This week in design, Goop maven Gwyneth Paltrow announced she is putting personal fashion and furniture pieces—including Jean Royere–inspired plush lounge chairs and a branching Lindsey Adelman chandelier—on the auction block March 24 and 25, with a portion of the proceeds set to benefit World Central Kitchen. Stay in the know with our weekly roundup of headlines, launches, showhouses, recommended reading and more.
Business News
Last week, mortgage rates fell below 6 percent for the first time in three years, The New York Times reports. The average 30-year mortgage rate dipped to 5.98 percent on Thursday—the lowest the metric has been since September 2022, and a marked improvement from the same time last year, when rates were nearly 7 percent. Yet overall affordability continues to present a challenge: According to real estate marketplace Zillow, home prices have surged 50 percent since the pandemic, and today’s buyers need to earn roughly $93,000 a year to afford a typical home with a 20 percent down payment—an increase from the $52,000 needed in February 2020. A sign of the historically sluggish market? In California last year, nearly one in five property transfers were made through inheritance.
Prior to the Supreme Court ruling on Trump’s global tariffs, more than 1,000 companies had filed preemptive lawsuits seeking a refund. Now, hundreds more are jumping into the fray, including several from the home industry. Among those who have filed suit since the February 20 decision: Rug and decor brand Jaipur Living; Florida chain City Furniture; Dania Furniture (the owner of Scandinavian Designs); and fabric suppliers Culp and Standard Textile. On Monday, an appeals court denied the administration’s request to delay refund proceedings until June.
This year’s prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize has been delayed after the foundation’s director was named in the Epstein files, The New York Times reports. Last week, Tom Pritzker—the son of Hyatt hotel chain founder Jay A. Pritzker, who established the award in 1979—resigned from his role as executive chairman of Hyatt Hotels Corporation, citing his “terrible judgement” in associating with convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. However, he remains director and vice president of the Pritzker Foundation; director and president of the Pritzker Family Philanthropic Fund; and chairman and president of the Hyatt Foundation, founder of the Pritzker Prize. The foundation’s board has asserted the independence of the award judges, releasing a statement saying, “The jury, composed of internationally respected professionals from a range of disciplines, has always and will continue to conduct its work confidentially and free from external influence.”
Two industry organizations are clashing over the use of a similar moniker for their awards programs. The trouble began when the American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame announced last week that it is considering legal action against the International Textile Alliance and associated trade show Interwoven, whose recently announced honor bears a similar title, as well as “uncannily similar” nomination timing and selection criteria. The American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame asserts that the ITA’s Textile Hall of Fame separates textile brands from the broader home furnishings industry, and thus from the former’s own Hall of Fame program, which has historically included them. Several days later, the ITA shared a statement with Designers Today, asserting that the “Hall of Fame” phrase is a widely used designation not specific to any organization or industry, and that the group’s separate awards program will allow those in the textile industry to “receive the focused recognition they deserve.”
Brands are seeing a surge in return fraud driven by AI-generated images, ModernRetail reports. The scam recently targeted home goods brand Boll & Branch, and CEO Scott Tannen documented the experience in a now-viral LinkedIn post. As Tannen writes, a recent return request came with photos of a set of sheets that allegedly arrived torn—but the company found that the images included an AI watermark. E-commerce returns present a hefty cost to brands—$379 billion is predicted for 2026—with roughly 14 percent of all retail returns considered fraudulent, a number that may increase with the aid of AI.
Launches and Collaborations
Business of Home is teaming up with Dallas Market Center for the debut of the Business Accelerator Series for designers. The two-year partnership will deliver business-building programming each spring during Dallas Design Days and each fall during Dallas Design Week. The series will kick off on April 14 with “Landing the Right Work,” a half-day program of workshops and panels (moderated by BOH editor in chief Kaitlin Petersen) all geared toward helping designers win their dream clients. For more information, click here.
Portola Paints teamed up with Lulu and Georgia for the former’s first-ever brand collaboration. The six-color paint palette debuts with refreshing spring hues—including yellow, pink, green and blue—as well as neutral brown and tan staples, all available in ultraflat, eggshell and semigloss finishes.
Parisian homeware line Les Composantes introduced a new collection with Romie Objetti, the home goods brand founded by artist and sculptor Alice Damiens. The assortment features a series of lighting and sculptural objects in glazed ceramic and wood, including a floor lamp, a table lamp, bowls and vases, and is exclusively available through the Sézane website.
Tempaper & Co. tapped Jeremiah Brent for the launch of a new collection called Second Nature. The five new designs—Zellige, Drift, Wane, Strata and Fallow—offer an array of geometric, floral and pastoral patterns and scenes.
Salon Art + Design has returned to Bergdorf Goodman to present a curation of art and collectible design objects, marking the second year of the fair’s partnership with the iconic department store. On view through May 10, this year’s presentation will take place in the store’s seventh floor loft space in a residential environment curated by interior designer Michael Bargo, with pieces ranging from contemporary ceramics to Japanese art, and modern to midcentury furniture.
Showhouses
The 47th annual San Francisco Decorator Showcase will take place April 25 to May 25 inside an 1897 Queen Anne Victorian in Pacific Heights. Among the designers selected to reimagine the 10,000-square-foot historic home are celebrated locals Tineke Triggs, Kendall Wilkinson and Chantal Lamberto. Proceeds will benefit San Francisco University High School’s financial aid program. For more information, click here.
Recommended Reading
The concept of aging in place has gained traction in recent years as a growing number of homeowners look to spend their golden years in their beloved homes. In practice, however, the process can be intimidating, with hazards hiding in the most unlikely places (garden beds and dishwashers, to name a few). For Wirecutter, the New York Times’s product-recommendation site, Doug Mahoney offers a room-by-room assessment of home upgrades that can make a property easier to navigate as its inhabitants age.
While a number of prominent architects and design firms have been flagged in the Epstein files, none feature quite as frequently as the late interior designer Alberto Pinto and his sister Linda Pinto. For Curbed, Adam Robb provides a summary of the nearly 1,000 documents and pieces of correspondence between Jeffrey Epstein and the Pintos, who maintained an extensive personal and professional relationship with the disgraced financier.
Cue the Applause
Luxe Interiors + Design has announced the inaugural Luxe Next, a list honoring up-and-coming design leaders. The Class of 2026 features 120 interior designers (including Alicia Cheung, Alison Giese and Edel Legaspi), architects, landscape designers and homebuilders from across the country. For the full list, click here.
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum has announced the winners of the 2026 National Design Awards, honoring innovation, impact and leadership across a number of disciplines. This year’s honorees include Charlap Hyman & Herrero in the interior design category and Frida Escobedo Studio in architecture. For the full list of winners, click here.
