Yowie, the Best Design Boutique in Philly, Has Opened an Equally Cool Hotel

We've long been obsessed with the always-just-under-the-radar design scene in Philadelphia, but a decade ago — when we devoted a whole week of coverage to Philly — something like Yowie, the design store founded and curated by creative director Shannon Maldonado, simply didn't exist. That all changed when Yowie opened its doors in 2016, introducing a variety of Danish and American furniture brands and a refreshingly playful color palette to Philadelphia. Today, Yowie offers clothing, lighting, furniture, homeware, gifts, books (including our own!) and more, deservedly it earning the title of coolest boutique in Philly. And thanks to this success over the past seven years, Yowie is now not only expanding its retail footprint, but opening an entire hotel upstairs.
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Thank This Couple For Bringing a Dose of Color to Berlin’s Interiors

Progressing from designing furniture for children to interiors for the whole family could easily result in spaces that were kitschy or too twee. But not in the hands of Berlin studio Jäll & Tofta, whose projects carry the joy and spirit of childhood whimsy, yet with a sophisticated, well-considered maturity. If you ever needed proof that colorful can be chic (which we didn’t, obviously), this is it.
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This Intensely Color-Blocked London Victorian Will Make You Rethink the Possibilities of an Historic Home

When Studio Rhonda was asked to redesign a Victorian terrace house in North London for a friend, “the brief was to go crazy, a celebration of life moving forward,” notes Rhonda Drakeford, director of the studio. With a trusting client, Drakeford completely pulled it off while pushing the limits of what you can do with color. Thick stripes and blocks of saturated primary colors harmonize with earthier tones of terracotta and chalks — over 30 shades of paint, in all. Drakeford kept the period details of the residence but glossed over them, in some cases literally: ignoring moldings and architraves, the dictates of corners and where walls meet ceilings. Instead, she used color and geometric shapes to delineate the space.
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London’s Daytrip Studio on Mining for References and Why “Pinterest is a Dangerous Place”

The London-based interiors firm Daytrip Studio can do soothing, pared back minimalism; they can do more maximalist drama. Still, whatever it is, it all derives from the same place: a fixation on materials and a layered attention to sensory details. They bring together elements of texture, light, depth, proportion, and color palette and the overall effect is one of deceptive simplicity: the whole looks effortless and inevitable, yet every part is thoroughly researched and considered.
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How to Live With Objects Helene Rebelo

How to Live With Objects Sneak Peek! Inside a Colorful Brussels Loft That Perfectly Mixes the Vintage and the New

Often when we first tell people we're releasing our first book, they assume it's a compilation of stories from Sight Unseen's archives, or a compendium of the homes of creatives. In fact, it's more like a reference book or handbook, one that — over the span of nearly 50,000 words — advises you on how to make your house a home. That said, we would have been remiss if we spent that much time talking about how to live with objects without showing you some prime examples of people who are successfully doing just that, like Hélène Rebelo and Edouard Beauget, whose colorful Brussels loft we're excerpting today.
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Adam Stech on Italian Futurism, Part I: Tour Four of Italy’s Most Avant-Garde Interiors

In the 1909 manifesto for one of the most controversial avant-garde art movements of the 20th century — Italian Futurism — founder Filippo Tommaso Marinetti confessed his admiration for the modern age and its inventions, for speed, the roar of engines, and the rage of war weapons. The group’s paintings and sculptures attempted to depict the speed and dynamism of the industrial age, but Futurism’s reach also extended to a practice in architecture and interior design, and in the past few years I toured Italy to uncover few of its best spaces.
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Platform Sight Unseen accessible art

Add Color to Your Space With Our New Collection of Gallery-Level — Yet Accessible — Art

In our forthcoming book, we talk a lot about how easy and rewarding it is to build a collection of great objects that add texture and personality to your interior. What's always been so much harder is building a collection of great art. That's why we were so excited to discover the David Zwirner–backed online art marketplace Platform last November, which lets anyone purchase high-end works by respected artists for relatively accessible prices, and with just the click of a button. A year later, we've partnered with the site to create our own collection of Sight Unseen–approved artworks that will instantly make your space more colorful and more visually interesting — most of which are under $5k.
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herman miller x hay eames

How Do You Remix the Most Iconic Furniture of All Time? Give it a Splash of Danish Color

Charles Eames once said that “the details are not the details — they make the product.” So, when Danish design brand HAY had the chance to collaborate with Herman Miller on a refresh of eight classic Eames pieces, we imagine the opportunity was as exciting as it was daunting: How do you take something so iconic and rework the defining nuances in your own style? The Eames Office has rarely let creative liberties be taken with these mid-century designs. But this collaboration, born out of mutual appreciation, features a revitalized color palette and some updated materials that feel utterly contemporary while remaining true to the originals.
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Gabrielle Teschner on Why Being an Artist Is a Job You Can’t Lose

Gabrielle Teschner’s signature “Sculptures-That-Are-Flat” are made of individually painted planes of muslin that are stitched together, then ironed. Their scale ranges from hand-held (called ‘Minutes’ and measuring around 7x10 inches) to environmental, monolithic (up to 16x14 feet). Employing the symbolic and physical language of architectural forms, spatial relationships, and, often, weather patterns, Teschner explores dichotomies, concepts of strength and softness, force and flow, and phenomena of perception, among other impulses and ‘attractions,’ as she calls them. All of these are a way of understanding and questioning what it is to be in the world.
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In Wang & Söderstrom’s First Shop Interior, Color Reigns and 3D-Printed Blobs Act as “Jewelry” For the Space

A central player in the explosive rise of Denmark’s boutique fashion scene, Stine Goya's clothes have become more directional in recent seasons, as has its visual identity. Creative duo Wang & Söderström were recently brought on to help translate that new energy into the label’s physical spaces, with two stores whose color-blocked interiors and 3D printed accents echo the brand's palette — and add a dose of serious fun.
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At Barber Osgerby’s Galerie Kreo Exhibition, An Exploration of the Artisanal and the Industrial

Though the London-based studio Barber Osgerby first started working with Galerie Kreo more than half a decade ago, with their monolithic, shinto shrine–inspired Hakone collection of tables, last month marked their debut as a solo exhibitor. In a show called Signal, on view until April 16, the London duo finally gets to show off their impeccable color sense, which has always seemed a natural fit with Galerie Kreo's aesthetic.
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Tour the Unbelievable 1930s Color-Blocked Fantasy Interior Hiding Inside a Simple Brick Building in Belgium

The modernist pioneer Jozef Schellekens was the public architect of Turnhout, a Belgian town halfway between Antwerp and Eindhoven, where he worked on schools and city halls. But his best-known and greatest work was his own house, a 1935 rectangular brick-and-glass structure whose simplicity belies the expressiveness of its interior, where Schellekens created a colorful world full of bespoke built-in furniture and other functional and decorative details.
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