Find your summer flow
Lighter, looser, less perfect, and (yep) more fun.
Good to see you!
Easing into the start of summer has me soaking up this first stretch of sunny days. We all shift with a new season, falling into a rhythm with nature’s cycles. Summer is about going with the flow, keeping things loose (plans, clothing, mindsets), and slowing down a bit. Our bodies get to move in new ways. Time feels a little more elastic, doesn’t it?
I look at home and design differently now, too. How can I experiment? How can I make my world expansive, responsive, and malleable? Here are a few things bouncing around my mind—from flexible hooks to cool color tools to transparent design that lets us lighten up (in every sense).
Let’s dive in…
Shape Shifter
I love the idea of a piece that reconfigures to suit your mood. We recently launched the Tula hook system (you know my commitment to hooks). She’s quirky and customizable, with a fun combo of colorful perforated steel and warm oak that creates an interesting layered form. You can install the piece in a myriad of ways: Clean and linear, a rhythmic zig zag, or loosely meandering along your wall. Dealer’s choice.
Spin the Rainbow
This color wheel caught my eye today. Watching the three acrylic wheels passing over each other is mesmerizing and so satisfying. It’s such a tactile and analog way to create new color combinations. Kudos to Peter Nevins for this simple yet brilliant art piece/color tool. I need to get my hands on one! (Apparently the response has been so huge that Peter is taking pre-orders.)
Wing and a Flair
There’s something about a floaty pleated tulle dress (cape not optional) that I find so dynamic. This Toteme design is lovely and ethereal with its delicate floral embroidery, but also sculptural in that inky black color, which makes the weightless volume even more impactful. The brand’s whole summer collection is a study in cool slouchy pieces and an expression of soft power. I’m here for it!
Full Transparency
I recently admired a beautiful linen pendant light featuring layered appliqué fabrics that allowed the light to pass through, while also revealing a landscape motif. It was such a poetic piece, full of depth and emotion, and it got me thinking about the role of transparency as a design element.
When our team designed the new Schoolhouse Swell pendant and surface mount, our goal was to take the ubiquitous fabric drum shade and transform it into something uniquely us. Drum shades are popular for a reason: The simple shape feels modern, while the fabric construction is soft and familiar. We wanted to capture that same texture and pleasing glow but with perforated metal and frosted glass.
Beyond lighting, there are countless ways that transparency is utilized in design—fashion and home textiles, of course, but also furniture and even architecture. I’ve been seeing glass blocks trend again (along with all things ’80s-00s), from lighting fixtures to interior walls to grand architectural moments—and even on a cool vintage bench. I love the weightiness of the material combined with the rippled light that shines through. Framuga Studio added a zingy red outline to circular glass blocks that gives a graphic element. I’m equally entranced by this block wall by Buchanan Studio, where the color palette, differing textures, and scale are really exciting.
More highlights from my mood board: Belgian design duo Muller Van Severen created the most perfect wire cabinets that appear to float on your wall. South Korean-born artist Do Ho Suh plays with transparency in magical and moving ways through life-size fabric architecture (you can see his work on view at the Tate Modern in London until October). Looking to nature, Sankayou (skeleton flowers) turn translucent when their petals get wet, becoming even more otherworldly, like glass. My designer brain starts wondering: Could this inform a new lighting style, or a textile embroidery that mimics the subtle veining? So many possibilities stem from one wondrous phenomena…
In Motion
I recently swapped my e-cargo bike for a cherry red Linus. I feel extra chic wearing my pistachio green helmet with tortoise shell visor while zipping through Portland—following a meandering route, of course.
What gets you into a summer flow state?
Katie xx
Hammock swinging. Porch sitting. Taking to Summer like an 85-year-old.
I'm interested in pendant lighting. All the movies up to the sixties had them on walls and hallways. It used to be the norm. Ceiling light is over used.