As a staple of photography studios and production sets, appleboxes are a supremely useful piece of kit. Typically made of ½" plywood, they serve as both stools and stepstools. They're durable, long-lived and easy to make. Here's one I inherited from an NYC studio on the left—you can see the years of use on it--and a newer one that I made out of plywood scraps. (If you have a pair, you can use them as sawhorses or trestles. They come in handy in a workshop.)

About a decade ago, British industrial designer Sebastian Bergne made some modified appleboxes as ancillary items for an exhibition he was participating in. "Designed to offer visitors a moments rest whilst they watched product films," he writes, "and store the exhibition catalogue beneath, they were manufactured using grey MDF board and coloured laminate."

While the exhibition has long ended, interest in Bergne's take on the appleboxes has not. After enough people expressed interest, Bergne put his production hat on and started having his re-design manufactured in hardwood. His open-sided design allows the objects to carry or store things, and he added visual interest by beveling the edges of the components; the resultant object is fittingly named Bevel.

Bergne produces them in Maple, Oak and stained Beech.

The handsome pieces are more objets d'esign than utility pieces; whereas a studio applebox will run you $50 to $70, Bevels run £275 (USD $354).