This week in design, celebrities like Drew Barrymore, Nick Jonas and Neil Patrick Harris are acquiring some wild decor by calling upon Amber Maykut: taxidermist to the stars. Stay in the know with our weekly roundup of headlines, launches, events, recommended reading and more.
Business News
Climate change is set to cause a $1.47 trillion decline in U.S. home values by 2055 due to rising insurance costs and flight from high-risk neighborhoods, according to a new report by climate research company First Street. As The Wall Street Journal reports, the study claims that the increasingly common occurrence of natural disasters such as storms and wildfires will likely lead to population loss in some areas (with California’s Fresno County and New Jersey’s Ocean and Monmouth counties projected to take the biggest hits), while other regions—including cities like Houston, Miami and Tampa—will see higher home insurance premiums amid continued population growth. Overall, the report projects that home insurance premiums will see a 29.4 percent rise over the next 30 years, and that the number of Americans who will consider climate risks when moving will jump from 5.2 million to 55 million by 2055.
After launching an online secondhand marketplace in Oslo and Madrid, Ikea may soon be extending the service across Europe. In an interview with the Financial Times, Jesper Brodin—the CEO of parent company Ingka Group—shared that testing of Ikea Preowned had already been expanded to markets throughout Norway and Spain (continuing through August), and may be scaled up within the next couple of years. The platform aligns with two of the company’s goals: cutting emissions in half by 2030 and making its products more affordable.
Canvas—a tech business (founded in 2008 under the name Occipital) that provides 3D measuring and modeling solutions for residential and commercial spaces—has announced the completion of a $10 million Series A funding round led by venture capital firms Trilogy Equity Partners and Foundry Group. The company’s namesake tool allows users to scan a space with their iPhone or iPad, and then receive a 3D digital rendering that can be uploaded to software like CAD.
Furniture supplier Dorel Industries has announced a restructuring of its home division in order to “realign its business model to current and anticipated future industry dynamics,” Furniture Today reports. The efforts will include the closure of the company’s manufacturing plant in Quebec and an unspecified number of associated layoffs, along with job cuts for non-manufacturing personnel, an accelerated effort to pare down SKUs, and an additional reduction of Dorel’s distribution footprint. The cuts follow last year’s closure of the company’s Ameriwood plant in Ohio and the subsequent layoff of 130 employees. According to a release, the restructuring reflects “the reality that revenue expectations for the Home segment require a much smaller footprint than in the past.”
Direct-to-consumer mattress brand Resident Home—a subsidiary of Ashley Furniture—is closing its manufacturing plant in Jeffersonville, Indiana, and laying off 106 workers, Furniture Today reports. The California-based company was acquired by Ashley last year, bringing brands like Nectar, DreamCloud, Awara and Siena under one company’s roof. According to Ashley, the operations formerly housed at the plant, which opened in 2022, will be consolidated into existing facilities elsewhere.
Olon Industries—a manufacturer of wood components for furniture and cabinets—is shutting down its plant in Lexington, North Carolina, Woodworking Network reports. In a statement, the company cited “shifting demands in a competitive marketspace” for the closure of its largest North American facility. According to a WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act) notice filed last week, the decision will also include layoffs for 53 workers—20 percent of the company’s workforce.
Launches and Collaborations
Invisible Collection teamed up with Parisian jewelry house Repossi for an assortment of handcrafted home decor pieces designed by four key talents from the online collectible design platform: London-based design duo Campbell–Rey, French architect Charles Zana, Swedish interior and furniture designer Louise Liljencrantz, and Courtney Applebaum, a designer based out of New York and Los Angeles. The capsule collection includes sculptural martini tables, a table lamp, a jewelry box and a mirror, each inspired by pieces from the Repossi archive.
Interior designer Meg Braff, who is based out of Palm Beach and Locust Valley, New York, teamed up with Atlanta-based lifestyle brand Weezie for a collection inspired by Palm Beach style. The array includes hand and bath towels, pool lounge covers, pillow shams, toiletry bags and more—each designed with colorful pastels and playful prints that nod to the glamour of the sunny locale.
New York–based design fair Shoppe Object united with commerce platform The Folklore for the Black Lives Matter Action Initiative, which aims to improve representation across all categories of the home and gift market by subsidizing the cost of booth space for independent Black designers and makers and providing yearlong participation in B2B marketplace Shoppe Online. The pair selected 10 brands to showcase their work at this week’s Shoppe Object in a dedicated space free of charge. The exhibitors—representing categories ranging from jewelry and fragrances to textiles and home decor—included makers such as Accra-based Studio Badge, which creates handcrafted tabletop items made from Ghanaian hardwoods, and Toronto-based Villa Aburi, which crafts pillows, cushions and blankets with sustainable, ethically sourced materials.
Los Angeles–based ceramics brand Dumae partnered with luxury real estate broker and Million Dollar Listing New York star Steve Gold for the debut of a new collection: two handcrafted ceramic vases—Lily and Rose, named for Gold’s daughters—designed to embrace the beauty of imperfection and authenticity.
Recommended Reading
In the early part of the 20th century, Lorton Reformatory in Fairfax County, Virginia, was home to dozens of imprisoned suffragists who served out harsh prison sentences after protesting outside the White House. Roughly a century later, the same facility—now known as Liberty Crest Apartments—is home to residents like Diamon Pearson, who enjoys on-site amenities like a swimming pool, 24-hour gym and yoga room. For The New York Times, Amanda Abrams writes about how many shuttered correctional facilities are now experiencing second lives as housing complexes, business campuses and sports parks, giving designers and new residents the difficult task of paving over a complicated past.
Now that Vice President Kamala Harris’s historic tenure has ended, photos of her official residence—which was designed by Sheila Bridges—have been made available to the public for the first time. For The Washington Post, Robin Givhan narrates a photo tour through the 33-room Naval Observatory, which was carefully curated with furniture and fixtures crafted by artisans across the U.S.—from hand-loomed rugs made of wool sheared from Kansas sheep to hand-stenciled wallpaper manufactured in Brooklyn.
At first glance, they’re unique art and design objects: a ceramic dragon fruit, a crystal ball, a replica of a Jell-O dessert. A closer look reveals that they serve another purpose—as part of the wave of cannabis-paraphernalia/decor-products currently flooding the market. For The New York Times, Matt Yan explores the changing aesthetics of weed, and how high-end brands and designers are putting their own spin on the fast-growing niche.
Cue the Applause
The winners of the 2025 Créateurs Design Awards were announced last week in Paris, honoring key figures across the world of design and architecture. British architect Lord Norman Foster received the Andrée Putman Lifetime Achievement Award, while Japanese architectural duo Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of Sanaa were awarded Le Prix Charlotte Perriand for their innovative contributions to modern architecture. Among the other honors, an Antwerp estate designed by Belgian interior architect Nathalie Van Reeth won the award for Best Residential Project in Interior Design, and the Rude Collection by Faye Toogood and CC-Tapis took home the prize for Best Product Design.
