Design: Home Sweet Home.(The Good Life)(Salone Internazionale del Mobile)

Byline: Sameer Reddy

In the last decade, as wild financial growth was accompanied by an explosion of ostentation, the world of high-end furniture--perched between pragmatism and corporeal comfort, and enjoyable primarily in the confines of one's home--remained a bit less giddy. Today, as the rest of the luxury industry is stripping away layers of bling, the home-furnishings world is focusing on creating a satisfying post-crisis life. The products reflect both an ongoing infatuation with high-tech progress and an urge to live on a more intimate, modest scale.

Such impulses were abundantly clear at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan, the design world's most important annual event, where thousands of designers, retailers, manufacturers and spectators gathered from March 22 to 27. With baroque gestures out of vogue, the most striking wares on display betrayed these two urges: toward experimental technology and a simpler, handmade esthetic.

The Dutch collective Droog Design staged a large show of nine designers committed to keeping conceptual furniture down to earth and approachable. A standout was Next Architects' ready-made bookshelf, which gently mocks the practice of using knowledge as a status symbol. The shelf has a built-in, hinged, trompe l'oeil facade of books featuring impressive titles that can be covered as you acquire real books (price on request; droog.com).

Fendi's "Craft Punk" exhibition turned the low-tech theme into visceral entertainment. Over three days, 10 designers created new products in front of visitors' eyes--all from materials discarded from Fendi's factories. The most winning work was by the young Spanish star Nacho Carbonell, who assembled fairy-tale "Beasts" using only molding wire, Fendi leather scraps and a staple gun (sculpture, ...