This week in design, if you’ve seen neon green everywhere over the last few months, just know that “brat summer” is to blame (a reference to the Charli XCX album cover that started it all). Stay in the know with our weekly roundup of headlines, launches, events, recommended reading and more.
Business News
Furniture and home goods retailer Conn’s HomePlus is planning to close around 100 stores—representing nearly 20 percent of its 550-store fleet—and liquidate their inventory amid speculation that the company is preparing to file for bankruptcy. As Bloomberg reports, people with knowledge of the matter say the retailer has been reaching out to investors to secure financing for the bankruptcy process, though a representative for Conn’s did not reply to the publication’s request for comment. The closures would affect locations in 13 states, including around 30 stores under the W.S. Badcock brand, which Conn’s acquired last year. The news of the closures follows a difficult few months for the retailer, which has seen shares fall by more than 80 percent this year.
In May, the news broke that Ampla, one of Burke Decor’s lenders, was suing the Ohio-based e-commerce retailer for breach of contract. The $6.4 million suit alleged that the company failed to make key payments, and that founder and CEO Erin Burke—named as a defendant alongside Burke Decor—made “fraudulent misrepresentations” of the business’s financial health. On July 1, Burke asked the court to halt the case, citing her personal bankruptcy. This week, the judge shot down the motion, allowing the case to proceed, but removed Burke herself as a codefendant. In related news, the company’s industry troubles continue: Currey & Company recently notified customers that it would no longer fulfill orders through Burke Decor, directing customers to seek out a direct account or other trade partner.
In high-income communities across the country, excessive home sizes are a growing area of concern among local residents—an issue that is now prompting some towns to consider imposing a cap on maximum house sizes, The Wall Street Journal reports. According to Census Bureau data, U.S. house sizes have ballooned in recent decades, increasing 140 percent between 1980 and 2018. The median house size reached 2,300 square feet in 2022, though some mega-mansions exceed 100,000 square feet, especially in luxury destinations. In locales like Aspen, Martha’s Vineyard and East Hampton, opponents of oversize houses are now voicing their disapproval, claiming the properties disrupt small-town charm, demand excessive energy usage and inflate local prices. Some communities, including Routt County, Colorado, and Edgartown, Massachusetts, have recently passed limits on large houses, while others debate whether or not the restrictions are an infringement on local residents’ rights.
California-based online furniture retailer Poly & Bark is facing a class action lawsuit for alleged false reference pricing—a practice that involves fabricating the original price of an item in order to fraudulently market it as being sold at a discount. As Furniture Today reports, the suit, filed in California’s Southern District court by former customer Jennifer Adams, claims that the brand advertised all or nearly all products on its website as being discounted from a substantially higher price, and promptly instituted new site-wide sales as soon as previous sales expired, creating a perpetual cycle. Major furniture retailers like American Freight and Joybird have faced similar allegations in the past; Ashley settled a class action case last December agreeing to provide each class member with a $30 voucher for its products.
Holding company Fairfax Financial has acquired Canadian sleep retailer Sleep Country Canada Holdings in a $1.2 billion deal, Furniture Today reports. Fairfax says the purchase price represents a 34 percent premium on the average price of the retailer’s common shares for the 20-day period ending on July 19, as well as a 28 percent premium on the closing price that day. Expected to close in the fourth quarter following court approval, the acquisition will also take the retail chain (which consists of 307 stores) private, delisting its shares from the Toronto Stock Exchange.
While the majority of the U.S. economy has weathered high inflation and interest rates relatively well, individual borrowers appear to be bearing the brunt of the economic challenges of recent years. As The Wall Street Journal reports, the total amount of interest consumers paid on mortgages jumped 14 percent in 2023 from a year earlier, while interest on other types of consumer debt, like credit cards and auto loans, rose 50 percent. Meanwhile, credit card balances rose to more than $1.1 trillion in the first quarter of this year—the second-highest balance on record behind the fourth quarter of last year, and an increase of roughly a third compared to 2022. While higher rates are part of the Federal Reserve’s campaign to cool inflation, relief may come if the central bank issues the long-awaited rate cut it has promised for this year.
Launches & Collaborations
Multidisciplinary artist Malene Barnett has designed a new collection for Ruggable that is an homage to her heritage, drawing inspiration from Black culture, art and contemporary design. The resulting product assortment consists of seven indoor rugs in flat-woven and tufted textures, each decorated with vibrant abstract patterns brought to life in rich hues like blue, green and ocher.
California lifestyle brand Jenni Kayne has debuted a new hospitality destination in New York’s Hudson Valley. Dubbed The Jenni Kayne Farmhouse, the countryside getaway will host brand activations and exclusive experiences and events, along with housing the Oak Essentials Wellness Club—a space with a spa, sauna, cold plunge and pool, all geared toward self-care and restoration.
Showroom Representation
High-end wallcovering designer and manufacturer Arte is now represented by Paul+ in the Atlanta Decorative Arts Center. The multiline showroom’s 14,000-square-foot gallery will now display hundreds of Arte’s textiles, murals, vinyls and more.
Recommended Reading
When Roland Reisley was 26 years old, he was newly married and moving into his first home in Usonia, New York—and he managed to secure Frank Lloyd Wright as his architect. That was in 1950. Today, Reisley is the famed architect’s last living client. For Architectural Digest, Katherine McLaughlin sits down with the retired physicist to discuss what it was like to work alongside Wright, and why more than seven decades later, his Westchester home’s original design has remained largely untouched.
A social media feed gone silent, a LinkedIn account showing signs of a dwindling workforce, a CEO desperately emailing investors en masse—if a direct-to-consumer darling is exhibiting any of these symptoms, there’s a good chance it’s approaching “zombie brand” status. In Modern Retail, Anna Hensel explores why brands that had soaring valuations several years ago are now running on fumes and seeking exit strategies (for reference, design startup Havenly has spent the last two years scooping up some of these brands in the home category; Interweave has rolled up others), and offers some context behind how the startup landscape found itself in such dire straits.
Instead of waiting to land product deals with big brands or galleries, a growing number of designers are opting for the small-batch route—a much faster way to get their furniture, decor and design objects straight into the hands of consumers. As Amy Frearson writes in Dezeen, the self-production approach demands upfront investment and greater risk, but also promises benefits like more attainably priced products, sustainable production methods, and freedom to experiment—all aided by a growing number of industry organizations cropping up to support the efforts of indie makers.
In Memoriam
Ron Tumpowsky, industry veteran and longtime partnerships consultant at the Design Leadership Network, passed away last week. Over the course of his 12-year tenure with the DLN, Tumpowsky tirelessly developed the group’s sponsorship program with industry brands into an essential aspect of the organization. He brought with him knowledge he gained from previous roles at FIFA, the NBA, IMG and Monolith, leaving behind a legacy of dedication, charm and kindness. “From the outset, Ron had a clear vision of how to do something I had never seen done before and he made it happen,” said DLN founder Peter Sallick, in a tribute he shared in a statement from the organization’s CEO. “And beyond his accomplishments, I will miss his energy, loyalty, and friendship.”
