This week in design, though technological changes have rendered some home furnishings obsolete, they may be coming back into fashion—including the charming “gossip bench,” once a fixture in homes with corded telephones and chatty residents. Stay in the know with our weekly roundup of headlines, launches, recommended reading and more.

Business News
Much like San Francisco’s recent AI-driven surge in luxury housing activity, Washington, D.C., is now experiencing its own boom, thanks in part to tech entrepreneurs looking for a home base closer to industry regulators. As The Wall Street Journal reports, the median sale price in the D.C. metro area reached a record high of $680,000 in May, up 3 percent year over year, while demand for high-end homes was even greater: Luxury inventory (properties priced above $1.75 million) fell 22 percent from a year earlier, despite overall stock increasing by 5 percent. On top of that, a Georgetown home sold for $28 million this year, setting a new record for the city. Real estate agents say activity is concentrated in the region’s most affluent areas, driven both by the broader circle of the Trump cabinet—which is the wealthiest in modern history—and by tech moguls hoping to remain close to federal AI policymaking.

In other AI news, a new regulation came into effect in the European Union last week mandating that artists and companies publishing AI-generated architectural renderings label the images as such or risk hefty fines, Dezeen reports. The new legislation, Article 50 of the EU Artificial Intelligence Act, includes realistic AI-generated imagery of buildings and interiors under the category of “deepfakes,” which must now be labeled “AI generated” or “AI modified” in accompanying text (minor retouching, like cropping or color correction, is exempt). Penalties for violating the regulations can lead to fines of up to $17 million, or 3 percent of the company’s annual turnover (whichever is higher).

Etsy has announced plans to lay off roughly 220 employees, or 12 percent of its workforce, Retail Dive reports. According to CEO Kruti Patel Goyal, the reductions are not the result of AI efficiencies or cost-cutting efforts, but part of a broader restructuring as the company attempts to become more nimble, “with fewer silos to reduce handoffs and flatter, faster teams built to solve broader, more complex problems.” The news came on the heels of a quarterly earnings report last week that saw Etsy record a net loss of $46.7 million—a departure from last year’s $29 million net income—even as gross merchandise sales ticked up one percent.

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. has rebranded its corporate name to Neighborhood Intelligence, reflecting the publicly traded company’s ongoing expansion beyond retail into the broader home services sector, Retail Dive reports. In addition to the name change—which will come with a new stock symbol, NXH—the ever-evolving, intermittently struggling company is relocating its headquarters from Murray, Utah, to Nashville. On a call with analysts last week, CEO Marcus Lemonis affirmed the changes as part of the company’s next chapter, with recent acquisitions of companies like Closet Works, Lumber Liquidators and real estate brokerage Fathom helping to fulfill the retailer’s plans of offering customers home services, insurance and financing.

1stDibs reported increases in net revenue, gross profit and gross margin in its latest earnings call. The company saw a 5 percent year-over-year increase in second-quarter net revenue—from $22.1 million to $23.3 million—along with an 8 percent increase in net profit and a gross margin of 73.9 percent, compared to 71.8 percent during this period last year. Elsewhere, the company’s net loss shrank from $4.3 million to $1 million. Plus, gross merchandise value increased 7 percent to $96 million, even as the number of orders fell 4 percent and active buyers decreased by 10 percent.

Arhaus’s second-quarter earnings report saw a revenue surge of 7.4 percent compared to the same period last year, along with a boost in earnings aided by tariff refunds. The company reported net revenue of $385 million and a 16.1 percent increase in gross margin to $172 million—which included $23.8 million in IEEPA tariff recoveries. It also recorded a 13.1 percent boost in net and comprehensive income to $40 million, and an adjusted EBITDA increase of 16.8 percent.

The Savannah College of Art and Design’s SCADPro innovation studio has partnered with Soup on a product collaboration called Half Pipe LampCourtesy of SCAD

New York–based surfaces company Wolf-Gordon has acquired Dallas-based Look Walls & Interiors—a Dallas-based designer and manufacturer of digitally printed custom wallcoverings. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Following the purchase, Look Walls co-founders Lindsay White and Lester Blumenthal will continue to serve at the helm of the studio, which will retain its full team of designers, project managers and production specialists.

Launches and Collaborations
The Savannah College of Art and Design’s SCADPro innovation studio has partnered with Soup, a nonprofit that aims to end the Bay Area housing crisis, on a product collaboration called Half Pipe Lamp. Constructed from locally sourced repurposed materials—including pieces of steel pipe and wenge offcuts—the design is available in a limited run of 50 pieces, the sales from which will benefit the expansion of access to homeownership, rentals and supportive housing.

John Derian teamed up with Amsterdam-based design company Doing Goods for the debut of a new rug collaboration. Complete with five leaf-shaped designs, the assortment draws upon imagery from Derian’s antique archive, resulting in a lively botanical collection.

Recommended Reading
Formerly the domain of weekend thrift shoppers and in-the-know antiques enthusiasts, the estate sale has evolved in recent years into something distinctly more cutthroat. For The Wall Street Journal, Grace Yoon examines how the rise of content creators broadcasting their estate sale adventures has changed the atmosphere at the once-staid events, leading to a new, highly competitive class of buyers prone to physical confrontation (one estate-sale business owner reported that recent customers “spit on another over a set of silver”).

While past generations have been defined by an embrace of color—like avocado green in the 1960s or hot pink in the 1980s—today’s consumer goods seem to be defined by a lack of any distinct hue. For The Atlantic, Amogh Dimri takes a deep dive into the ongoing “color recession,” in which Americans are opting for “inoffensive” shades—white, beige and especially gray—for their homes, cars and clothing, playing it safe at the cost of personal preference and despite the mood-boosting benefits of more vibrant hues.

Cue the Applause
International Interior Design Association CEO and executive vice president Cheryl Durst will be featured as a Changemaker in the inaugural “Imagine Your Impact” exhibition at the newly opened Obama Presidential Center Museum in Chicago. The presentation spotlights 33 individuals whose work is driving meaningful change in their respective communities. For her part, Durst will be featured alongside a digital art installation, which will air a video interview in which she highlights the IIDA’s pathway program for underserved high school students, promoting design as an agent for change. For more information, click here.