This week in design, tiny balconies are becoming a fan favorite among developers of trendy urban high-rises—but is there enough room for any actual furniture, or is the feature merely decorative? Stay in the know with our weekly roundup of headlines, launches, events, recommended reading and more.

Business News
Ikea is opening eight new locations across the country this year—part of the $2.2 billion retail expansion plan it initially announced in 2023. The new stores will be unveiled this spring or summer in Cherry Hill, Pennsylvania; Hunt Valley, Maryland; Beaverton, Oregon; Scottsdale, Arizona; and three locations in California, including Thousand Oaks, Ontario and Colma, in addition to a pick-up point in Santa Monica. The spaces will also follow Ikea’s new smaller store format, where customers can plan, order and pick up their items rather than browsing the showroom vignettes and warehouses of the company’s large-format stores. According to the retailer, the expansion caps off a successful past year for Ikea, which reportedly increased its U.S. market share by 13.6 percent over the last five years.

The wealthiest Americans are on a spending spree, thanks in part to gains in stocks and rising real estate values, The Wall Street Journal reports. A recent analysis by Moody’s Analytics found that the top 10 percent of earners in the country (defined as households making roughly $250,000 a year or more) now account for 49.7 percent of all spending—a record high in data that goes back to 1989. The same can’t be said for other income groups: While year-over-year spending increased for high earners by 12 percent in September 2024, it dropped for middle- and working-class households. The disparity stems from the savings that many Americans built up during the pandemic—when inflation hit, middle- and low-income earners tapped into their reserves, while high earners saw their assets grow in value. As a result, the net worth of the top 20 percent of earners has grown by 45 percent since the end of 2019.

The housing market is finally seeing an uptick in supply, shifting the power from sellers to buyers for the first time in years, The Wall Street Journal reports. According to Redfin, new listings rose by about 4 percent in January compared to the same month last year. Meanwhile, demand is slowing as prospective buyers back down from prices that have been consistently high for more than two years, leading the average home to sell for 2 percent less than the listing price.

Only 100 days after the devastation of Hurricane Helene that left Sunbrella’s Burnsville, North Carolina, manufacturing plant damaged, it has resumed full operations, Designers Today reports. After the storm, the location was submerged in 30 inches of water—which ultimately resulted in the removal of 3 million gallons of water and thousands of pounds of muck. After 33 days, the company was operating in a limited capacity. “When the hurricane hit, our first priority was the safety of our associates, and we didn’t think twice about contributing to the humanitarian effort,” says Randy Blackston, the vice president of operations at parent company Glen Raven. “Investing in our business by getting the plant up and running again quickly was also important so we could continue to best serve our trusted partners while also supporting our associates and communities economically.”

Los Angeles–based outdoor furniture brand Ovios has rebranded, expanding beyond outdoor furniture, Furniture Today reports. The company will introduce an indoor furniture collection that includes sofas, dining chairs and storage solutions. The change also includes a modernized logo, new packaging and an official website as a DTC shopping platform. Sustainability remains top of mind for the company, which uses eco-friendly materials and minimizes production waste to reduce its carbon footprint.

Tempur Sealy International has changed its name to Somnigroup International, Furniture Today reports. The change comes on the heels of the company’s acquisition of Mattress Firm, a $5 billion deal that finally went through earlier this month. It now owns three businesses, Tempur Sealy, Dreams and Mattress Firm, and its portfolio of brands includes Tempur-Pedic, Sealy, Stearns & Foster and Sleepy’s. The company said the name, which comes from the Latin words somn (meaning “sleep”) and omni (“all”), was chosen to show “our position as a global provider of sleep solutions with an integrated omni-channel strategy.”

Ferguson Bath, Kitchen & Lighting Gallery and Build.com announced the two brands will now operate under one name, Ferguson Home. The shift was announced today in conjunction with the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show in Las Vegas. Together, the two brands offer both a showroom-based experience and a robust e-commerce presence—moving forward, Ferguson’s more than 250 showrooms will be updated with new branding, and the companies’ products will be available under one digital roof. Ferguson Enterprises acquired Build.com in 2007, and has operated the online platform for bathroom, kitchen and lighting fixtures in tandem with its showroom offerings. “This marks an exciting new chapter for Ferguson, where our unified brand identity empowers us to serve customers better and expand our reach nationwide,” says Caroline Danielson, the company’s director of showrooms. “As the company steps into this new era, Ferguson Home fully embraces a harmonious integration of our physical storefronts with our dynamic digital presence, helping us deliver on our goal of ensuring our customers’ projects are a success.”

Launches and Collaborations
Through a new strategic partnership, luxury refrigeration brand True Residential will now serve as the sole manufacturer for cooking appliance company Caliber. To kick off the joint venture, the first product will be a 360-degree walk-around grill designed by design icon David Rockwell—founder of the architecture and design firm Rockwell Group. It will be available in a variety of customization options, including any of True’s color and hardware solutions.

Luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman and online design marketplace Chairish have teamed up to debut a pop-up featuring a variety of curated collections from vintage dealers. Open through May 5, The Chairish Emporium at Bergdorf Goodman will include selections of high-end furniture and home decor assembled by the industry’s top names—including Nate Berkus, Meg Braff, Modern Antiquarian and more—available online and in a gallery located on the store’s seventh floor.

Flower has announced its inaugural Flower of the Year program, in which a panel of design specialists spanning florals, landscape, events and interiors—including designers like Charlotte Moss, Elaine Griffin and James Farmer—select one bloom to highlight for the year ahead. For 2025, the group chose the Levante Rosa Anemone, a flower known for its bright pink petals and striking black eye. It will be featured in the magazine’s March/April issue in articles that guide designers and floral enthusiasts on how to incorporate the botanical into their environments.

Aspire Design and Home has partnered with the West Hollywood Design District and the nonprofit LA Can Do, an organization dedicated to providing furniture and home goods to families affected by the wildfires, on the first-ever Design West Hollywood. The three-day event, which kicks off on March 4, showcases the design in the area and celebrates the strength of the local community. Attendees will be able to support the nonprofit’s mission through direct donations and fundraising efforts, as well as take part in showroom tours, keynote talks, panel discussions and networking opportunities. For more information, click here.

Showhouses
The 2025 Southern Living Idea House will take place this year near Charlottesville, Virginia, in an estate spanning over 4,500-square-feet—complete with four bedrooms, four and a half baths, a screened-in porch, and views overlooking a nearby lake. The space will be reimagined by a group of local home professionals, including interior design firm Charlotte Moss & Co., Rosney Co. Architects, and landscape architect Waterstreet Studio. The showhouse will be open to the public for tours from August through December, with proceeds to benefit local charities.

Recommended Reading
In the realm of e-commerce, Quince has become a one-stop shop for elevated dupes—offering everything from knockoff Jenni Kayne and Toteme sweaters to a wide variety of home textiles, cookware, and even furniture pieces, at prices just low enough and quality just high enough to draw shoppers away from the real deal. For The Cut, Chantal Fernandez takes a deep dive into how the mysterious marketplace became one of the fastest-growing retailers in the country in the years since its 2019 debut, despite its roots in a somewhat precarious business strategy.

As many industry insiders know, the costs of design can vary greatly—depending on details like the size of a space and the subsequent work required, macroeconomic factors like the housing market, and even designer-specific information such as level of expertise and business model. All that begs the question: What are the costs of design today? House Beautiful just updated an article by BOH editor in chief Kaitlin Petersen in which experts across the country provide a full picture of what designers are charging today and how they structure their fees.