Black Interior Designers Network Allyship

This week we’re encouraging y’all to become a Black Interior Designers Network ally.

WHAT IS A BIDN ALLY?

A BIDN ally is a member of the interior design community who is committed to recognizing, uplifting, and celebrating the black talent within the world of design. These individuals and companies are willing to go the extra step to show support by making regular contributions to the Black Interior Designers Network, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Those contributions assist in closing the inequity gap by extending the benefits of your privilege to those who have historically lacked. Ultimately, your commitment will help create true equality in design.

Here at CLOTH & KIND, we've proudly joined and urge you to do the same! If monthly allyship is not an option, please consider a donation to the BIDN in any amount that is possible for you.

A Chat With Seema Krish

We recently had the chance to meet with textile and wallcovering artisan Seema Krish in her light-filled San Francisco studio. Please allow us to introduce you….

This is just one of many short video clips we captured when we spent the day with Seema. Y’all should definitely check out her page on our website to view the others, including a preview of her brand new Spring 2020 Beachcomber collection. We are already completely and utterly captivated by her new patterns!

BONUS! Seema and her team have just launched their inaugural studio sale featuring small cuts of her textiles, quilt kits and pillows - shop now while the getting is good, and let us know what you score by tagging #clothandkindshowroom and #seemakrishtextiles on social. Happy shopping!

Zoom Gorgeousness

Raise your hand if you’ve been on one too many video calls as of late (entire country thrusts their hands sky-high!) We jest, but it’s actually pretty amazing to be able to use technology like Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, etc. to stay connected during this COVID-19-induced quarantine. We can’t even fathom what this whole debacle would have been like before modern-day conveniences like these.

And now, thanks to some wildly creative textile and wallcovering artisans, your Zoom meetings can be majorly elevated. Two of our lines, Seema Krish and Fromental, have created a series of free downloadable backgrounds to keep us all inspired and our surrounds looking super fine.

Allow us to tell you about them…

Here are just a handful of the images you’ll be able to snag. There are so many more are available on their websites for you to use (links below).

Download your Seema Krish Zoom backgrounds here and your Fromental Zoom backgrounds here, and be sure to use the hashtags #clothandkindshowroom + #zoomwithseemakrish or #zoomwithfromental when you share on social to let us all see which backgrounds are your favorites. Thanks, Seema and Fromental!

Be well, y’all.

#MemoMonday: Blues for Days

Another batch of beautiful memos went out to a designer client of ours who is working on a beach house in Connecticut. Seeing these textiles together has wholly reminded us of how enamored we are with every shade of this versatile color, from indigo to periwinkle and cobalt to cerulean. See something you’re digging? We’ll send it your way, just say the word.

Virtual Business Chat With Krista & Tami

These are nothing short of totally surreal times which are made even more stressful if you’re a small business owner. Since the moment that the COVID-19 pandemic came onto our radar, we’ve been totally nervous about the impact it would undoubtedly have on our interior design studio and our to-the-trade showroom. It feels as if we’ve been in near-constant communication with our financial manager, our bank, our attorneys, other small business owners and peers, and on and on and on! We’ve been listening to podcasts, dialing in to designer-centric group calls, reading all the news, and still - the learning curve is just so. dang. steep. And we know why it is steep - because these are truly unprecedented times (the word that everyone and their brother has used in communication about the virus - are we right, or are we right?!) But it’s accurate because unprecedented times, they are. There is no rule book for how to handle something as ginormous as this global pandemic. No rule book for when to lay off team members who are like your second family, or should you furlough them? There’s no rule book for how to try to keep business moving forward when the world around us has all but ceased operating, no rule book for how to plan for the possibility of months on end with dramatically decreased revenue. So there we have it. We’re all just trying to figure this shit out. Not sure about you, but we’d love nothing more than to hop on a virtual call with you and talk shop. You know things we don’t know and we know things you don’t know so let’s get on a virtual business chat to share and discuss, let’s commiserate and celebrate the small wins. We’re always an open book when it comes to talking with our peers, but now more than ever we truly need to support one another as a community.

CAVEAT! We most definitely WON’T be looking like we do in the photo below when we’re on our virtual call. Guarantee you that at least one of us will be working from bed and both of us will be in our comfy clothes with our hair in a high pony. Just saying. These calls are 100% a no judgement zone.

We truly look forward to seeing you on our computer screens soon. In the meantime, stay safe and be well.