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Lego has never been just for children to play with, adults everywhere love the ability to create something out of the colorful building blocks. The iconic bricks are much favoured by architects and designers too. They use the world-famed toy to create literally everything including all kinds of homeware and furniture.

Los Angeles-based art director Yusong Zhang, who has worked for a number of agencies in Canada and the US, has built himself a coffee table using Lego bricks. The designer arranged over 10,000 standard 2×4 bricks in four coloured layers, with white on the outside, then red, yellow and green towards the hollow centre.

Aiming to create an object that is truly functional without sacrificing the aesthetic and creativity that’s rooted in Lego designs, Zhang spent three weeks building the Lego Table – mostly in the evenings after work.

With interlocking connections helping to reinforce the structure, the table is sturdy enough to hold the weight of two feet or a stack of magazines. The designer point out that the piece was not made for sale and he has been using it himself. He is also open to custom orders if there is demand from potential customers.

Aiming to fuel creativity in building homeware pieces from their blocks, Lego Group has collaborated with the Swedish major furniture manufacturer IKEA to create Bygglek boxes that are “storage and play intertwined.”  The collection comprises a set of three small boxes and two sets of larger boxes, each with lids and fronts lined with Lego studs for children to top with their own creations.

The collection is compatible with any existing Lego parts. The boxes can be used as a building platform as well as a place to store the building blocks and even display them as sculptures. Each of the boxes can also be stacked on top of one another and secured together with the Lego studs.

The team hopes that the product will turn the process of tidying up into a fun play. It will also prevent parents from feeling the need to tidy up while the kids are still playing, as the two will coincide.

Since 2010, the team at Lego Group has been partnering with Danish brand Room Copenhagen to create oversized building bricks, reimagined into functional homeware. Their latest collection goes beyond toy-like objects made of plastic in bold colours that would look good in a child’s playroom.

They have introduced a series of wooden pieces, such as picture frames, wall hangers, book racks and desk drawers, all of which can stack like iconic bricks. All objects are manufactured from red oak sourced from responsible managed forests and are available in either a soaped oak and dark stained oak finish, which makes it suitable for various interiors.

UK-based design studio Vitamins have combined the signature look of the famous building blocks with latest technologies in their cloud-based calendar. Made entirely of Lego bricks, the piece comprises a wall-mounted time planner that synchronizes all events and schedules to an online digital agenda as soon as users take a picture via smartphone.

The system works by sending photographs of the calendar to a special email address, where written software scans the image, searches for the position and color of every brick and then imports the updated data directly into iCal or Google calendar.