Stay in the know with BOH’s weekly news digest, including business headlines, launches and events, recommended reading and more.
Business News
WeWork has sold its stake in The Wing after several months of consideration, reports Crain’s New York. The majority of WeWork’s stake in the female-focused coworking startup was acquired by GV (formerly Google Ventures), followed by existing investors Sequoia Capital and NEA. The Wing also announced that actress Mindy Kaling joined its cadre of celebrity backers.
As Casper gears up to IPO, the D2C mattress company set its share price maximum at $19—placing the valuation well below the $1.1 billion it announced after securing series D funding last May, reports Furniture Today.
When India Hicks closed her eponymous lifestyle brand in June 2019, it “broke her heart,” reported Daily Mail. ““When my business closed, so many people told me not to see it as a failure,” she wrote in a recent Instagram post. “It was an idea unrealized, a risk that had not matured, a chapter coming to an end. But I think that is all selective editing. My business failed. When something doesn’t work, it fails. When something is not a success, it’s a failure.” Hicks explores the decision to shutter her business on the latest episode of her podcast in a candid conversation with her mother, Lady Pamela Hicks, and famed editor Tina Brown.
Antiques and contemporary design marketplace 1stdibs released the results of its annual design survey, which was completed by interior designers around the world. Antiques are more popular, with 32 percent of designers using them often, as opposed to last year’s 26 percent; green is going to be everyone’s favorite color, as predicted by 32 percent of the participants; and 56 percent of designers have made their purchases online.
The National Kitchen and Bath Association is kicking off a new program this week at the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show in Las Vegas: BridgeYear NKBA Career Tour will enable high school students to do simulations of finish carpentry, installation, kitchen and bath design, plumbing, electrical and showroom sales.
Phase two of Atlanta Next, IMC’s renovation of AmericasMart in Atlanta, will include establishing a lifestyle section in Building 2. This will begin in summer 2020 with the relocation of the brands Ivystone and Appelman & Schauben.
OPENINGS, AUCTIONS AND EVENTS
Charles S. Cohen has opened the Le Méridien Dania Beach at Ft. Lauderdale Airport, adjacent to DCOTA. The hotel’s grand opening is on February 12; the project began in 2014 when the Cohen Brothers Realty Corp. purchased the Sheraton for $34.3 million, reported The Real Deal. In 2018, Cohen spent an additional $22.3 million in financing to complete the project.
Fashion designer Marc Jacobs will host an auction with Sotheby’s Home, the auction house’s digital marketplace. As Jacobs transitions to a Frank Lloyd Wright–designed Westchester home in New York, items like his contemporary painted skull, Japanese bamboo vases and upholstered fauteuils are available.
Drew and Jonathan Scott of HGTV’s Property Brothers will host the 2020 American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame induction celebration on October 18 during this fall’s High Point Market.
SHOWROOM REPRESENTATION
Natural window covering and textiles brand Hartmann & Forbes now has collections available at Holly Hunt at the D&D Building in New York.
David Sutherland is the exclusive distributor of Fortuny in Texas. Fortuny will have dedicated space in the brand’s Dallas and Houston showrooms, and its Austin sales rep will also have offerings. The two companies are beginning phase two of their partnership.
LAUNCHES, PARTNERSHIPS AND COLLABORATIONS
Universal Furniture worked with Elle Decor to give New York’s Plaza Hotel a makeover. Local designer Sasha Bikoff helped to transform the hotel’s Rose Club into the Elle Decor Cafe, which will be open until the end of March. Several Moulin sofas from Universal’s collection with designer Nina Magon take center stage in the room.
Williams Sonoma is continuing its partnership with the video game Design Home, with plans of integrating its portfolio of brands into the company’s immersive gaming throughout 2020. This follows the success of integrating West Elm into Design Home in 2018. This year will see the integration of Pottery Barn Kids, Pottery Barn Teen, Williams Sonoma Home and Rejuvenation.
Design influencers and sisters-in-law Chassie Post Costello and Sara Ruffin Costello will premiere their YouTube series, Chic & Awe, on January 31. In each episode, the duo will take viewers on over-the-top house tours—the upcoming guest roster includes influencer Danielle Rollins, artist Ashley Longshore and designer Miles Redd.
Tempaper has created a collection with The Home Depot. Surfaces by Tempaper, a removable wallpaper collection, is available at HomeDepot.com.
The team at New York furniture retailer Ralph Pucci has launched a podcast with Ralph Pucci and his daughter, Nicole Pucci. Episodes will feature artists, designers and other creatives as guests. Hawaiian sculptor and designer John Koga will be in the first episode, available on Spotify and iTunes.
Oakland, California–based Revival Rugs is opening operations in Morocco. The rugs will drop on the site on February 16 and each month, the Morocco-based team will curate vintage and used rugs and mail them directly to consumers.
RECOMMENDED READING
British photographer Don McCullin has opened a new solo show at Hauser & Wirth Somerset, and the works range from “painterly compositions of [his] ‘metallic dark skies’ to the fragile Arctic landscape, colossal ruins in North Africa, sacred Indian and Indonesian locations, and meditative still lifes,” reported Wallpaper. In the accompanying interview, writer Jessica Klingelfuss explores the artist’s politics, legacies and, of course, process.
The closet of the future is going to be smaller, predicts Business of Fashion. More and more, shoppers are turning away from fast-fashion and toward pieces designed to last longer. As a result, wardrobes in the coming years are poised to shrink as more consumers supplement these more scrupulous purchases with items from rental or resale platforms.
CUE THE APPLAUSE
Gift for Life raised a record-breaking $232,000 at its 28th-annual fundraiser, Party for Life, held in Atlanta for the first time this year. The gift and home nonprofit raised funds for Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS.
The National Association of Home Builders has recognized seven people who demonstrated excellence in teaching the organization’s education courses: Michael Turner is Builder Designee of the Year; Wanda E. Gozdz is CAPS Designee of the Year; Tag Gilkeson is Green Professional Designee of the Year; Scott Michael Dunn is HCCP Designee of the Year; Alan Archuleta is Remodeler Designee of the Year; Kathie McDaniel is Sales and Marketing Designee of the Year; and Fritzi Gros-Daillon is Educator of the Year.
Brian Boggs’s Cio Dining Chair received a 2019 Good Design Award from the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
CALLS FOR ENTRIES
Those who wish to enter the Thermador Kitchen Design Challenge may do so until May 15. Designers, builders, architects and students are welcome to submit designs. There are four categories: exceptional kitchen, compact kitchen suite, original innovator/out of the box space and the student concept kitchen. Thermador is an Irvine, California–based home appliance brand, and this is its fourth competition.
The Window Covering Manufacturers Association has launched a call for entries for the 29th-annual WCMA Product Awards. Categories include cellular and pleated shades, drapery hardware, green products, horizontal blinds, motorization and automation, Roman and roller shades, shadings/sheers, shutters, specialty applications and miscellaneous products, and verticals/panel tracks. Winners are named on March 25. The deadline to apply is February 7.
Homepage image: Studio Shamshiri | Trevor Tondro
