This week in design, The Bachelor has long been one of television’s most-watched dating shows. For its latest season, the series is taking on a home renovation spin. Stay in the know with our weekly roundup of headlines, launches, showhouses, recommended reading and more.
Business News
Remodeling spending by American homeowners is expected to reach a record-high of $522 billion this year, The New York Times reports. According to a new report from home improvement site Angi, millennial homeowners are driving much of that growth, spending an average of $14,199 per household on home updates last year—outpacing any other generation, despite not owning the majority of U.S. housing stock. Along with aging houses requiring updates and high interest rates prompting homeowners to stay put and renovate, experts speculate that social media and AI-powered visualization tools have a hand in driving the surge.
Last week, a judge from the U.S. Court of International Trade ordered the government to begin issuing tariff refunds to importers following the Supreme Court decision that ruled such levies illegal, CNBC reports. The decision came in response to a case brought by the company Atmus Filtration—just one of among roughly 2,000 lawsuits that have been filed with the trade court in recent weeks as a number of companies (including major home brands) seek repayment for tariffs that were imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Days later, Reuters reported that U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a court filing stating that it expects to have a system for processing tariff refunds ready within 45 days.
New Mexico–based retailer American Home Furniture & Mattress filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week, Furniture Today reports. In the filing, the company listed estimated assets between $1 million and $10 million, along with estimated liabilities within the same range. Among the retailer’s top unsecured creditors were home vendors like Flexsteel Industries, Man Wah and OKC Rugs. In a letter sent to business partners, American Home Furniture’s chairman and CEO, Kenton Van Harten, attributed the restructuring to “inflationary and tariff-related cost pressures,” along with extensive freeway construction impacting some stores. Moving forward, the company will pursue a consolidation plan, closing locations in Santa Fe and Farmington while continuing to maintain a presence in Albuquerque.
Ready-to-assemble furniture manufacturer Prepac Manufacturing has announced plans to close its 250,000-square-foot production facility in Whitsett, North Carolina, laying off roughly 200 employees, effective May 2, Home News Now reports. First opened in 2021, the plant became Prepac’s main manufacturing center last spring after the company shifted its operations out of British Columbia to be closer to its U.S. customer base.
Launches and Collaborations
Iconic designer Kelly Wearstler expanded her design skills into musical instruments with the debut of a new rimless piano, Dezeen reports. The Timbra, created in collaboration with British piano brand Edelweiss, is crafted out of birchwood, with a rounded body and legs and an accompanying timber stool—all inspired by the shape and fluidity of water and sand dunes.
In partnership with OpenAI, Angi launched a feature within ChatGPT that allows users with refurbishment-related questions to make service requests and connect directly with professionals on the home improvement site. In related news, the AI platform collaborated with shelter magazine Apartment Therapy to design a new library lounge for the New York–based nonprofit Lower Eastside Girls Club, brought to life with help from Angi’s renovations pros.
Sunbrella and Michigan-based watercolor artist Kelly Ventura have debuted their second fabric collaboration. The three new patterns—Drift, Bramble and Cricket—are rooted in inspiration from the natural world, with motifs that nod to soft florals and grounding landscapes.
Design Centers
New York’s Decoration & Design Building will see the opening of a new restaurant and café on the 14th floor this spring. Led by restaurateurs Ulrika Bengtsson and Sabina Lindmark—the owners of Björk Café & Bistro at Scandinavia House in Manhattan—Another Story will offer coffee, breakfast, seasonal lunch items and a daily happy hour.
Recommended Reading
While working under designer Mark Hampton in the early 1990s, Markham Roberts was tasked with sorting boxes of shelter magazine clippings his boss had collected as inspiration over the years—a seemingly tedious task, but one that Roberts credits as instrumental in his design education. For Veranda, the latest installment in his recurring design column, he argues that “room scrolling,” or the ability to peruse infinite design imagery on social media, doesn’t always lend itself to the kind of close study that develops a designer’s point of view.
For House Beautiful, Kathryn O’Shea-Evans contemplated a similar question, which she posed to industry experts: “Is Instagram Ruining Interior Design?” Designers weighed in with their thoughts on whether the platform fuels creativity or hinders it, along with best practices for using the site to their advantage.
High-end fashion houses, automobile makers and luxury hospitality groups have all debuted branded residences in recent years. Now, it looks like the wellness industry is getting in on the action. For Women’s Wear Daily, Sofia Celeste highlights a new residential building partnership between Italian design and architecture firm Visionnaire and The Longevity Suite—a European “biohacking and anti-aging city clinic network”—while exploring how other brands have incorporated in-house concierge doctors and amenities like hyperbaric chambers.
