Features & Interviews | domino

Fiskars PowerGear UltraBlade Softgrip Pruner, Amazon ($29)

I love FoxFarm’s Happy Frog soil! It’s loaded with the microbes plants love and need and also has bat guano, which is bat poop. It’s both silly and extremely useful for your soil!

My Go-To Gardening Shears

Fiskars Seed Planting Garden Trowel, Amazon ($6)

I’m obsessed with my Fiskars PowerGear Softgrip Pruner. It’s the perfect size for backyard veggie harvests and deep-woods foraging, and the way the handle swivels with the movement of my hand! No hand fatigue in this house.

Gloves I Wear When I Go Foraging

I am a goober, and I usually don’t garden with gloves—and I have all the little pokeys during nettle and berry season to prove it!

Gardening Tool I Can’t Live Without

Fiskars Garden Harvest Basket, Amazon ($28)

The Fiskars Hand Seed Sower is great for planting seed samplings from sustainable newspaper cups into the ground for all my native veggie plantings in the yard.

Best Books for Foraging Beginners

Any and all of Sam Thayer’s books! He’s the authority on North American foraging. And the books are filled with fun stories and great photos, so you can be confident in what you’re learning.

Bowl I Use to Gather My Harvest

Fishbone Cactus, Rooted ($32)

This Garden Harvest Basket is perfect for collecting, transporting, and cleaning foraged finds, and you can wash the goodies in the basket, so there’s no dragging dirt and critters into the house!

My Favorite Plant to Gift to Friends

Octave Glasses, Eye Buy Direct ($39)

I try to take people’s locale into consideration when gifting plants for the outside, but as for indoor plants, I love a Fishbone cactus. Native to Mexico and Central America, they’re a fun cousin of the dragonfruit, with exciting foliage and, if you’re lucky, you’ll get to see their breathtaking flowers and eat their tasty fruit.

The Eyeglasses That Help Me Spot Plants to Forage

12-Inch Terracotta Plant Pot, Amazon ($85)

The Octave Glasses from Eye Buy Direct, both because the geometric frame is so fun and because I’m blind as a bat and was sick of paying hundreds of dollars for my glasses—I love an inexpensive pair!

The Best Pot for Outdoor Planting

This is going to seem like a cop-out, but you really can’t go wrong with a basic terracotta pot with a drainage hole at the bottom. They’re great for maintaining temperature and helping keep moisture levels where they should be.

The post Black Forager Gifts This Indoor Cactus to Her Friends Because You Can Eat Its Fruit appeared first on domino.

This NYC Bakeshop Serves Up a Mirror Made Out of Real Bread (Oh, and Slices of Cake)

Sera Michael — Tue, 16 May 2023 05:05:00 +0000

Photography by Ash Bean.

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Name: Lucie Franc de Ferriere

Occupation: Founder of From Lucie

Where I work: I used to work from my apartment but recently opened a small cake shop on East 10th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue.

Time I start: The lights of the bakery are turned on at 6 a.m. and turned off at 9 p.m.

Time I clock out: I don’t really ever clock out. I try my best to stick to my French roots and force myself to take time off so that I can enjoy my evenings, but the reality is that there is always something to do, an email to answer, an event to go to, a cake to bake at the last minute.

How I get to work: I take the M15 bus all the way up First Avenue, but a lot of the time it just doesn’t show up, so I end up walking the whole 25 minutes.

Three words that describe my space: Quaint, South of France, home.

How I found the shop: I had gone through a few brokers who kept telling me I wouldn’t find a space for the budget I had, so I took the matter into my own hands and started browsing the Internet. It was probably after only 30 minutes of research that I found an ad for this space with a picture of the storefront on a sunny day. Anyone who knows me knows that I could spend whole days in the sun, so even if it was tiny, I thought I should go and check it out.

My design philosophy: I followed my heart more than Pinterest, bringing morsels of my childhood into the space with small details. I didn’t work with a designer for this project, as I really wanted it to feel personal, as if you were coming into my home in France.

Moments that reflect my roots:

Both the curtains in the window and under the counter were made by my friend Anne Park and her mother. The fabric comes from Bordeaux. It was inspired by the home of my childhood best friend’s mother, Maïté, who had them under all of her counters to hide her condiments and plates. Anytime I would go to their home growing up, she would prepare an amazing goûter for us, and the kitchen would smell of mouthwatering food. I’ve always associated the curtains with a warm, homelike feeling.

The glass wall that separates the kitchen from the boutique is inspired by my glass conservatory back home in Pessac sur Dordogne. It dates back to 1860 and was created in the style of Napoleon III. I worked with my contractor and his carpenter to reproduce the exact different sizes of the windows and the French doors. I got the beautiful antique doorknobs from Olde Good Things in Chelsea.

The lights above the bar are from a woman named Anita, who is based in the South of France. They are vintage milk-glass plates like the ones we had at home growing up.

The top of my counter is part of a very old farmhouse table that came from France. I bought it early on when I thought I’d have enough space to fit a table for people to sit and eat their cake. Sadly, that didn’t happen, so I decided to use the top part for my counter and build a wood base for the bottom. I kept the base of the table for my home. Both artworks, the lights, and the counter are made by friends of mine.

Why a fleurs fridge is a From Lucie staple: I’ve always wanted a flower fridge. My mother has a big garden on our property and so many different varieties of flowers. I use them on my cakes, and they sadly don’t last as long if I don’t put them in a cool place. I had my friend Rei Lem paint the word fleurs on top. During service, we just go and grab them as we need them. It gives a nice dialogue and connection between the front and the kitchen.

Surprisingly risky project: The clay hexagonal floors, called tomettes in French, are inspired by most of my friends’ and family’s homes in France. You will find them in almost all old homes. They stain and get that vintage look really quickly, which I love. If you ask any French tile layer, they will tell you they are the cheapest thing you can find and also that they are the first tiles they learned to lay when still in training. My contractor in NYC, however, wasn’t as excited about working with it. It’s expensive here and easily crackable. He had never worked with them in the past, so it was a bit of a challenge, but he did an amazing job.

Favorite one-of-a-kind pieces: I am most proud of my old plates for people to eat their cakes on. I found them for 50 cents at my local déchetterie back home and had to wrap them up in my clothes in my suitcase to bring them back safely.

What’s on the walls: An amazing mirror made out of bread that my friend Carla Finley gifted me.

Warm greeting: The yellow exterior is inspired by my childhood summer holidays spent at my grandparents’ home in Menton. The homes there are all painted with limewash in different vibrant colors. The two most common colors are yellow and salmon. It always had this warm, sunny, happy, and welcoming feeling to me: walking through the streets after an early-morning swim in the Mediterranean with the incredible food markets and overripe fruits.

The ceramic storefront numbers were a gift from my uncle Jean-Jacques, who lives in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin. Most homes have ceramic numbers in front of their homes with painted lemons or cicadas, the symbol of Provence and the Côte d’Azur. He also gifted me a cicada sculpture, which I placed in the window. It makes a distinct cicada sound every time someone walks in front of it. It’s the French alarm system, I guess, notifying you that someone is walking by your home.

Work bag I carry every day: I carry my old Telfar everywhere, as I can fit my laptop and snack in it.

Kitchen essential I can’t live without: A tiny rubber spatula that my sister gave me years ago.

Tea I run on: I never liked the taste of coffee (it tastes like jus de chaussette to me). I’m a bit addicted to matcha with oat milk and Earl Grey tea.

Ideal work snack: 85% dark chocolate.

Biggest splurge that was worth it: My huge stand mixer that I named Micheline.

Preferred soundtrack: Any songs by Dalida. I even named my small Italian greyhound after the singer.

Things I Can’t Work Without

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Imagine Sending Emails Among the Antique Portuguese Tiles at This Lisbon Office

Julie Vadnal and Daniel Schäfer — Fri, 12 May 2023 05:40:00 +0000

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Name: Elad Yifrach

Occupation: Founder and creative director of L’Objet

Where I work: We have two studios: one in New York and another one in Lisbon, where I live. Our Lisbon studio, which we opened in 2021, is located in the heart of the city, the Príncipe Real neighborhood, known for its beautiful gardens and 19th-century mansions.

Time I start: I’m an early riser. I wake up at 6:30, and minutes after I’m already replying to emails.

Time I clock out: Working with a global team makes it hard to clock out. On a perfect day, I would end at 6 p.m.

How I get to work: By walking.

Three words that describe our space: Homey, cozy, creative.

Tiles that line the walls: Antique Portuguese blue tiles from the 19th century.

Why I have so much greenery: Having greens around me grounds me.

Most important thing on my desk: My iPad and inspiring art books.

What’s on the walls: A golden artwork that I did some years ago, and of course those tiles. On some of the walls you can also find our mood boards.

What I turn to when I’m stuck: Yoga and meditation.

Favorite pen: This one from OHTO, a great Japanese brand.

Best notebook: Smythson Black Panama notebook.

Work bag I carry every day: Loewe messenger bag.

Technology I can’t live without: iPhone and iPad.

Desk chair that I could (and do) spend hours in: A vintage 1960s Tulip office chair by Preben Fabricius and Jørgen Kastholm for Kill International.

How I fight the 3 p.m. slump: Green tea.

Ideal office snack: Apples and citrus.

Biggest splurge that was worth it: The Haas Brothers’ Mini Beast sculpture (2020) that sits on my living room coffee table.

Preferred soundtrack: I follow this very talented DJ on Spotify, Claire Marie; I Iove her playlists.

Things I Can’t Work Without

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Ayesha Curry’s Pottery Barn Collection Includes a Trick for Small-Space Entertaining

Julie Vadnal — Fri, 05 May 2023 13:00:00 +0000

Courtesy of Pottery Barn.

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“We are definitely the house that everybody comes to,” says Ayesha Curry, which should come as no surprise—after all, we featured her Bay Area home on a Domino cover. So we’re even less shocked that the cookbook author and entrepreneur’s new Sweet July by Ayesha Curry x Pottery Barn collection boasts some summer-ready party pieces.

“I get tremendous joy from entertaining my loved ones and friends,” she explains. “So when we were thinking about the collection, we wanted to create products that you could use over and over and over again.”

Sweet July by Ayesha Curry x Pottery Barn

Courtesy of Pottery Barn

From serve-yourself drink dispensers—Curry sets up two at every bash: one for kids and one for adults—to a bucket for stashing beverages, the entire line will make you want to call up your buds and fire up the grill. There’s even a bocce ball set that’s in calming neutral tones, something she couldn’t ever find for the right price point.

Courtesy of Pottery Barn

But you don’t need a sprawling backyard to work the collab into your home. In fact, Curry recommends the marble lazy Susan for apartment living. “If you have a small table, everything goes on there, and you can rotate it and save table space.” Plus the neutral tones of the collection mean they’ll work with almost any decor scheme.

Courtesy of Pottery Barn

Speaking of the marble pieces, Curry’s face lights up when she talks about sourcing the caramel stone that appears in both bathroom and table accessories. “I remember our Zoom meeting when we were going through marble samples like it was yesterday,” she says. “I was like, ‘I want brown—do they make brown marble?’ And they go, ‘Funny you ask. Look at this sample.’ It was unanimous. We all loved it.” And we’re guessing you and your guests will, too.

Shop the Collection

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Almost Everything in Molly Baz’s Crate & Barrel Line Is Multipurpose—Even the Seafood Tower

Julie Vadnal — Thu, 04 May 2023 13:00:00 +0000

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Take one peek into Molly Baz’s Los Angeles home and it’s clear that the cookbook author and food personality has some seriously great taste. And now that she’s launched her first line of kitchen tools and servingware with Crate & Barrel, you can bring that design goodness into your kitchen—and dining room and outdoor space—too.

“Selfishly, [my husband, Ben Willett, and I] were like, let’s design the collection we’d want to see in our home,” she says with a laugh. That means cooking essentials in her signature primary colors (but also butter yellow, like her kitchen), cork coasters that mimic her floors, and lots of soothing wood pieces. Or in the words of Crate & Barrel SVP and head of design Sebastian Brauer: “Memphis, but in a California way.”

Molly Baz x Crate & Barrel Collection

Courtesy of Crate & Barrel

The collection includes the basics for cooking—even a ¾ teaspoon, praise be—but one of the best things about the 58 pieces is that many are multipurpose essentials for gathering a crowd—and that can mean just a party of two. For instance, a salad bowl (with handles!) goes from countertop to table with ease and can be used as a fruit bowl when it’s off duty. (Storytime: At a recent dinner Baz hosted in New York to celebrate the collaboration, guests served themselves with the oversize tongs as waiters brought the bowl around the table.)

Courtesy of Crate & Barrel

There’s also spritz-ready colorful glassware, a wood snack tray loosely inspired by iconic New York bar Bemelmans, and an ice bucket, which Baz has used to serve fried chicken or, in the case of that New York dinner, smashed potatoes.

Courtesy of Crate & Barrel

Baz even made a seafood tower, which she was sure she’d have to convince Crate & Barrel to let her include, but it turns out that a serving piece with three tiers, even one that’s technically meant for shellfish, can be used to set out, well, anything. At that same party, Baz filled the top level with butter and the bottom layers with torn bread.

Courtesy of Crate & Barrel

“The whole idea for the collection is that everything that lives in the kitchen can easily be seen on the table and vice versa,” Baz says. “If at the end of the night after having a dinner party, your kitchen’s a mess and this whole line is like all over the place—the kitchen will look better for it.” You heard Baz: Call your friends; it’s time to throw a dinner party.

Shop the Collection

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This Minneapolis Designer Swears Her Office’s IKEA Desks Have Stood the Test of Time

Lydia Geisel and Wing Ho — Sat, 29 Apr 2023 05:45:00 +0000

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Name: Victoria Sass

Occupation: Principal and interior designer, Prospect Refuge Studio

Time I start: I like to get up early (around 5 a.m.) and get a little work time in before the family starts stirring. After breakfasts and buses, I might roll into the studio about 10 a.m.

Time I clock out: I try to close the laptop by 6 p.m. most days. Maybe I pick it up an hour or so in the evenings after dinner.

Most important thing on my desk: A coaster for my beverages.

What’s on the walls: Tapestries by Megumi Shauna Arai, hooks by Elizabeth Parker of Blanche Jelly, a landscape painting by Ginny Sims, and some inspiration pinboards of scraps we are loving on.

Current creative fuel: Working outside of Minneapolis. I love when I get to spend a few days sourcing in New York City or Los Angeles, or visiting our current projects in Kansas and Chicago. I also had an amazing trip to Israel with some design colleagues last month. People plus places are where it’s at for me.

What I turn to when I’m stuck: We keep a good supply of books at the studio, many of which are untapped resources. I’m a firm believer that it’s healthy to have some books around that you haven’t read yet for when you need to see something spontaneous and new—especially cookbooks.

How I stay organized: Project baskets and clear plastic Velcro folders. I also live by my Monk Manual—it helps me keep my to-do list focused and concise and reminds me to practice gratitude and reflect at the end of the day.

Ideal office lighting: We like a warm, glowy mood. Dimmable overhead lighting punctuated by sculptural accents that function as art. Our conference lighting is a piece from our Ontologia collection, a collaboration with Hennepin Made. The globes are removable, so you can place them on the tabletop for a candlelight vibe. We also have pieces by Céline Wright and Allied Maker.

Conference table I convene around: Our current conference table is a collaboration between PRS and local makers Elijah Neumann of NEU Design, who crafted the triple-barrel base, and Brian Grabski of Designed & Made, who helped us make the inlaid marmoleum top with a ribbed walnut edge band. A few 1960s red chairs by Rainer Schell round out the whole situation.

Caffeine I run on: Coke Zero. Actually, I’m a big beverage person, and there’s a time and place for everything. Three espressos first thing in the morning, followed by my first Coke, then it’s a Spindrift with lunch. After lunch, [I’ll have] another espresso and another Diet Coke, or if I’m out at an afternoon meeting, it’s probably a matcha latte or a craft mocktail.

Biggest splurge in this space that was so worth it: Commissioning artist Tara Austin, who applied rosemaling to our kitchenette cabinets.

Biggest save that I’d recommend to anyone: IKEA wood drafting desks with sawhorse legs. They have stood the test of time!

Preferred soundtrack: My day progresses musically along with my beverages. Mornings are classical, to ease into things a bit. Then it’s probably some ’70s country rock when I get in the studio (CCR or Rolling Stones). Later in the afternoon, we might get into some Hank Mobley if I need to flow, or Dominic Fike if we are working on a shoot or brainstorm session. We have a small but mighty record collection at the studio.

Local artist featured in our space that I can’t get enough of: Bobby Rogers. We have a beautiful portrait of his in our front lounge space that is my favorite place to take a Zoom call.

Book on my shelf I’m constantly pulling out to show clients: The Steven Gambrel monograph. [There are] so many beautiful, complicated, and fascinating details in his work.

Paint choice that had the biggest impact on the space: We had a painting day at the studio and painted our grand archway a bright yellow. I think the colorway is XXX. It was kind of spontaneous; we balanced it by painting our prop shelves, a modular design prototype we’ve kept around, a true cherry red.

Key to making an office feel homey and welcoming: Art. Real, personal, preferably (but not exclusively) local art, and a few plants. Caregiving is important in a workspace. We ask so much of it, you have to give back a little if you want to form a true relationship with your environment.

Things I Can’t Work Without

Preserved Oranges Dark Chocolate, Casa Bosques ($22)

Le Pen, Le Pen Store ($2)

Le Patch Incense Paper, Ponsont ($24)