This week has not been an easy one. The fires in Los Angeles still aren’t out (writing this before the weekend so crossing our fingers for the promised rain) and we’ve been so disheartened by the recent executive orders, which threaten both the citizenship and future employment prospects of an overwhelming majority of Americans. (And if your drug prices went back up this week, we’re thinking of you!). There’s of course more to be extremely concerned about but what we plan to do right now is support the communities that are most affected and not let the overwhelming amount of news hitting us every day make us shut down. We will be here to give resources when we learn about them and continue to be an escape/place of joy. So with that said here are this week’s links…
This week’s house tour is a hotel tour by the one and only Chzon, global French design firm founded by Dorothée Meilichzon. Their designs are beyond inspirational and this one, Experimental Chalet Val d’Isère, is a perfect example of that. Per usual the headboards are ICONIC but everything down to the bathroom vanities is just so thoughtful and interesting. Go check it out!
From Emily: Catie of Pen + Napkin fame is an angel and is dedicated to organizing help from designers (and anyone) to help furnish homes of fire victims. SHE IS AN ACTUAL ANGEL. If you can donate, know that Catie and her team are incredibly trustworthy and will use them directly to help the families. And if you are a local CA designer and want to help – they are desperate for more designers to volunteer to help furnish and enjoy these homes. No donation is too small (and when it’s our time to help a family with a home we’ll announce it here and see if we can get any local LA help in case you don’t want to run the project but want to volunteer your time). Too many families need our help. Thank you so much to Catie and Pen + Napkin for opening your doors and arms.
To Volunteer – https://www.penandnapkin.org/volunteer.html
To Give – https://givebutter.com/WILDFIRES
To Nominate a Family: Email Catie@penandnapkin.org the family’s story and photos and in the Subject put Family Nomination.
From Gretchen: I’ve had a curtain problem in my living room for quite some time now. When I moved in, my landlord (bless her heart) provided me with some very cheap-looking, slightly mismatched blackout curtains that only grazed the bottom of the window sill rather than the floor. Did they work? Sure. A little too well. They’d completely block out all the great natural light that should be streaming through my big, picture window. But they weren’t so hideous that I’ve forced myself to live with them for (gulp) a year. That is until Em needed some simple, linen sheer curtains for a recent makeover, and turned me onto these awesome ones from Target. They look a lot more expensive than they are and let the light through beautifully without being so sheer that you don’t also have privacy. I ran to the store and snagged the same ones for myself to swap with that landlord special, and I am so pleased with how they look in my living room! I no longer live in a cave and my curtains now kiss the floor, just the way I like it.
From Jess: It’s been a really hard week, as we already said in the intro, but one thing that has been helping me is music. That may seem like a no-brainer but I’m not always one to jump to music when I’m having a lot of feelings. However, both Bad Bunny’s new album, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS and Naika’s music, an artist I just discovered, have brought me so much joy. Three of the songs off Bad Bunny’s album are currently in the top 5 songs in the world and I’m not surprised in the least. It’s been called a love letter to Puerto Rico and you can feel it from the moment you hit play. I loved watching this interview to get an even deeper look into his journey to make it. Now, Naika’s music is also full of love and passion. One of my favorites is For Gerard which is dedicated to her great uncle. This is the story about him and it makes me love this song even more.
From Mallory: I found the cutest Air Force 1s at a vintage store and was THRILLED when they happened to be my exact size!! They have the cutest green details but are mostly white and beige so they truly go with everything. Been living in these bad boys. They’re selling them at a few spots online (I also found them at KITH) but they’re mostly in the resale market I believe since they’re vintage. If you’re a Nike gal I highly recommend snagging a pair of airforce 1s I think they’re VERY comfy 🙂
From Caitlin: My favorite movie of 2024 nabbed a handful of Oscar nominations this week, including a well-earned nod for Best Picture! My boyfriend is a huge movie buff with great taste, so it wasn’t a surprise when he grabbed us two tickets to Anora back in October. It takes a classic Pretty Woman storyline (to keep it PG) and TOTALLY turns it upside down. I laughed out loud SO many times (the henchmen are perfectly cast!) and Mikey Madison is a REVELATION – she absolutely deserves to win Best Actress, IMO. (And they did it all for only $6 million dollars, no less! Compare that to over $190 million for Dune, $145 million for Wicked, and even ~10 million for The Brutalist.) They’re like the little engine that could! It’s a total blast to watch – highly recommend if you’re looking for an escape this weekend. (You might want to avoid if you’re sensitive to swearing, though!)
From Marlee: We were on a big big shoot this week which meant I was running around with my phone taking lots of videos and using LOTS of battery. Gretch grabbed 2 of these magnetic rechargeable batteries from Target and they were so good to have. They stick to the back of your phone (via magnet) and you don’t have to mess with a cord getting in the way (I will never understand how that works but I’ll take it). Definitely an essential to have on set, but since there’s also a little stand that pops out, I’ll definitely be using this to prop my phone up during dinner and scroll time.
From Arlyn: I’ve had the hardest time finding a sweatshirt that ticked all the boxes I wanted it to check. Prior to our end-of-year trip, I popped into Target in hopes of finding something I could have for the plane and every single thing in the women’s department was a let down. They were all either cropped and boxy, which NEWSFLASH does not work on every body, tight and “sexy” (why does a hoodie have to be sexy, exactly?) or made of a material akin to a scuba suit. It was awful and disheartening. Before giving up entirely, I checked the men’s department and found exactly what I was looking for! Soft, roomy, and long enough to cover at least the top part of the tush. It’s on clearance now and I’m tempted to buy another one (I got the light green color and it’s great).
Thank you for reading and see y’all tomorrow. xx
Opening Image Credits: Photo by Kaitlin Green | From: My First Time Installing Wallpaper! Spoonflower’s “Prepasted” Paper FTW (Introducing The Sweetest Laundry Closet Ever)
A few more photos of that hotel here:
https://www.experimentalchaletvaldisere.com/gallery/images
Thank you for continuing to be a ray of light. We need you!
Thank you for all the LA love, we really appreciate it. I just filled out the volunteer form and am excited to help, and do so side by side with other readers. It’s raining here now, and we’re so grateful for the moisture.
Hey y’all, a PSA for everyone: this week Target joined the list of major corporations publicly shutting down DEI programs. I love Target, LOVE, and have overlooked their anti-unionization work partly because of that selfish love and all the great products you all link to regularly, and partly because of their public commitment to their DEI work, supporting black owned businesses, having PRIDE merchandise, etc. I am so disheartened by their announcement this week and am going to have to stop shopping there (though it PAINS me, seriously) in favor of places who can show some bravery and maintain their commitment to their stated values in the face of threats of lawsuits (if Costco can do it so can Target!).
Whether or not you publish this, I hope that the team at EHD considers this when putting up links, and tells anyone you know at Target that readers are disappointed in them (as long as I’m not alone, I hope not!).
Love you all and the work you do, mean it!
So disappointing.
Yes, I agree – a true bummer and still: I cancelled my Red Card and deleted my Target account after reading about this terrible decision. I can and will do without.
Thank you for this. I winced all through this post ~ so Target-centric I wondered if it was sponsored.
I came here to say the same thing. I live in Minneapolis where Target is headquartered and conservatively have spent tens of thousands of dollars there in the last few years. I’m queer and I’ve appreciated this team’s commitment to GLBTQ community and the in-depth and nuanced articles about communities of color and the design talent of Black and brown people (that article about the quilting community from a few years ago sticks out in my head). It’s pretty shitty to have Target, which used to be a better supporter of my local community but in the last few years has been really hit-or-miss, pull out of all their DEI work. It’s also shitty to see who will keep promoting them and who won’t. I know this is a financial decision for you because Target supports your work, and that’s a tough reality. But please consider the message you’re sending to queer folks like me by having link after link after link to a Target product.
Thank you for posting this. Came to say it as well. Disappointed they have 3 mentions of Target. I know they’re a long time sponsor of Emily but to be “so disheartened by the recent executive orders” and also support Target 3 times is rough on the ears to say the least.
for what it’s worth, this target news broke after this post had been completed – i didn’t learn about the decision until the weekend.
and also, a lot of black-owned brands who are stocked in target are asking folks NOT to boycott, as target is their only large distribution partner – it’s a complex, nuanced issue. but i agree on the whole – wimpy behavior from a brand i expect more of!
You’re not alone.
As a daily reader since the early days (and a brand strategist by trade), I’ve also been impressed by how “true to brand” everything you do feels. We know the brand’s voice and values and consistently see them reflected in your projects, posts, and associations. So, I say this with the most heartfelt sincerity that it must be difficult to reconcile how to do it going forward in the current US landscape when even venerated partner brands have started to make anti-stated values decisions (e.g. Target on reducing Pride and DEI efforts)
Please leave politics out of the interior design website. I want to read about interior design, not politics. You can have another website for such comments.
Respectfully, EVERYthing is politics these days.
Totally agree, Bunny. I have to take a break from this blog a couple times a year because of how leftist-presenting the team is. I wish I could find an apolitical design blog that was as interesting as EHD.
Ending DEI at Target doesn’t mean they won’t still have Tabitha Brown and Legendary Rootz products,; probably just means no more mandatory, scripted, low-results employee meetings on the DEI topics.
I was already planning to go to Target today for a return; now other posters’ calls for a boycott have inspired me to spend more than I planned to while I’m there. I’ll definitely check out the linen curtains Gretchen linked.
unfortunately, it does reach further than that and it has MASSIVE financial implications for these folks – they’re ending the program that brought tabitha and legendary rootz to target. 🙁 it has less to do with “meetings” and more to do with “saving $2 billion dollars that had previously been allocated to 500 POC-owned small businesses, who were counting on this partnership and investment.”
framed this way, i’m sure you can agree – VERY bleak. a big bummer for these businesses who have staffed up and purchased inventory that they believed was going to be stocked, you know?
Caitlin,
Thank you SO MUCH for speaking up about this!
interior design is at the direct intersection of property and art…which are two inherently political topics so… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
you all have had such a long history with target. i’m curious how you will handle this going forward. hoping you will let them know that it’s not ok to end their DEI programs! so many scary, horrible things are happening. you’ve gotta stick to your values where you can! sadly, i won’t be shopping there anymore.
I wish you all strength, courage, and wisdom as you navigate our bifurcated social and political landscape. I love getting ideas and admire your willingness to support basic human decency and kindness, virtues that seem quaint now. Your comment section can be difficult to manage I would think, however, it is a Rorschach test for our current environment. Deep breaths.
I see all the comments about Target and share in the disappointment about their DEI efforts. Thanks to the team for posting these reactions – it is refreshing to see engagement and conversation around it. Please remember to look into “Goods Unite Us”. Target is still a better ally and corporate citizen than some of the other frequent sponsors of this blog (Anthro etc). And I noticed that my comments on some of those posts are delayed for days or never posted.
sorry!! our spam filters can be a little too sensitive 🙂
Arlyn, Thank you for the Target sweatshirt recommendation! I ordered two colors that were on sale/clearance and they fit great and could not beat the price. I need to replace all my ratty sweatshirts so will be ordering more colors at regular price. Great find.
Now I see all the comments regarding Target and DEI. Very sad to see this.
Oh good! Yeah it’s such a great find, especially for the price like you said!