15 Minutes with Tamara Kaye-Honey

House of Honey’s founder and creative director Tamara Kaye-Honey has been a pioneering voice in California design for years. Her work has even graced two or three of our covers. While raised in Canada, Honey possesses the true essence of the cool California girl that everyone wants to know. We spoke with Honey about her all-girl team, her love of art and her aspirations to be an F1 driver.Tamara Kaye-Honey. Photo by Jessica Sample.-House of Honey is women-led. Why is it important to you to be a female-run business? We are a team of 12 women supporting women. That’s a good amount of support for me as I’m an only child and have always wanted sisters.Last year I broke both my knee and my femur and my House of Honey family helped me get through that very difficult period. As a mom of a 21-year- old daughter, I strongly believe in our unique voices and like to think we contribute to a modern perspective and represent a future of inclusion, which ultimately creates a greater sense of community. We have the great honor to work with an array of talented professionals, and although we will always celebrate beautiful work regardless of gender, I feel inherently compelled to nurture an ethos deeply rooted in the empowerment of female artists, makers and women-owned businesses.-Your work is playful, colorful, art-driven and sultry. What is the firm’s process for bringing out these elements in a space? We begin with our love letter questionnaire, which is less about design and more about what lights a client up. Knowing things like where they had their most memorable meal; the title of the last book they read; if our client is a night owl; or what song is on repeat—these bits of info help us understand the way they live. From there we mine the inspiration that will inform our narrative. It’s also a super fun and light-hearted way to begin the process and take the pressure off. At the end of the day, it needs to be fun, and my fulfilment comes from creating spaces that bring joy to others. The biggest compliment I can receive is being asked to come experience a home we have designed in action.-Who or what has been your biggest influence throughout your career when it comes to creativity and business? Experiences, travel and so many museums and small galleries around the world. Some of my favorites are the Fondazione Prada in Milan, YSL Museum in Marrakech, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain and the Pierre Cardin Exhibit|SCAD in Lacoste. I also love the Hauser & Wirth gallery in Somerset, and the Piero Atchugarry Sculpture Park in Uruguay. Locally of course, The Broad in Downtown L.A. We designed Otium, the restaurant next door, so we were lucky enough to have many experiences at the museum.A project in Montecito. Photos by Victoria Pearson.-What is one piece of advice you would give a young female designer? Trust your instinct and be authentically you. Reference the trends in magazines and social media as information only—take what you like and leave the rest and always add vintage. I have been collecting for decades and have sold on 1stDibs for years. There is nothing more special than discovering that rare piece that speaks to you and finding a place to give it a new life.-Which California destination is your favorite? I may be biased as I have a home and design studio in this charming little coastal town, but Montecito for sure. Growing up in Nova Scotia, I really wanted my kids to have a bit of the sea, the sunshine and a laid-back lifestyle. It even inspired one of our new interior scents, Ortega, which is a love letter to the tree- lined winding road I drive to the beach. I think fragrance is an essential element in design.-If you weren’t a designer, what would your career be? I love vintage cars and have been told many times that I have a lead foot, so maybe a race car driver—F1 is my happy place.The post 15 Minutes with Tamara Kaye-Honey appeared first on California Home+Design.

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The Most Beautiful Vineyard Property in Sonoma, $32.5M

For more than two decades, the San Francisco firm Aidlin Darling Design has been producing extraordinary buildings, crafted with an intuitive, deeply responsive aesthetic. Completed In 2005, this equally extraordinary compound of structures—placed around courtyards and reflecting pools—is a sanctuary at the heart of a 132-acre property in Glen Ellen.Photo Credit: Robert Vente for Sotheby’s International RealtyPhoto Credit: Robert Vente for Sotheby’s International RealtyPhoto Credit: Robert Vente for Sotheby’s International RealtyPhoto Credit: Robert Vente for Sotheby’s International RealtyThe Team: Josh Aidlin and David Darling at Aidlin Darling Design, Marta Fry at Munder Fry Landscape Associates, and Cello + Maudru Construction. Below, the principal kitchen and the primary suite, both with the same exceptional simplicity seen throughout.Photo Credit: Robert Vente for Sotheby’s International RealtyPhoto Credit: Robert Vente for Sotheby’s International RealtyPhoto Credit: Robert Vente for Sotheby’s International RealtyThe 42+ acre vineyard is planted primarily in Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot while also nurturing smaller quantities of Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Petit Verdot and Sauvignon Blanc, plus an orchard of fruit trees and a substantial vegetable garden, all managed using organic and sustainable best practices. Photo Credit: Robert Vente for Sotheby’s International RealtyThe guest house, is executed with the same intention and rigor as the main structure.Photo Credit: Robert Vente for Sotheby’s International RealtyMore: Go to the listing for additional details and images, plus a video. A world-class vineyard property with unmatched architectural integrity offered by Daniel Casabonne at Sotheby’s International Realty, co-listed with Frederic Eklund and Marcy Roth at Douglas Elliman. Additionally you can follow Aidlin Darling Design on instagram and view Aidlin Darling Design: Architecture for the Senses, a film about the firm’s extraordinary, intuitive design process.Photo Credit: Robert Vente for Sotheby’s International RealtyThe post The Most Beautiful Vineyard Property in Sonoma, $32.5M appeared first on California Home+Design.

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The Modeler

Former supermodel Lois Samuels honors her Jamaican heritage while channeling her creativityThe artist Lois Samuels with her vessels inside the Art Wolf Gallery. Photo by Genevieve Garruppo. Jamaican-born artist, photographer and sculptor Lois Samuels has lived a life that many only dream of. Discovered in high school, she traveled the world modeling in the major fashion capitals including Paris, London and New York for designers such as Issey Miyake, Dior, Lacroix and Ralph Lauren. She has graced the covers of the most influential fashion magazines in the world and worked with iconic photographers like Ellen von Unwerth, Peter Lindbergh and Ruven Afanador. “Each of them was truly inspiring in their approach to working with talent and crafting an atmosphere conducive to capturing remarkable images,” Samuels recalls. “Yet I was always drawn to a more reportage style in photography.”With years of experience in the fashion industry, she yearned to apply her observations to a creative practice of her own. Inspired by her Jamaican heritage, Samuels channeled her burning creative calling into a pursuit of ceramics and photography. “With both fashion and fine arts, there are parallels between presenting your work and revealing aspects of your essence and identity to the world,” she says. “In the fashion realm, one often gives up control as decisions regarding a model’s career trajectory are made by others, but with ceramics, I find a deep sense of fulfillment as it allows me to have more control over the creative process. Unlike the transient nature of modeling, ceramics teaches and offers a more enduring form of expression, where the pieces crafted can evoke emotions and memories for years to come.”Samuels’ Fragmented Beauty and Sankofa series—which feature photographs she captured during the 1990s in Jamaica and handmade vessels—are currently on display in The Female Gaze group exhibit at Art Wolf Gallery, located inside the Pacific Design Center. “I find that varying experiences and elements along the journey of life is what builds us, and I mirrored that in my work with clay for the Fragmented Beauty series. Piece by piece I mold bits of clay together and I allow it to speak through me, creating its own story,” Samuels says. “Sankofa feels like pure magic, as I was born in the Caribbean—a daughter of slaves—and I have always felt a deep connection to Africa, especially to Ghana. ‘Sankofa’ comes from the Twi language out of Ghana meaning to ‘go back and get it’—and I hope one day to go visit and immerse myself in its past and present.”Indeed, Samuels has captured the mystical energy felt from the small island that has made such a monumental impact on the world and moved her personally. “My aim has always been to capture the essence—the soul—of the people, as well as the flora and fauna of this unique and special place,” she remarks. “It’s a meditative and spiritual practice that often transports me to a tranquil and serene state where I discover a sense of being that is a conduit for expression, channeling my thoughts and feelings into tangible forms.”The post The Modeler appeared first on California Home+Design.

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