This week in design, the start of each new season seems to bring a new micro-trend—this time, it’s “Strega Nona Fall,” a kitchen aesthetic based on the popular children’s book about a magical pasta-making witch, with an emphasis on earthen hues, copper pots and whimsical jewel-toned touches. Stay in the know with our weekly roundup of headlines, launches, events, recommended reading and more.
Business News
Hearst—the publisher of House Beautiful and Elle Decor—announced a new content licensing partnership with OpenAI last week, which will see the artificial intelligence company integrate the publications’ content into its products, including the popular chatbot ChatGPT. As The Wrap reports, the deal has attracted criticism from the Writers Guild of America East, which filed an information request after its executive director, Sam Wheeler, stated that he had “many concerns about Hearst’s partnership with OpenAI.” WGAE is looking to uncover whether the deal will result in profit-sharing with workers, along with raising concerns over the prospect of job losses and compromised data privacy. The news comes just weeks after the announcement that competing magazine publisher Condé Nast—home to titles like Architectural Digest and Vogue—would also be partnering with the AI company.
Ikea’s annual sales fell 4 percent for its 2024 fiscal year ending in August—the first revenue drop for the Swedish retailer in four years. As CNN reports, the decline follows the company’s decision last year to lower prices on roughly 2,000 products in response to rising inflation and interest rates. The $2 billion discount program led to higher in-store and website visits, but still dealt a blow to Ikea’s bottom line.
German trade show IMM Cologne has canceled its January 2025 edition, with fair organizers citing decreased attendance and broader economic challenges in the furniture industry. As Furniture Today reports, Hans Verschuur, the Dutch representative of fair organizer Koelnmesse, shared in a newsletter post that after several major brands decided not to participate in the fair next year, it created a “snowball effect” in which IMM Cologne was left without enough exhibitors to warrant hosting the event. In another press release, fair organizers also pointed to a lack of continuity following the pandemic—during which the trade show was paused for three years in row—for slowing down interest among exhibitors and attendees. Moving forward, organizers stated they are working on a new format better suited to changing industry demands.
Direct-to-consumer houseplant company The Sill has announced that it is closing all brick-and-mortar storefronts and focusing on online sales. The brand began with a business model that relied entirely on e-commerce, before opening an in-person retail space in 2014—the first of what would become a 12-store fleet. According to a release from the company, the brand gradually began closing out its storefronts over the past year, driven by the decision to focus on its expanded offerings (including into outdoor gardening).
In recent years, a wave of private equity firms have moved to acquire home services businesses across the country, leading to major payouts for the owners of mom-and-pop shops in the HVAC, plumbing and electrical sectors. As The Wall Street Journal reports, investors have scooped up nearly 800 such companies since 2022, according to data from PitchBook—a number that likely underestimates the real number of purchases. The phenomenon has allowed many small business owners to cash out and retire, and there’s evidence that private equity in many cases improves these firms with fresh leadership, improved back office systems, enhanced marketing and targeted recruitment efforts. Critics, however, say the model in general—which has now been applied to countless industries—leads to higher prices for homeowners and less competition in the market.
Kenmark Interiors, a Dallas-based distributor and installer of interior architectural products, has acquired long-term partner Lancaster & Associates—a custom drapery manufacturer specializing in high-end interiors. Following the purchase, former Lancaster owner Philip Clemmons will remain on with the company as general manager, while Kenmark president Pamela Kisberg will oversee product sales and development.
Launches and Collaborations
Online furniture reseller AptDeco has launched a new spinoff site, AptDeco Kids, which offers its services to buyers and sellers of furniture for babies, children and teens. The new platform includes brands like RH, Babyletto, Pottery Barn Kids and Pottery Barn Teen, and the company facilitates orders and handles pickup and delivery logistics, as it does with its main site.
Pottery Barn has partnered with design influencers Chris and Julia Marcum of the blog Chris Loves Julia for the debut of a new home furnishings collection. Designed to fit a variety of spaces (such as bedrooms, living rooms and home offices), the product assortment—available at Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Teen and Pottery Barn Kids—offers furniture, bedding and decor modeled after the couple’s aesthetic, including holiday accessories and decorations.
Samsung has partnered with the Museum of Modern Art to bring artworks from the institution’s collection to the Samsung Art Store, where they can be selected for display on the brand’s Frame TV. The collaboration will encompass 26 masterworks, including pieces like Frida Kahlo’s Fulang Chang and I and Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night.
Designers Barry Bordelon and Jordan Slocum of The Brownstone Boys have debuted a new lighting collection in partnership with Manhattan-based studio Blueprint Lighting. Each of the five pieces in The Boroughs Collection—an assortment of sconces, chandeliers and pendants—draws inspiration from its namesake New York borough, incorporating the area’s architectural character into the design.
Hooker Furnishings has teamed up with the Jimmy Buffett–founded lifestyle brand Margaritaville for the debut of a home furnishings line spanning indoor and outdoor furniture, including case goods, upholstery, lighting and accessories. The collection is expected to launch in October 2025 at Hooker’s High Point showroom—in the meantime, the collaborators are also exploring plans to provide furnishing options for Margaritaville’s branded real estate properties and communities.
Recommended Reading
When Marie Angliviel de la Beaumelle, the founder of beloved Murano glass brand Laguna B, passed away in 2013, it seemed unlikely that her son Marcantanio Brandolini—then, a party boy with little to show for his career—would take up the mantle. As it turned out, assuming the role of chief executive and art director of the brand marked a turning point for Brandolini and Laguna B. For Town & Country, Christopher Bollen explores how the past decade has seen Brandolini chart a path to growth with the launch of a publishing arm, a student residency program, an environmental preservation initiative and the business’s first brick-and-mortar store.
For part-time residents of luxury ski resort towns like Telluride, Vail and Aspen, altitude sickness can put a damper on an otherwise breezy weekend visit. As Cecilie Rohwedder writes for The Wall Street Journal, luxury homeowners can now bypass the acclimatization process with a home oxygenation system—a costly amenity that pumps oxygen-rich air into the house.
Between the “bed-rotting” trend, bunk beds for adults and dog beds for humans, it’s clear that sleep has become an object of obsession for society today. In Architectural Digest, Sydney Gore describes the many ways in which slumber has captivated the imagination of artists, designers and furniture makers, all of whom are creating products that blur the traditional lines of the bedroom and invite us to see the space in new and unexpected ways.
In Memoriam
Alice Kriz—who managed marketing and special projects for Remains Lighting for more than a decade—passed away this summer at the age of 61. Prior to her landing in the design industry, Kriz’s career was defined by an ability to build and strengthen communities: After serving as executive director of the French-American Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C., she moved to South Africa with her husband and helped to document the country’s first democratic election and the inauguration of Nelson Mandela. Eventually, the pair’s young family relocated to Nyack, New York, where Kriz helped build local organizations such as the Children’s Shakespeare Theatre and Riverspace Arts, before embarking on her tenure with Remains Lighting. “Alice’s life was marked by a spirit of adventure, love of travel, an uncanny sense of space and design, a passion for gardening, cooking, and welcoming friends and family to her home, with unforgettable hospitality,” reads her obituary. “Her vibrant spirit touched the lives of family and a wide circle of friends, wherever she went.”
