Perhaps you already have a sense for this, but design editors plan for December way, way in advance. The first holiday-themed preview on my calendar this year was in July; I was already flagging gift ideas next to my air conditioner during a NYC heatwave.
And so there’s a different level of excitement for us when we finally publish those long-awaited stories — especially our holiday gift guides, a special pride and joy. It also means the energy is high in November as brands launched last-minute products and designers unveil well-timed collaborations.
Even still, there’s more to November than the holiday rush. From new and immersive showrooms to a destination hotel dreamed up by one of our favorite interior design firms, here’s what grabbed my attention this month around the city.
DESIGN DROP — JOHNSON/KELLY FLOOR LAMP
Am I the only one who’s noticed the fixation with reissuing designs from the past? That’s not a complaint — many of these designs deserve a second life — but the uptick is real. A few weeks ago, I joined an outing to see one of those revivals at The Glass House in Connecticut, Philip Johnson’s iconic home. It was a sunset gathering as golden hour turned the home into a glowing spectacle, and the crowd was there to celebrate the reissued — and rather rare — Johnson/Kelly Floor Lamp.
The original lamp was a problem solver: a regular bulb could easily create harsh reflections across the home’s glass walls at night, so Johnson worked with lighting visionary Richard Kelly to create a more atmospheric lamp. Light funnels up to a cone-shaped top, which diffuses the light down and outward. It’s a lovely, sculptural design, but hardly any were produced.
Enter BassamFellows, a design studio whose founders happen to live in a neighboring Philip Johnson house. They’ve updated the iconic lamp in new stainless-steel finishes and refined a detail or two, making it less elusive and no longer quite so exclusive — you can now buy it at Design Within Reach. Craig Bassam, co-founder of BassamFellows, put it simply: “It's a brilliant concept — it's a little piece of architecture.”
EXHIBIT A — K’AB JUUN
Days before my own trip to Mexico City, I ventured into the Meatpacking District to meet Ilana Goldberg, the CDMX-based interior designer who recently opened K’ab Juun alongside business partner Dafna Puszkar Neumarkt. The new gallery is a platform for Mexico’s nascent design renaissance — you'll find all sorts of collectible furniture, handmade objects, and crafty lighting — and somewhat surprisingly, it's the only one of its kind in New York.
For Goldberg, it’s both a love letter to Mexico but also a chance to inject the country’s own perspective into a scene with a lingering blind spot (one that tends to default to an American and European focus). The gallery itself conjures the destination, with hacienda-style arched passageways and clay flooring, and really captures the breadth of the country’s talent. “We have pieces from Guadalajara, from Puebla, from Michoacán, from Oaxaca, from Mexico City,” says Goldberg. “From all around and from all different techniques: clay, resin, stone, fabric, wood, ceramics, and lightning.” For any design enthusiasts not yet plugged into Mexico’s creative community, this gallery is a must-see.
STYLE NOTE — EXPERIMENTAL RUGS
We’re in something of a rug renaissance. Designers are flexing new techniques and textures, an almost experimental approach to the craft we often think of as flat. And there were two recent rug collections that stood out, to me, in a very specific way: both were shaped by subtraction (more or less).
Shearing and trimming to create piles and patterns isn’t new. But in The GAIA Collection, a collaboration between Armadillo Rugs' and the Barcelona-based artist Carla Cascales Alimbau, the act of carving felt particularly fresh. Partly inspired by her layered resin paintings, Alimbau translated eroded landscapes — like coastlines shaped by the tide — into an earth-toned series that reverses her typical process. “We were cutting the material to get these waves and these shapes, so it was working the other way around — not adding material, but taking out the material,” said Alimbau. The result is subtle and sculptural, with smooth organic reliefs drifting across the surface.
The other collection embraces subtraction in a more graphic way: literal cut-outs. The collaboration between designer Shawn Henderson and ALT for Living dwells on the idea of negative space, where bold shapes are removed from the traditionally solid textile. It breaks the plane, and pokes holes in the very idea of floor coverings. Does it hurt that it's a little bit playful? Not one bit.
So, two very different approaches to ‘taking away’ in order to give often one-dimensional floor coverings some captivating depth.
ROOM CRUSH — POCKETBOOK HUDSON
One of the more controversial trends over the past five or so years, in my opinion, is the bedroom tub — yes, a freestanding bath plopped next to (or somewhere near) your bed. Lovers insist it’s romantic; naysayers have a far longer list of objections (ventilation, waterproofing, the general weirdness… ). I’ve long sided with the latter, with one notable exception: boutique hotels. Hospitality can get away with a touch of impracticality — they’re special occasion spaces, after all.
Case in point: Pocketbook Hudson, a new upstate hotel with interiors by Charlap Hyman & Herrero. Rooted in the idea of bathing cultures (the hotel will soon open a requisite spa with thermal saltwater pools, ideal for New York's long winters), select rooms include tubs for those who can't get enough of it. But here, the designers tucked stainless steel tubs directly behind the headboard; it makes the space dynamic. But it also solves my chief complaint: when you’re in bed, do you really want to stare at the damp tub you’ve just used? With this particular layout, you can quite literally leave it behind.
SCENE STEALER — THE SIXPENNY LOFT
I’ve become a bit spoiled by showrooms. So many brands now craft full-blown experiences that I sometimes forget most showrooms are still white boxes stuffed with furniture. No judgement — square footage is a luxury — but a particularly bold example of this next wave is on display at The Sixpenny Loft, the e-commerce brand’s trade-only showroom in Brookyn’s DUMBO.
Just weeks ago, it unveiled a new look by Sixpenny’s CEO and design director Robert Natale, who shaped a moody, immersive environment that lands somewhere between a hotel lobby and an aspirational apartment. There’s a hard sell, naturally — pieces on view come from the new autumn collection, including debuts like the brand’s first prints and rugs, and there’s a neccessary wall of fabric swatches. But if you’re expecting anything that resembles a standard sales floor, you won’t find it.
What’s striking is how Sixpenny hasn’t played it safe. It’s borderline decadent: walls, ceilings, archways, and rugs drenched in Bordeaux red; curvy couches dressed in a maximalist Wild Air print; wavy oak consoles and coffee tables in dramatically dark stains. And then there’s the showstopper: a four-poster bed upholstered top-to-toe in golden faux fur. The whole thing is a little bit of theater — it's furniture, but with a little more feeling.
It's just a glimpse at what went on about town in the past few weeks, and there's sure to be a steady slowdown as the scene readies itself for holiday breaks. But for now, try and enjoy the last-minute shopping that's bound to happen in the coming days — and if you still need ideas, we've got you covered.