Thanks to online real estate listing sites like Zillow, an internet connection is all you need to view homes for sale the world over—as a result, a variety of social media accounts have cropped up with the purpose of spotlighting the wackiest interiors left behind by former owners, featuring everything from indoor water slides to extensive taxidermy collections. Whatever comes next, stay in the know with our weekly roundup of headlines, launches and events, recommended reading, and more.
Business News
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson received a rebuke from his ethics adviser last week after failing to disclose certain text messages related to a costly makeover of the leader’s Downing Street apartment, The New York Times reports. The refurbishment project, overseen by Johnson’s wife and executed by interior designer Lulu Lytle, landed the U.K. leader in hot water after he petitioned a prominent Conservative Party donor to arrange financing for the redesign—a process documented in messages previously undisclosed to Christopher Geidt, who advises the prime minister on ethics. Lytle herself has described her own displeasure with being caught up in the project’s backlash, especially the media coverage that misconstrued her Middle East and Africa-inspired aesthetic as “colonial boho” and exaggerated the cost of her services. “I hated every minute,” Lytle told the Financial Times. “I found it incredibly disquieting to be caught up in a political storm.”
Sotheby’s is facing a class action lawsuit, The Art Newspaper reports, as a complaint filed last spring by Francis Fenwick, a former accountant for the auction house, alleges that it misclassified workers as independent contractors as opposed to full employees, therefore denying them benefits and violating New York’s Freelance Isn’t Free Act. Though the Sotheby’s legal team filed a motion in November to dismiss the case, calling it “devoid of factual allegations,” the plaintiff’s lawyer has now asked the court to decide whether Fenwick was an employee or an independent contractor—if they find that he was an employee, more than 40 additional individuals who work at the auction house may have also been denied benefits. Fenwick’s lawyer and Sotheby’s both declined multiple requests for comment from The Art Newspaper, and a motion hearing for the suit will be held on January 17 in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.
Casegoods and upholstery importers and manufacturers are implementing price hikes this month, which means retailers and customers will soon be paying more for products shipped from January 1 on, Home News Now reports. Companies like Martin Furniture, Manwah USA and Hooker Furnishings are instating increased freight surcharges, while other businesses are raising prices in response to double digit increases on materials like fabric, metal and wood frames, as well as a higher rate of pay needed to attract employees. As costs of shipping, materials and labor continue to rise, some companies are still considering altering their pricing structure more in the months ahead.
Former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann is moving into the residential realm, reports the Wall Street Journal, as the billionaire and entities tied to him have purchased stakes in more than 4,000 apartments across the U.S. Though Neumann was ousted from coworking company WeWork in 2019, he explored the residential space during his time there with the short-lived WeLive, which operated several communal apartments before being shuttered when the company faced financial troubles.
The first ever “MetaReal” mansion combining a real world home and a virtual counterpart in the metaverse, will soon hit the market, Forbes reports. Created by ONE Sotheby’s International Realty and Voxel Architects, along with general contractor and NFT collector Gabe Sierra, the buyer of the NFT asset will receive both a virtual home in the Sandbox metaverse along with a physical home in Miami, scheduled for completion later this year. The 11,000-square-foot house will have seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms in both its physical and virtual iterations, and will be auctioned off in 2022 for a reserve price that’s not yet disclosed.
In the latest supply chain news, last year’s surge in home-buying coupled with a shortage of building products has forced some new owners to move into unfinished houses. According to the Wall Street Journal, as the flow of goods and materials needed to produce windows, garage doors, appliances and paint remain stymied, homebuilders are now limiting options for floor plans or design features. In Sacramento, California, city officials have even established a provisional policy allowing builders to finish homes with temporary garage doors, while builder Epcon Communities has been forced to install gutters and downspouts after buyers have already moved in.
Business-to-business sourcing platform Geniemode, which offers home furnishings sourced from India and surrounding countries, has announced the completion of a $7 million financing round led by Info Edge Ventures, Home News Now reports. The company currently partners with more than 100 furniture and home decor suppliers, and with the new funding plans to scale up its technology in order to onboard more buyers and sellers and expand its offerings to new geographic regions.
Launches and Collaborations
Chairish is now offering European goods on its e-commerce marketplace, adding 200,000 products sourced from the continent to its site. The expansion follows the company’s August 2021 acquisition of Pamono, the leading European online marketplace for vintage and antique furniture and art, and means that Chairish shoppers can now access new furniture, art, rugs, lighting, decor and more from locales including Barcelona, Lisbon, Copenhagen, Vienna and Rome.
E-commerce marketplace The Nopo has partnered with three designers to create curated pop-up shops on its site. In celebration of the launch of a new designer trade program, called The Nopo Designer Society, the company has tapped designers Kathy Kuo, Ginger Curtis and Karen Wolf to each gather a unique shoppable selection of tableware, accessories and home decor items.
Showhouses
The designer lineup for the fifth annual Kips Bay Decorator Show House Palm Beach has been announced on the organization’s Instagram account. This year’s cohort, who will reimagine an estate at 3001 Spruce Avenue in West Palm Beach, features 25 designers, including Beth Diana Smith, Amanda Reynal, Noz Nozawa, and Chris Goddard.
Recommended Reading
The estate sale occupies a unique place within the world of antiquing, driving interior designers, high-level dealers and amateur treasure hunters to descend in fierce competition on the homes of the recently deceased. For The New Yorker, Lizzie Feidelson takes a deep dive into how the phenomenon came to be, and where it's headed in the pandemic era—meanwhile setting the scene, translating the lingo (“wall pockets,” Hummels and Lladrós galore), and introducing the typical cast of characters who attend the sales.
In the world of video game series Animal Crossing, users have the opportunity to customize their virtual house with an extensive selection of furnishings—including precisely 436 different options when the series debuted, a number that has skyrocketed to a whopping 1,900 over the course of several updates. In fact, many of the furniture items closely resemble iconic pieces in the design canon—blogger Nate Pfeiffer has singled out a variety of examples from the game along with their real life counterparts, drawing parallels to Charles and Ray Eames, Le Corbusier and Iasmi Noguchi.
Cue the Applause
The New York Product Design Award winners have been announced, honoring the efforts of product designers, design teams and manufacturers from around the world whose designs have improved daily living. For the full list of winners, click here.
Dallas Market Center has announced the winners of the 32nd annual ARTS Awards, selecting regional manufacturers, retailers, sales representatives and other professionals for their industry excellence. Among this year’s honorees are Jan Showers of Jan Showers & Associates, who takes home the sole award for the interior designer category, and Barry Goralnick of Barry Goralnick Architecture and Design, who is the sole winner of the product designer award. For the full list of winners, click here.
Homepage image: To celebrate the launch of The Nopo Designer Society, the platform selected designers to curate pop-up shops on the site. | Courtesy of The Nopo
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January 12, 2022 at 05:23AM
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More furniture price hikes, Sotheby's faces a lawsuit and more - Business of Home
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