Swedish design cooperative Fulo presented their unique Oblique this past February at the Stockholm Furniture Fair 2010. Inspired by boring dinner parties at grandmother’s house, this shelving system offers compartments galore. And that’s the idea. You see, as children, the designers liked to entertain themselves at these family gatherings by finding all of the “secret” compartments in the septuagenarians’ antiques. They explain the magic of this search: “It felt like only I knew about them, and the pieces of furniture became more than only a means of storage or parts of the room interior.”

Oblique. Designed by Fulo

Using this memory as a starting point, Fulo designers Olof Nordenson and Ulf Nilsson Jevin came up with a modular storage system that offers endless opportunities. Each module, or box, can be “placed in eight different directions,” creating rhomboids galore. Available in two widths, the units are a sleek white, although the manner in which they are stacked generates a play of shadow that “creates the illusion of shades of color on its body.” It can be like a little column of grayscale. Used along with Oblique’s base units, the boxes can be lifted off the ground. Or you can simply pile them atop each other. When you arrange the boxes so that drawers open to every side, you can use the resulting furniture as a sculptural playground. When you arrange the modules so that drawers open on either side, you can use Oblique as both a storage system and a room divider. Place them in pairs next to each other to fashion a large shelving unit where you can keep lots of trinkets and toys. The real test of your own interest may just come when your own grandchildren come to visit–see if they stay entertained by Oblique and whatever you stash inside it.