This week in design, the most exclusive apartment in Paris sits roughly 1,000 feet above the city’s streets—at the very top of the Eiffel Tower. Stay in the know with our weekly roundup of headlines, launches, events, recommended reading and more.
Business News
In the latest in a string of tariff proclamations, on Monday President Donald Trump detailed his plans for levies on imported furniture. In the new proclamation, Trump wrote that the tariffs were needed because wood products are being imported “in such quantities and under such circumstances as to threaten to impair the national security of the United States.” The same day, in a post on Truth Social, he claimed that the tariffs would be in service of restoring the furniture sector in North Carolina, which “has completely lost its furniture business to China, and other Countries.” The announcement came on the heels of a plan for 50 percent tariff on kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities and a 30 percent tariff on upholstered furniture, now set to take effect on October 14.
OpenAI unveiled a new partnership with e-commerce platforms Etsy and Shopify this week, enabling users to make purchases through ChatGPT. As Reuters reports, the new Instant Checkout feature will require merchants to pay a fee to the tech company for completed purchases; for users, however, there will be no additional charges or price increases. The rollout currently only applies to single-item purchases, though OpenAI plans to enable multi-item orders and expand its available merchants and regions.
Upholstery manufacturers and sister brands Leathercraft and Our House Designs have permanently shuttered, Home News Now reports. Founded in 1952, Leathercraft is a longstanding name in upholstery production in the U.S., and Our House Designs acquired the company just last year in a bid to expand its own product portfolio and market presence. In an interview with HNN, company president Parker Maricich attributed the closure to issues that began in the wake of the pandemic, related to supply chain complications and materials shortages. Despite periods of high demand immediately following Covid, the decision to officially close came amid difficulties resulting from the broader retail slowdown that followed.
Luxury Italian furniture firm Giorgetti Group announced last week that a group of shareholders led by Dubai-based asset management firm Solida Capital had acquired the company from Italian private equity group Progressio SGR, Women’s Wear Daily reports. The move puts Giorgetti Group into the hands of at least one veteran of the luxury design sector—Egyptian entrepreneur Rachid Mohamed Rachid, CEO of Alsara Investment Group, the parent company of fashion brands Valentino and Balmain. Moving forward, the new owners plan to grow Giorgetti Group globally—including through a new retail space in Dubai—while maintaining its existing management team.
The number of home sellers who can’t find buyers and instead rent out their properties is growing, The New York Times reports. Researchers from housing data and analytics firm Parcl Labs found that the “accidental landlord” trend is becoming increasingly common in cities across the Sunbelt region, with listings-turned-rentals up 41 percent in Houston and 32 percent in Dallas year over year. (The only market in the region that recorded a decline was Charlotte, which saw a 7 percent decrease.) Overall, the shift is evidence of broader problems for sellers in today’s housing market, in which delistings increased by 57 percent in July compared to last year, according to a recent report from Realtor.com.
A new report by data analytics company Verisk reveals that the costs of home repair and remodeling increased 3.4 percent year over year in the April-to-June quarter—a rate that outpaces inflation, which rose 2.7 percent in the same period, according to the latest consumer price index. As ABC News reports, the report attributed much of the increase to high labor costs for renovation work, with projects requiring more labor-intensive work representing the biggest quarterly increases—the cost of tile flooring, for instance, rose 1.2 percent, and remodeling a primary bath went up 1 percent. Altogether, costs for repair and remodeling are nearly 62 percent higher than they were a decade ago, and 73 percent higher than in the first quarter of 2013, which is the first year the index was established.
Last week, President Trump signed an executive order outlining a framework agreement that would transfer majority ownership of TikTok to unspecified American investors, NBC reports. While the deal is still being finalized between Chinese and U.S. officials, the order presents an agreement wherein the platform’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, and its affiliates would own less than 20 percent of TikTok, with the remaining ownership going to “certain investors,” a group which sources say includes tech giant Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi–based investment firm MGX, which is chaired by the United Arab Emirates national security adviser. The agreement is designed to fulfill the requirements of the bipartisan bill President Joe Biden signed last year, requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok to an American company or face a nationwide ban.
Launches and Collaborations
BAS Stone and designer Alvin Wayne teamed up for the New York–based stoneyard’s first-ever capsule collection. Debuting on October 8th, the assortment includes six distinct slabs, each with its own colors and details—ranging from rich greens to pink, amber, brown, and white-and-gray blends.
Designers Don Carney and John Ross of lifestyle design studio Patch NYC partnered with Hygge & West for the creation of a wallpaper collection, which will be showcased in the Bonhams Skinner showroom in Boston through the month of October. To create the new patterns, the designers drew on ideas of mythical and terrestrial worlds, weaving imagery like serpents and clovers to bring a sense of enchantment into the home.
CB2 reunited with musician Lenny Kravitz for a third collaboration, this time blending influences from European modernism and relaxed Malibu style. Available in a palette of warm neutrals, the assortment emphasizes tactile elements through woven leather seating, Danish cord stools, twill upholstery and Breccia marble tables.
Recommended Reading
Long gone are the days when illumination was confined to a simple bulb. For Elle Decor, Geoffrey Montes writes about the latest nature-inspired introductions in the world of lighting—pieces that “droop, blossom and unfurl like something alive,” perhaps reflecting a larger shift toward more daring choices in interior design.
While many are familiar with the countless iconic works of architecture made during his lifetime, few may be aware that Frank Lloyd Wright’s life was a dramatic journey struck by a disastrous fire, the murder of loved ones, and a move out West that brought a sense of renewal to his work—a story that seems almost destined for the silver screen. For Fast Company, Nate Berg spoke to two filmmakers who are fulfilling that destiny—and they bring a unique familiarity with Wright’s work, having lived in a Los Angeles residence he designed in 1924.
First it was a welcome reprieve; then it became ubiquitous—and now it’s almost universally hated. The color gray gets a full unpacking by Janae McKenzie for House Beautiful, where she traces the recent history of the color in design, exploring how it came to dominate homes over the past decade and offering a few fresh ideas for using the hue—sparingly.
