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Dream Collab Alert: The New Poet Sofa by Ellison Studios and Tiffany Howell of Night Palm

The Poet sofa by Tiffany Howell for Ellison Studios blends ’70s and ’80s influences, and is now available in the US through DWR.

The team at Sydney-based Ellison Studios are experts at channeling ’80s decadence and ’70s sensuality into their furniture, paring it back so that it’s refined but still louche enough to project a vibe. You could say the same about the style of Night Palm, the Los Angeles interior design studio founded by Tiffany Howell. So it’s not surprising that Ellison’s founder, Leigh McKeown, and Howell would become fast friends after meeting a few years back. Now comes their first collaborative project: the Poet sofa, the result of a shared vision to create “a sexy large-scale piece, sculptural but made for sinking into,”​ says Howell. “We pulled from the curves of the ’70s and ’80s sofas I’ve always loved, with mood boards that blended playlists, vintage fashion campaigns, and a poem I wrote about the secret life of a sofa,” she says.

Like many of Ellison’s sofas, Poet’s scale invites company — it’s thoroughly party-ready but could also be a cozy place to curl up with friends or family — yet its softness just as easily encourages solo lounging. True to its name, it’s a statement piece imbued with feeling. “It was born from my love of the poetry of things,” says Howell. “The way Leonard Cohen spoke of his devotion to Marianne, tender yet raw — its curves and nuances carry that same devotion. I always lean into the feeling before the visual, letting emotion sketch the first line.”

Get to Know Night Palm, the Most In-Demand Interior Design Studio in L.A.

Top photo and bottom right © Pablo Enriquez; bottom left photo © Frank Frances

As an interior designer and creative director, Tiffany Howell often takes an object-led approach to her spaces. But it’s her eye for those objects that’s particularly exquisite. Though she doesn’t limit herself to any one style or era, she’s often drawn to vintage European pieces, whether they have a well-known provenance or not. And she has a lyrical sensibility, conjuring interiors that are potent and emotional. It’s all there in the very fitting name of her studio: Night Palm, evocative and mysterious, both glamorous and natural. You can almost feel the warm breeze in the darkness.

Howell got her start working for the fashion photographer Herb Ritts, moved into art directing music videos for several years, and then transitioned into interiors — her true calling — with Night Palm. From residences and retail spaces to recording studios and restaurants, there’s often a musicality and a strong sense of movement to her work. “I often design from the rhythm of a song, the emotion of an artist, the way a feeling moves through sound and takes shape,” she says. That’s helped make her the designer of choice for celebs like Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz, director Rian Johnson, and Doechii.

Lately, when designing furniture for those spaces, she says she finds herself “following pure curiosity with a new freedom, letting it lead me without agenda,” she says. “I’m in love with making pieces that tell a story about what inspires me and the story I inject. Furniture feels alive to me; a chair doesn’t just complete a project, it carries its own secret life long after it leaves my hands. That sense of mystery and nostalgia is where I always return in design.”

Shopping For… Coffee Tables

If a Poet sofa by Ellison Studios x Night Palm landed in your living room tomorrow, which coffee table would you pair it with? An artisanal-leaning ceramic-topped square, to contrast with the sofa’s sleek curves? Pink stone, to lean into Poet’s feminine silhouette? Waxed metal for some industrial energy? Take your pick below!

Clockwise from top left:

1. Vintage French Oak Coffee Table from the 1950s, $5,800, South Loop Loft
2. Tobia Scarpa Walnut Coffee Table, Italy 1960s, $1,773, 1stDibs
3. Trampoline Table by Luke Malaney, $9,500, Objective Gallery
4. Lacquered Hewn Coffee Table by Assembly Line, $4,900, Assembly Line
5. Vintage Ceramic Coffee Table, $7,400, 1stDibs
6. Waxed Aluminum Coffee Table by Jan Ankiersztajn, $9,100, 1stDibs
7. Mahogany Coffee Table by Ceramics Furniture Plants, $5,200, Sight Unseen
8. Isla Coffee Table by Egg Collective, $11,700, Radnor

Sightseeing… In Sydney, Australia

We’ve never been to Sydney, home of Ellison Studios and the Poet sofa, but it’s high on our wish list. Here are six spots we’ll be visiting once we do make it down under.

1. The Flack Studio–designed Ace Hotel Sydney — inspired by a landscape painting from Indigenous Australian artist Albert Namatjira and a 1960 book by architect Robin Boyd — is the perfect place to lay your head.

2. The architecture and design–focused Bookshop by Uro carries some of our favorite publications, including Tools Magazine and our most recent baby, the Modernist Travel Guide.

3. The Studio Henry Wilson flagship in Paddington features objects of worn, sculptural beauty by the Australian designer.

4. Pop by the wine and gin bar Vineria Luisa for an aperitivo or old-school Italian dinner.

5. We’ve often featured the exhibitions at Saint Cloche, a Sydney art gallery run by Kitty Clark, who shows three-dimensional work and even paintings by artists we love.

6. Speaking of the Modernist Tavel Guide, the Rose Seidler House was featured in the Sydney section of our book by Adam Stech. Built in the 1950s, the iconic house is one of the first examples of Australian Modernism, and you can book tickets to see its colorful, Harry Seidler–designed interior here.