Two upcoming programs at ABC Home this month will be led by top interior designers. Guided by designer and intuitive counselor Elana Kilkenny, the March 16 workshop, “Sacred Home, Sacred Life,” will delve into the relationship between home decor and what attendees desire to create in their lives; while a March 23 discussion, “The Home Within,” will feature New York magazine design editor Wendy Goodman, interior designer Vicente Wolf and spiritual writer Marianne Williamson in conversation about what “home” means.
The events will be held at ABC’s gallery-meets-theater space, Deepak HomeBase, which is decorated with pieces from Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh’s calligraphy collection. They are the latest in the under-the-radar, celebrated lineup of presentations at the design store, among them, discussions and meditations with Deepak Chopra, design talks with wallpaper* magazine, and herbalism classes with a noted New York restaurant and the store’s own in-house herbalist.
The meaning of home is a key theme of both workshops. Kilkenny, who has presented on sacred space design at the store’s twice-yearly Beauty Wellness Wisdom events, explains the inspirations behind her upcoming workshop: “Our homes are telling stories about our lives. They’re telling many different stories about our lives, whether they’re conscious or not. Often the stories that our homes are reflecting back to us aren’t stories that are nourishing to us now; they’re often stories of the past. They could be stories of where we’re stuck,…where we just don’t put our energy. Sometimes there are stories that used to fit us,” she says. Her “sacred space” workshop, then, is about “how to take back the story of your home and become a more conscious creator.”
The workshop will ask 50 attendees to choose decorative objects from a curated selection of ABC Home’s merchandise; Kilkenny will provide intuitive readings for some of the participants, linking their decor choices to what they'd like to let go of or bring into their lives. The goal? To encourage guests “to do an inventory, and see where—maybe it’s clutter, first—is your life matching up in your home. How is [your decor] working for you?” Working with guests’ choices and feedback, as well as citing examples of her own design projects, the designer will provide insight into transforming a space into a sacred one. “We’ll make it beautiful and functional. To me, that’s good design.”
The event with Wolf—whose coffee-table tome The Four Elements of Design: Interiors Inspired by Earth, Water, Air and Fire focuses on the designer’s own spirituality as well as his serenity-infused design—will feature what ABC calls “an intimate conversation about why the notion of ‘a home within’ has never had more value or meaning than it does in our world today.” Williamson will be on hand to discuss “caring for yourself through caring for the one place on earth that we can call our own.”
Both upcoming designer-led programs follow ABC’s mission to “guide creative expression, celebrate individuality, and cultivate the actualization of home as the sacred space.”
