11.14.24

Up and Coming

The Green Goblin, Norwegian Black Metal, SpongeBob: Up-and-Coming Designer Clay Brown’s References Run the Gamut

Clay Brown’s work is shot through with an imaginative sense of play that is, quite simply, fun — but that’s not all it is. Somehow his pieces come off as minimal and spare yet highly referential and evocative, like his resin Island lamps, which call to mind cake domes; the Formica and birch I’m Ready cabinet, which could be a “mini-bar or maybe a wardrobe for a toddler;” and the jagged yet precise aluminum 1234567 bookcase, which is sharp but not at all forbidding. His Stave cabinet, part of the Sight Unseen collection, rises to a steep peak in darkly moody colors but it’s also… friendly. With its oxblood Thumbprint pull by Sam Stewart — with whom Brown has worked on several projects — it’s like a classic wooden toy scaled up to human proportions.
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11.12.24

Interiors

This Parisian Interior Deploys Moiré Walls and Animal-Print Rugs and Still Manages to Convey Understated Glamour

If an interior clings to any one time period or design movement, it can seem a bit like a theatrical set — not entirely real, not livable. But mix eras and a space can risk coming off as scattershot or lacking in a strong point of view. It’s a fine line to walk, but Stéphanie Lizée and Raphaël Hugot, of the Paris-based interiors studio Lizée-Hugot, do it gracefully, recently infusing a Parisian residence with an atmosphere that feels refreshed, yet grounded and enduring.
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11.09.24

Saturday Selects

Week of November 4, 2024

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: an exhibition of items made exclusively from hardware store finds, a knitwear store in Milan with furry ribbed walls, a collection of freeform aluminum furniture, and lamps that resemble minimalist wedding cakes.
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11.08.24

Interiors

Historical Moldings Meet High-Sheen Contemporary Pieces in Joris Poggioli’s Parisian Apartment

When Joris Poggioli got the keys to an apartment inside a Napoleonic-era building in Paris’s 10th arrondissement, he immediately fell for its historic charm and potential. However, the architect and designer’s own aesthetic is highly contemporary — his trademarks include cylindrical shapes, rounded edges, and high-sheen materials — so balancing this with the existing classical details took a lot of thought and consideration. Poggioli decided that the exquisitely crafted historical features should be the main character, while his interventions and additions — including many of his own furniture designs — play a supporting role in this new chapter for the space.
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11.05.24

Fair Report

Three Design Exhibitions We Can’t Stop Thinking About from Paris Art Week

The so-called “City of Light” first earned its sobriquet in the 19th century, not only for the city’s early adoption of street lamps, but for its contributions to science and art. Remaining true to its reputation, our three favorite shows from Paris Art Week boasted innovative design pieces against the backdrop of unique or unlikely venues, from the famous and historical Rue de Seine, to Karl Lagerfeld’s former mansion, to a 17th century Gothic-style secular temple to humanism.
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06.04.22

Saturday Selects

Week of May 30, 2022

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: a dream house outside Lisbon, a tulip-shaped lamp that's got us nostalgic for our childhoods, and the absolute coolest co-working space we've ever seen, courtesy of Maniera gallery.
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11.02.24

Saturday Selects

Week of October 28, 2024

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: mirrored prism-like furniture, a spectacular renovated Porto townhouse, and an NYC home goods store and cafe with major redwood tables that we hope will bring back banquet-style dining.
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11.01.24

Excerpt: Exhibition

After 100 Years in Business, You Might Think You Know the Iconic Swedish Design Store Svenskt Tenn. You’d Be Wrong.

Something funny happens when you're a company that's been around for a full century. People start to assume that they already know everything there is to know about you — that they've somehow osmotically absorbed your brand tenets or your ethos by virtue of you simply sticking around. For me, the storied Swedish design brand Svenskt Tenn, which is celebrating its 100th birthday this year, was one of those companies. But then I went to Stockholm in September on the occasion of Svenskt Tenn's centenary retrospective opening at Liljevalchs Kunsthalle, running through January 12. Called Svenskt Tenn: A Philosophy of Home, it spans thirteen thematic rooms, curated by Jane Withers together with Svenskt Tenn's head curator Karin Södergren. It was there I realized that what I knew about this company hardly scratched the surface.
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11.01.24

Shopping

Exploring Pewter — a Once Fusty, Now Weirdly Cool Material — Via 22 Vintage and New Pieces You Can Bring Into Your Home

When I was in Stockholm earlier this fall for Svenskt Tenn's 100th anniversary exhibition, I thought about pewter — which is a primary part of the Swedish design store's lore and product catalog — a lot. We talk about metal often on this site, but unlike brass, which can be a turn-off in the wrong context, there's almost no silvery toned metal that I'd ever tire of. Aluminum, stainless steel, chrome — all eternally perfect. (Okay, let us not speak of brushed nickel.) But there's something uniquely appealing about pewter, despite its somewhat fusty early connotations as part of a kind of American Revolution cosplay kit. I started to wonder whether we were on the verge of a renaissance with this ancient material.
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10.28.24

Sighted

At This Wood-Clad Seaside Retreat, Iconic Scandinavian Lights Pair Perfectly With California Modernism

The Danish company Louis Poulsen is home to some of the world's most instantly recognizable lighting, designed by the greats. While all distinctively Scandinavian — there’s a certain precision and integrity combined with a playful inventiveness that’s somehow simultaneously cool and warm — these lights also work particularly well in the context of a West Coast golden-hour glow, the interplay of sun and soft shadows. Louis Poulsen's sculptural yet clean aesthetic naturally dovetails with the indoor-outdoor architecture of California modernism — both of which have been captured in a new interiors shoot styled and photographed by Lumens.
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10.26.24

Saturday Selects

Week of October 21, 2024

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: part two of In Common With’s inaugural furniture collection, an Art Deco and Vienna Secession–inspired Brooklyn showhouse (above), and the unveiling of Aesop’s new Parisian store.
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10.24.24

Travel

This Fall, Stay At These Autumnal-Toned Hotels, Each Renovated in Reverence to Its Heyday

Who’s ready to get cozy? Fall travel is about walking through the park with crisp leaves underfoot, wandering the streets dressed chicly in layers, and staying in hotels that encourage snuggling up with a book by the fire. There’s something nostalgic about this season, too, as we look back on the summer that was while digging out our favorite unmothballed sweaters. And what do you know — nostalgia is a common theme across a trio of newly reopened hotels we’re recommending for your next autumnal adventure, each redesigned to evoke its prime.
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10.23.24

Travel

Mid-Century Seaside Glamour Meets Contemporary Design at the New Ace Hotel Athens

Built in 1975 as part of a stylish mid-century Greek tourism program called xenia, The Fenix hotel on the southwest coast of Athens eventually became a very un-stylish Best Western. But, as part of a revival of both these architectural gems and the so-called "Athenian Riviera" in which it's located, it's been reborn as the newest Ace Hotel, complete with period-specific furniture and a restoration of its whitewashed Brutalist facade.
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