As if Müller Möbelfabrikation could read our minds, we were met on their stand in Cologne by the most fantastic sheet steel desk. With soooo many drawers.
If that's not a guaranteed to way to get our attention!
If we did have one slight criticism it would be the decision to display a version in orange.
If there is one colour that is real hard to photograph under exhibition lighting......
But then orange was very much the trend colour on the Müller Möbelfabrikation stand.
And Lippert Studios, although not responsible for the desk, very much the dominant design studio.
Following last years delightful davenport PS 08, Lippert Studios were present this year with 3 new products.
The davenport PS 10 is an open version of the PS 08 with a slightly larger usable surface area, the ST 08 is a makeup table version of the PS 08 and....
No honestly. It is.
Kitted out with an illuminated mirror, deep-set storage spaces and a drawer, the ST 08 resembles how we romantically imagine makeup tables in the dressing rooms of provincial theatres look.
They probably don't. But certainly should.
Maintaining the same basic form as the PS 08 parent, the ST 08 has a more understated frame, which gives the whole construction a much more sophisticated air and, perhaps most importantly, when closed you'd never guess what was inside.
Which of course means it is a wonderful accessory for all modern urbane girls living in a modern urbane one room flat.
Despite our unconcealed joy at the ST 08, the stand out item for us was the LS 05.
Closed the LS 05 is an innocuous side/couch table. Extended it is a delightful laptop table, complete with a drawer.
What really appealed to us was the simplicity of the "sliding" solution.
OK we can see a few space problems; you need to make sure that you have enough space behind the unit to allow the top part to slide out.
But if you can organise that you have in the LS 05 a wonderful, 3-tiered laptop workplace in the most enchanting retro-futuristic optic.
Or simply use it as a side table, bedside table, telephone table. Whatever.
It's fair to say the LS 05 was one of our favourite discoveries at IMM 2012.
And all in all it was genuinely very pleasing to see the the way Müller Möbelfabrikation and Lippert Studios have successfully developed the basic idea contained in the original, and multiple award winning, PS 08 to create a very innovative and modern family of tables.
Now we just need a kitchen version.....
