhodes
Switch
Hitters
photograph by dan saelinger
clockwise froM top left:
Light Switch Rack, by Paul Koh
$25, pkohnyc.com
Peacock
$16, decorativehardwarestore.com
Magnetic Switch Cover
$25, jakefrey.com
Hoot, Hoot
$18, anthropologie.com
Arabesque
$5, decorativehardwarestore.com
SwitchHooks
$12, switchhooks.com
Moroccan
$20, honeybeeceramics.com
Jake Frey’s design philosophy is
succinct: “I create things that
make sense.” So when Frey, an
industrial-design student at Philadelphia University, imagined
the Magnetic Switch Cover—a
quick fix for keeping track of
keys—it only made sense to
model the wall plate after the
iconic horseshoe magnet.
For others looking to reinvent
the stale piece of hardware,
absentmindedness is an unusual,
though effective, source of inspiration. “I always forget to mail
things on time, and then I’d lock
myself out of my apartment,”
says New York–based Paul Koh,
whose design doubles as a key
hook and entryway table for the
urban-dwelling masses, offering
a place to drop mail. Koh crafted
the ultra-minimal slip-on piece to
stay just shy of invisible. “Every
entryway already has a light
switch, so you don’t even have to
drill holes in the wall,” he says.
“It’s an elegant solution.”
