This week in design, Italian furniture firm B&B Italia is joining the branded residence craze with a new project in the Miami Design District. Stay in the know with our weekly roundup of headlines, launches, recommended reading and more.
Business News
After years of revenue decline, Food52 is in the “early stages” of exploring a sale, according to an internal email sent by CEO Erika Ayers Badan, which was viewed and reported by AdWeek. Though a sales price wasn’t specified, the email outlines that the company has spent the last several months meeting with partners to discuss possible acquisitions. This comes eight months after Food52—the parent company of Schoolhouse and Dansk—laid off 40 percent of its staff, shrinking its workforce from 140 to 90 employees.
Columbus, Ohio–based American Signature Inc., which employs around 3,000 people and runs more than 120 home furnishings stores, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Furniture Today reports. The 77-year-old parent company of American Signature Furniture and Value City Furniture reported liabilities of $500 million to $1 billion owed to between 1,000 and 5,000 creditors—the top 30 of which exceed a combined $80 million. It will most likely enter a stalking-horse asset purchase agreement—where the buyer sets the floor price for a company’s assets—with ASI Purchaser LLC, which, pending court approval, will acquire its assets and liabilities. American Signature has already sent out WARN notices to employees with layoffs scheduled to take place on or near January 20, 2026. The news comes on the heels of recent store closures in Michigan and Tennessee.
According to the inaugural “State of AI & Interior Design Report” released by digital design modeling platform MattoBoard, a majority of designers (81.7 percent of those surveyed) use AI regularly. Collecting responses from 328 interior designers globally, the company also found that 70.4 percent believed that AI can boost creativity at work—though 52 percent worry it will lead to “homogeneity and diminished originality,” while others are concerned about ethical issues like plagiarism and bias. The study also broke down usage by AI tool, with ChatGPT used by 85.3 percent, Photoshop by 32.7 percent and Midjourney by 27.8 percent.
In other AI news, Google debuted Nano Banana Pro (also known as the Gemini 3 Pro Image) last week—an improved version of the AI-powered image generation tool the tech giant originally debuted in September. The tool’s enhanced editing capabilities allow users to isolate and adjust part of an image, along with shifting camera angles, focus, color grade and lighting. Additionally, you can now produce infographics, diagrams, and more realistic images and more legible text. The update is already getting traction in the industry: Stacy Thorwart, who posts on Instagram about AI for interior designers, uploaded a clip of herself turning product selections and a floor plan into a full-blown rendering.
On January 1, 2026, retailer Hom Furniture, which operates 17 locations across the upper Midwestern states, will take ownership of St. Cloud, Minnesota–based home furnishings store Hennen Furniture for an undisclosed price, Home Accents Today reports; the 218,000-square-foot store will continue to operate under the Hennen Furniture brand.
Economic headwinds are hitting architects: According to the American Institute of Architects, architecture firm billings have continued to decline, though at a slower rate. In October, the architecture billings index rose to 47.6 percent up from 43.3 percent the previous month—but any score below 50 suggests a decline in billings, so the trend is still downward. This demonstrates that while most firms saw a decline in their billings, the portion of firms was smaller than in the previous month. “Architecture firms estimate that billings declined modestly this year. Unfortunately, they are not expecting a significant turnaround in 2026,” says Kermit Baker, the chief economist for the AIA. “[Only] about a third of firms nationally project that their billings will increase this coming year, and a slightly higher share expect them to remain about the same. Firms with a multifamily specialization are the most optimistic about prospects for 2026.” Other notable findings include an increase in new project inquiries, but a decreased value of those new projects.
Launches and Collaborations
Multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker Quentin Jones has expanded into product design for the home, debuting an assortment of ceramics, collectible objects and hand-embroidered tapestries. Created with artisans from around the world, the House of Quentin Jones collection draws from the artist’s sense of surrealism while nodding to native crafts, incorporating touches like earthenware pottery from makers in Lisbon, Portugal, and antique silk saris reimagined by experts in Jaipur, India.
Brooklyn-based design duo the Brownstone Boys have partnered with WallPops to debut their first-ever wallpaper collection. The collaboration incorporates discoveries the pair have made while renovating the borough’s historic homes, resulting in 11 peel-and-stick papers across five different patterns—including one 19th century print that the designers uncovered and restored during a brownstone refurbishment.
Recommended Reading
In the world of Los Angeles real estate, one unifying feature has become a hallmark of luxury listings: a gargantuan front door. For Curbed, Clio Chang explores why these giant feats of engineering are hypnotizing high-end buyers, providing them with a marker of wealth that can be flaunted before a guest even enters the building.
From excessive consumption and decreased risk taking to lack of diversity and an unreliable market, numerous issues plague the design industry. Dezeen’s editorial director, Max Fraser, takes a step back and assesses 10 things that are wrong with design today.
Call for Entries
Black Interior Designers Inc. is partnering with HomeGoods on a new initiative connecting the next generation of designers with mentorship, scholarship and professional development opportunities. The Home U initiative will be carried out in collaboration with Morgan State University, providing its design and architecture students scholarship funds, a professional network and career resources. Applications to support the launch and become a mentor are here.
