9 Home Designs That Evoke the Flow of Water

This article is part of our Design special section about water as a source of creativity.

Water is a popular motif with product designers because it symbolizes tranquillity and clarity. But this force of nature also “adds movement, freedom and flow in a space,” said Golnar Roshan, who with her partner, Ruben de la Rive Box, recently introduced a rug collection called Fluid that evokes the moody skies reflected in the canals of Amsterdam, where they live.

“I like to mix worlds that seem far apart, create unexpected connections and imaginative short circuits between things,” Paola Navone, a designer in Milan, said of her collection of new pendant lights with diffusers of milky white or limpid blue glass that visually create an oceanic sway. (The lamps are called Oblò, which is Italian for “porthole.”)

These and other fresh, splashy products are presented here.

The interlocking handblown vases by the Los Angeles artist and designer Mansi Shah — part of her first housewares line, Manu Nanu — fit together like molecules. “The glass itself possesses a water-like quality,” she said, adding that she likes to keep the vases on a windowsill, where sunlight passes through and casts shadows that “dance and shift like ripples.” Available in amber, cobalt blue and teal for $80. manunanu.com

After producing a ceiling lamp with a bulbous glass filament that rises from the center to evoke a water drop splashing in a pool, Beacon Custom Lighting followed with its Pond decanter. Designed by Dean Maltz, a New York City architect, the handblown carafe is $260. beaconcustomlighting.com