This week in design, Valentine’s Day might be over, but for some design enthusiasts, heart-shaped bathtubs are forever. Stay in the know with our weekly roundup of headlines, launches, events, recommended reading and more.

Business News
Last week, President Trump announced a new reciprocal tariff plan, requiring U.S. taxes on imports to match the rates charged by other countries, CNN reports. The president ordered agencies to study how the policy could unfold—since tax rates vary among the country’s trading partners—in an investigation that is expected to be completed by April 1, after which Trump will decide when to enact any recommended tariffs.

Z Gallerie is returning to brick-and-mortar retail with a warehouse outlet in California set to open next month, Designers Today reports. The announcement follows an eventual few years for the company, starting with a bankruptcy in late 2023 and subsequent acquisition by furniture manufacturer Karat Home in January 2024—a move that saw Z Gallerie integrated into its new parent company’s operations and reintroduced as an online retailer, while all physical stores were shuttered. According to Karat Home CEO Scarlett Fan, the brand’s return to in-person retail will likely continue with a pop-up shop in either Houston or Dallas.

Richloom Weaving—part of the third-generation-owned textile manufacturer Richloom Fabrics Corp.—is shutting down production at its plant in High Point and laying off 54 employees, Furniture Today reports. According to Richloom president and COO Michael Saivetz, the weaving operation—which the company acquired in 2019—saw initial success followed by a decline in demand after the pandemic boom subsided. The weaving division further suffered in the face of bankruptcies from major home furnishings retailers like Big Lots, Badcock Furniture, American Freight and Joann Stores. Saivetz noted that Richloom Weaving “represented only a small portion of Richloom’s overall operations,” which would continue to manufacture textiles globally.

Just a few weeks after its second bankruptcy filing in less than one year, Joann Fabric announced a reorganization effort that includes shuttering more than 533 locations in its 850-store fleet, NBC reports. The company initially filed for Chapter 11 last March, emerging six weeks later as a private venture owned by its creditors. In mid-January of this year, Joann filed for bankruptcy again, this time with the hopes of seeking approval to sell “substantially all of its assets” to investment firm Gordon Brothers Retail Partners, which specializes in acquiring distressed companies (a strategy that included the purchase of Big Lots earlier this year.)

Construction and design professionals are predicting higher revenue growth for their businesses this year compared to 2024, according to the 2025 U.S. Houzz State of the Industry. Based on surveys with 1,537 residential renovation businesses in the U.S., 70 percent of designers surveyed expect revenue to increase this year, while 68 percent predict the same about profits. The group also projected a 9 percent annual rate of revenue growth—slightly up from 8.9 percent last year, and just 3 percent in 2023. The reporting comes even after designers reported a 2.4 percent decrease in annual rate of revenue growth in the same survey last year, with more design firms then (47 percent) citing a profit decrease compared to an increase (28 percent). Still, interior designers appeared optimistic about the coming year, with 70 percent reporting having a good or very good outlook for 2025.

Launches and Collaborations
Wayfair has debuted a new AI tool called Muse, designed to provide customers with personalized home design inspiration. The program allows users to input search terms based on design styles or trends, in turn producing AI-generated interior imagery that can be shopped directly via recommended products. Users can also upload a photo of a room in their home and prompt Muse to apply their generated design style to the space.

William Hannigan, a photographer and founder of contemporary photo agencies Otto and August, has launched a new platform called ATTA, offering fine art photography prints from renowned photographers. The collection makes prints that were previously accessible only for commercial and editorial use available for private homes, hospitality, commercial and residential interiors, with each photo made from the artists’ original prints, negatives or digital files and paired with custom handcrafted frames. Beyond offering the works themselves, the platform will also provide curatorial advice from photography experts.

Anthropologie Home teamed up with design duo Azar Fattahi and Lia McNairy for the Lala Reimagined collection. The product assortment ranges from lighting pieces to accent chairs and coffee tables, with throughlines that nod to the pair’s love of organic shapes and playful details, such as scalloped edges, leg anchors and carved checkered patterns.

Recommended Reading
During the dreary days of winter, it’s no surprise that “dopamine decor”—a design trend that encourages the use of furnishings and decorations to inspire feelings of joy—has become a regular fixture in the online design community. However, as Kathryn O’Shea-Evans writes for The Washington Post, many of the examples that show up on TikTok feature “the types of overly cartoonish spaces that could give many of us a migraine in minutes.” For a subtler approach to dopamine decor O’Shea-Evans consults designers like Jonathan Adler, Brittany Bromley and Kristin Harrison on their favorite mood-boosting design choices.

For a new column in Elle Decor, interior designer Rita Konig “tackles modern design dilemmas, both practical and philosophical.” Her inaugural dispatch centers on the topic of hanging art, explored through personal anecdotes from her own business—like a serendipitous moment when merely moving a piece transformed a room—and inspiration from design legends.

Call for Entries
The 2025 Southeast Designers & Architect of the Year Awards, hosted by the Atlanta Decorative Art Center in partnership with Veranda, is seeking submissions from designers and architects across the Southeast who demonstrate high-level talent in the categories of residential interior design, contract interior design and architecture. For more information or to submit an entry before the February 28 deadline, click here.