This week in Design, the pursuit of an all-pink aesthetic in Greta Gerwig’s new Barbie movie went to extremes when the film’s production team caused an international shortage in the vibrant shade of Roscoe paint used on the film’s sets. Stay in the know with our weekly roundup of headlines, launches, events, recommended reading, and more.
Business news
Bed Bath & Beyond has identified Overstock.com as its “stalking horse” bidder, giving the online retailer the ability to get first bid on Bed Bath & Beyond’s remaining assets, including intellectual property rights. like Axios Reportedly, Bed Bath & Beyond has received a $21.5 million cash offer from Overstock — if accepted, that transaction would include all of the retailer’s IP addresses, goodwill, business data, Internet properties, the right to mobile apps and some other contracts. Bed Bath & Beyond will continue to solicit bids until the expected June 16th deadline, after which – if the company receives additional bids – an auction will be held on June 21st to determine the winner.
International Market Centers announced today that the company is rebranding as Andmore – an entity that combines its physical market business with Juniper’s digital offerings. The result of a year-long initiative to redefine the company’s vision and unify its brand under one name, the new name also marks the beginning of a variety of new offerings set to roll out in the coming months, starting with the emergence of a new mobile buyer. The app is called @ Market. Introduced today in preparation for the summer markets in Atlanta and Las Vegas, the app hosts pre-market planning tools, a personal QR code to quickly grab a badge, a note-taking feature, turn-by-turn market trends, and after-sales steps for follow-up orders.
The new Federal Furniture Stability Standard will be officially effective on September 1, Home news now reports. The mandatory rule applies to clothing storage units and aims to reduce the number of tipping accidents – which are known to harm and even kill children – through the use of updated stability, testing and labeling requirements. Known as the STURDY (Stop Tip-over of Misky Dressers on Youth) Act, the bill went through years of legislative backtracking before President Biden formally signed it into law late last year.
Since the Federal Reserve’s attempts to rein in inflation led to higher interest rates last year, the housing market has remained in a stalemate: Potential buyers discouraged by mortgage costs that have more than doubled than they were 18 months ago, while homeowners who remain in low mode. Rates during a pandemic are not eager to re-enter the market. like New York times Reports, if there’s one thing that can move a home in today’s market, it’s a prospective mortgage — a fixed-rate loan that can be passed on from previous homeowners to new buyers. While these loans only make up about a quarter of existing mortgages today, they have become a prized feature, spawning a cottage industry of Facebook groups dedicated to helping buyers find them and new companies specializing in converting them.
Ikea has acquired Made4Net, a New Jersey-based warehouse and supply chain management company. furniture today Reports – The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The Swedish furniture giant plans to leverage Made4Net’s omnichannel fulfillment solutions across its stores and fulfillment points in an effort to modernize its supply chain operations. Following the purchase, Made4Net will operate as an independent subsidiary of Ikea, and will continue to operate from its New Jersey headquarters along with six global offices.
Florida-based Wendover Art Group has acquired luxury textile producer Kevin O’Brien Studio, Inc. home accents today reports. Founded in Philadelphia over 25 years ago, the studio’s line of products includes more than 750 hand-dyed decorative pillows, throws, throws, fabrics, and pillows for indoor and outdoor use—many featuring patterns drawn by founder Kevin O’Brien. With the acquisition, Wendover will add the studio’s product offerings to its own selections, along with allowing O’Brien to apply his patterns and hand-painting technique to a wide variety of fabrics and additional product lines as he leads pattern design and product expansion efforts.
Curio Brands — the Minneapolis-based parent company of fragrance brands Thymes and Capri Blue — has acquired candle company Otherland for an undisclosed sum, Women’s daily wear reports. The New York-based digital candle brand was launched in 2017 by co-founders Abigail Cook Stone and Sid Markar, by cultivating a strong audience of millennials and Gen Z consumers on TikTok and Instagram. Industry sources said WWDThe strategy brought the company nearly $10 million in sales in 2022 and has led to distribution partnerships with retailers including Anthropologie, Nordstrom and Amazon. Following the purchase, Stone and Markar will remain with Curio, with Stone overseeing brand strategy and execution while Markar leads operations and supply chain.
TikTok is testing a new visual search feature in select markets outside the US. adweek reports. Much like tools currently in use by Pinterest, Google, and Bing, this feature allows users to take a photo and search visual inventory based on the image — a potentially useful addition to TikTok Shop, another upcoming feature currently in beta testing. Despite finding success in Asian markets, social commerce has been slow to catch up with American users, prompting apps like Instagram to completely shut down key shopping features after a failed rollout.
Last week, the city of Paris revived a rule limiting the height of new buildings to 12 stories. ArchDaily reports. The move comes in response to the controversy surrounding the Tour Triangle, a nearly 600-foot-tall building designed by Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, which began in 2022 despite years of backlash claiming the high-rise was out of scale. With the structures around Paris (only two of them, the Eiffel Tower and Tour de Montparnasse, would be higher than the triangle). In reinstating the building height cap—previously in effect from 1977 to 2010—Mayor Anne Hidalgo also aims to address the city’s goals of reducing carbon emissions and encouraging rehabilitation of existing buildings based on new construction.
Ashley Furniture has recalled 263,000 love seats, recliners and sofas after receiving reports of LED-lit cup holders causing fire and smoke damage. like furniture today Reports indicate that the items were part of the company’s Party Time collection and were sold at Ashley Homestores and other furniture retailers between November 2018 and March 2023. The Consumer Product Safety Commission is now urging consumers to immediately unplug affected items and contact the company for free repairs.
Global Organic Textile Standards, in partnership with the European Space Agency, has launched a new project to use remote satellite monitoring to distinguish between organic and non-organic cotton fields in an effort to reduce fraud in organic cotton supply chains. The project will use artificial intelligence to analyze satellite data on cotton fields across India and automatically classify farms according to their cultivation criteria. GOTS aims to use the information to promote integrity around organic cotton farming, while also identifying new opportunities for certification on small-scale farms.
launch and cooperate
Etsy has tapped John Legend for a collection highlighting makers underrepresented on the platformCourtesy of Etsy
Etsy has collaborated with musician John Legend for a decor collection. For the collaboration, Legend has prioritized partnerships with female, black, and underrepresented vendors on the platform—a group that includes two members of the historic Gullah basket weavers community, who practice a technique considered to be the oldest African craft tradition in the United States. Earthy-tone ceramics, woven baskets, decorative pillows, elevated pet accessories, and more are designed to match the warmth and personality Legend favors in his home.
The first edition of Design Miami’s Paris will make its debut this year from October 17-22, joining the organization’s flagship fairs in Basel, Switzerland and Miami Beach, Florida. The event will take place at L’hôtel de Maisons (the former home of Karl Lagerfeld) in Saint-Germain-des-Prés – a cultural center and home to many leading design fairs – with exhibitors and presentations to be announced in the coming months.
Baccarat has enlisted designer Philippe Starck for a collaboration that pays homage to the heritage crystal brand’s Harcourt Talleyrand 1841 collection. The joint effort features decor, flatware, cutlery, and lighting crafted with sculpted lines in a nod to the company’s modern era.
The second edition of the Living by Design virtual fair returns this yearCourtesy of Empilo
Galleries
Hosted by influencer marketing agency Embello, the Living by Design Virtual Showhouse will return this year for its second edition, featuring 12 designers to create individual spaces inside a digitally rendered traditional neoconstruction home in Brentwood, California. Scheduled to begin work in September, the four-bedroom home will feature a total of 15 spaces, which will be designed by design influencers such as Bobby Burke, Carmione Hamilton, Dabito and Brigitte Romanek, and brought to life by a trio of visualization studios. Dimensions YouSee Studio.
Reading suggestions
As the pandemic produced running pools and hot tubs, those at the end of construction queues and supply chain hiccups were left without their own backyard water features. The next best option? Freestanding bathtub in the backyard. As written by Leah Pickard New York timesProven to outlast the days of pandemic lockdowns, this trend has proven outdoor baths to offer homeowners a chance to connect with nature while enjoying a solo soak.
When two of the nation’s largest insurance companies announced they would stop offering new home coverage in California in the same week, the news came as a shock to many. But insurers have been pulling out of high-risk markets for years in the wake of catastrophic weather events. As Melanie Gall writes ConversationThe increasing frequency and intensity of storms and wildfires is likely to accelerate this trend, placing an increasing burden on communities to limit development in high-risk areas, adopt stricter building codes and help residents relocate to safer areas.
When Donald Trump was indicted for mishandling classified government documents last week, it quickly emerged that he had been storing top-secret materials in a bathroom at his Mar-a-Lago resort — a space inexplicably decorated with a crystal chandelier, now immortalized in photos of the documents. retriever. to Washington PostGeraldine Deruyter (who herself referred to the piece as “the light fixture equivalent to Miss Havisham”) consulted interior designers to get to the bottom of the former president’s questionable choice of design.
Homepage image: John Legend has teamed up on a group with Etsy to promote underrepresented Makers. | Courtesy of Etsy