Week of May 4, 2020

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: Schloss Hollenegg's new exhibition launches in 3-D, Lex Pott moves from candles to soap-making, and a beloved New York photographer launches in-demand jigsaw puzzles.
More

Our Favorite Finds From the First-Ever Virtual Frieze Art Fair

For those in the art world, the loss of a physical Frieze means the loss of a key moment for discovery, commerce, and networking. But for those of us with no skin in the game, the virtual viewing room offers some very real benefits — like being able to browse, and read the backstory of, pieces we might have missed in the chaos of the fair, or being able to grab the exact images we want for this roundup.
More

A Lanvin Alum Who Pivoted to Design — And Just Released Our ’80s Dream Lamp

Ever since Golden Girls style became a thing two years ago, it's become something of a sport among Instagram vintage accounts to continuously drop ever-larger, ever-more-curvaceous '80s lacquered furniture sets than you dreamed could possibly exist. But leave it to a former accessories designer to recognize that sometimes a little bit of a big trend is all you need — Nadia El Abany's new collection of striped and color-blocked columnar lamps, their high-gloss ceramic bases and linen shades straight out of a Miami estate sale, let you scratch that particular itch without having to go all in.
More

Three Recipes for Virtuous Comfort Food, From a Fave Restaurant of New York Creatives

Right now we're all cooking at home, and all we want is virtuous comfort food — exactly the kind of food that the New York restaurant Dimes is known for. Today we're sharing three recipes from its new book, Dimes Times, all of them warm and soothing, relatively easy to make, and freezer-friendly, too. It's no sitting-at-a-Matisse-inspired-table-sipping-wheatgrass-margaritas, but it's the perfect thing for a pandemic that has deprived us of such.
More

High-End Editorial Set Design, But Make It Cuddly

For its March issue, the Italian magazine Icon Design came up with an amusing way of spotlighting one of the pandemic's unsung heroes — the pets keeping us sane during lockdown — by pairing high-end set designs by stylist Greta Cevenini with portraits of eight dogs belonging to influential Italians. It's genius, because how many of us feel like luxury design is relevant to our lives at this exact moment? But make it cuddly, and it's a whole other story.
More

Week of April 6, 2020

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: a reissued Nanna Ditzel chair, a stylish oasis in the desert, and the only pocket knife we'd pay $375 to probably never use.
More

Think Face Pottery Is a Millennial Thing? Meet the Artist Who’s Been Doing It Since the ’70s

When Jill and I posted pictures of our favorite books on Instagram last week, mine featured one of my favorite objects in my living room, shown above: A pot, used by me as a planter, that features two hand-painted, color-blocked pastel faces. I bought it on eBay for $10 a year and a half ago. I don't remember how I found it. I had no idea, at the time, who the maker was, only that her name was Victoria Crowell and I assumed she was an obscure local artisan who made the pot in the '80s. I was mostly correct.
More

Get Ready to See This Classic Pattern Everywhere

We first realized a checkerboard trend was happening last fall, and have since amassed a folder full of images that grows bigger by the week, as we see the pattern flying by on the Instagram accounts of fashion brands, interior designers, and shops. Today we've prepared a roundup of our favorite examples of the trend, but prepare yourself for a lot more — despite faint echoes of bad '80s interiors and ska bands, trust us, it's coming.
More

Feeling Anxious? Calm Down With an ASMR Interior Design Video. (Yes, It’s a Thing!)

We discovered recently that there's a whole genre of ASMR videos devoted to faux design consultations, from whispery kitchen renovation meetings to a guy who's just narrating himself drawing the floorplan of a house for 30 minutes. We're sharing our favorite examples of interior design ASMR here, which, trust us, are exactly what you need right now to lift your spirits, whether they chill you out or make you laugh — or both.
More

Our 3 Favorite Projects from the Pandemic-Shuttered Melbourne Design Week 2020

Just as Melbourne Design Week was set to open its largest edition ever a week and a half ago, with over 200 events ready to launch around the city, it was largely shut down by the COVID-19 crisis, one of the increasing design-world casualties the virus has claimed this year. We spotted a few great projects in our inboxes and on Instagram, though, so we're highlighting our three favorites here.
More

19 Designers Share How the Pandemic Is Affecting Their Business — And How They’re Staying Positive

With the creative community facing canceled fairs and projects, lost clients, production delays, and countless other difficulties, we decided to reach out to designers, art directors, gallerists, and other practitioners to find out what they're experiencing, professionally and personally, and what positive thoughts and advice they'd offer other creatives to ensure that everyone can continue to thrive once this crisis ends.
More