The Sanctuary charging station review

Matt Warman hails the end to the mass of charging cables on your bedside table.

The Sanctuary is a charging station that doesn't look like it's built solely for geeks
The Sanctuary is a charging station that doesn't look like it's built solely for geeks

There are lots of design companies that have got something of the Apple about them, but BlueLounge stands above the rest thanks to its peerless practicality. They make things that don’t just do jobs, but look lovely doing it. And the firm seems to have realised that while modern life is made infinitely easier with lovely gadgets, not all of them look lovely all the time. And the mass of cables to power or charge them never looks lovely.

Step forward the Cablebox, which is basically a plastic cover for chargers. Jonathan Ive’s vision of the iMacs clean lines, Dieter Rams’ design and a simple existence deserves this sort of simple solution. And products such as CableClip can make immeasurable differences to how neat a desk looks. No wonder BlueLounge is in the Apple store; these are products that fit in with ideas such as the iPad Smart Cover.

Most appealing to me, however, is The Sanctuary. This apparently simple box conceals a mass of charging options. Three neat connectors can charge your gadgets simultaneously, but still look neat on the bedside table because, thanks to the box’s false bottom, all you see are your own devices. There’s space for keys and the like too. That’s it. Simple; perfect. Competitors, such as those from iDapt, are just as useful but with much less of the beauty. BlueLounge seems to get that gadgets are something to be integrated into modern life, rather than something to obsess over.

The device’s iPhone adapter doesn’t charge an iPad, but then you can fit an iPad in The Sanctuary. As chargers standardise around the microusb adapter, the need for lots of different adapters will diminish, but the neatening value of such accessories will persist. Any suggestions of a lovely way of tidying the half a dozen cables coming from modern televisions are most welcome, at least until wireless HD arrives.