Today’s Can Opener, Tomorrow’s Meal Ticket

Did you inherit your parents’ lamps from the 1950s? Where’s that kidney-shaped coffee table you grew up with? They’re valuable today. And if you guess right about the future value of the designs you buy now, your heirlooms could pay for your child’s college education.

According to an article in the January-February issue of Metropolitan Home magazine, it’s easier than ever to predict the future market for collectible design and furnishings. Though it once took decades to discover which pieces would be valuable, in the last 15 years, ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s designs have recycled. Metropolitan Home polled the experts and came up with three guidelines for buying furniture, accessories and objects that will be highly collectible in the next century:

* The introduction of playfulness to humble objects.

* The marriage of new materials to ergonomically engineered products.

* The use of high-tech materials in low-tech craft production.

What should you buy and save? According to Metropolitan Home, here’s what to look for:

* Performance plastic: Before the ‘90s, plastic meant cheap. Now it’s glamorous. Look for Authentics housewares and anything from Kartell, the Italian furnishings company.

* High-fashion sporting gear: High-performance sporting gear got hot in the ‘90s. Nike’s magnetic sunglasses and Triax Watch are good examples.

* Unusual forms, innovative materials: Chairs rank high, in examples ranging from bent wood to knotted macrame. Frank Gehry’s Hat Trick chair for Knoll is a perfect example.

* High-tech meets craft: Ingo Maurer’s hologram lamp and anything by Italian designer Gaetano Pesce are the right idea.

* New technology: New technology for popular electronics grew explosively in the ‘90s. Canon’s Elph, Apple’s iMac, the Palm Pilot and IBM’s Thinkpad with butterfly keyboard are sure to be valuable.

* Novel forms: Some ‘90s products were designed to define the period and become instant collectibles. Ron Arad’s Bookworm in plastic for Kartell, for example.

* CD-ROM computer games: Computer culture came to life in the ‘90s and CD-ROM games are sure to be as collectible in the future as old board games are today. Save Doom and Quake, as well as mystery games like Myst and Tomb Raider.

* Funny stuff: Household objects designed to amuse, like Philippe Starck’s spiderish cast-aluminum lemon squeezer. Just about anything by Starck, from toilet brushes to moderately priced, witty chairs, will be valuable.

* Extraordinary versions of ordinary things: There are wonderfully well-designed mass-produced household objects and they’ll bring value. Save your Tupperware. Newer Tupperware designs like the Morison Cousins 1991 soup-to-nuts bowl is a good prospect.

* “It’s Totally Me”

* For Natalie Tass of Costa Mesa, home is where her stuff is. And does she have stuff. N2