Line Cook

Looking at the tangle of downed tree limbs that now litters our lawn [thanks, Sandy!], I'm put in mind of this dynamic grate design. The cooktop, which is part of a new collection of top-of-the-line appliances called Grande Cuisine, has a most interesting feature: Each burner is equipped with the so-called Flower Flame, which automatically rises or lowers to fit the pan, whether it's an 11-inch skillet or a five-inch petite saucepan. Neat trick! grandcuisine.com

In the Dark

Once we're done with the nastiness of Frankenstorm, I may pick up a few of these Sunday fixtures. Living in an area that is prone to power outages when the weather turns bad, it would be nice not to have to scramble for candles when the lights go dark. And as we ride out the storm, that glass of whisky is not a bad idea, at all. northernlighting.no

Ship-Shaped

As Hurricane Sandy is making her presence very much known—with the worst to come—I offer up the Marecucina kitchen. With flooding in our area exacerbated by a Halloween-perfect full moon, we're in for rough seas, here; this see-worthy design provides an aesthetic escape, if not an actual one. alno.com

Ghoulish Pleasures, The Final Chapter

Despite the name of the manufacturer, there's something about this 1905 commode that's unnatural in the extreme. To the 21st-century eye, its sloped design is unsettling—more haunted than holistic. Bizarrely ringing the fixture with multiple full moons only increases the eerie factor, wouldn't you say?

Ghoulish Pleasures, Part 4

No skullduggery here: These metal drawer/door pulls are faithful castings of bird craniums. I think they'd add a certain skeletal style to cabinets of all kinds, wonder-full or otherwise. The skilled artists at Blue Bayer Design Studio meticulously handcraft all sorts of boney beauties. bluebayer.com

Ghoulish Pleasures, Part 3

Ideal for dispatching odors sulfurous and otherwise, these range hoods have a distinctly ominous attitude; to me, the appliance seems like equipment that might grace Dr. Frankenstein's lab. minacciolo.it

Ghoulish Pleasures, Part 2

Surrounded by the primitive, six-pointed stars that are favored by sorcerers, this little Desmodus rotundus casts quite a spell of his own. No need to install a whole colony of tiles, though; just a single 4-inch x 4-inch square set in an unexpected corner of the belfry—I mean room—would lend the space a spooky tone. The handmade ceramic tile is offered in 16 standard colors, with custom glazes available, too. derbypottery.com

By the way, the Year of the Bat—a conservation program backed by the United Nations—wraps up in a couple months. Learn more about the international effort here.