Athena Calderone's favorite décor_feature

Design:

Athena’s Favorite Pieces From the Crate & Barrel Collection

Design:

The Athena Calderone for Crate & Barrel Collection Is Here!

Discover the inspiration, see the sketches, and shop the entire collection!

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The Athena Calderone for Crate & Barrel Collection Is Here!

The Top Fall Décor Trends, According to Interior Design Experts

Design:

The Top Fall Décor Trends, According to Interior Design Experts

Currently Coveting: Ceramic Vases

Design:

Currently Coveting: Ceramic Vases

Decorative Touches to Welcome the New Season Home

Design:

Decorative Touches to Welcome the New Season Home

Food:

16 Fall Recipes to Satisfy Your Autumnal Cravings

And warm the soul!

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16 Fall Recipes to Satisfy Your Autumnal Cravings

EyeSwoon Unplugged: Stewed Lentils With Sweet Potato

Food EyeSwoon Unplugged:

EyeSwoon Unplugged: Stewed Lentils With Sweet Potato

6 Delicious One-Pan Meals for Busy Weeknights

Recipes Mains:

6 Delicious One-Pan Meals for Busy Weeknights

This Brothy White Beans “Situation” With Sourdough and Pistou Is Delicious!

Food EyeSwoon Unplugged:

This Brothy White Beans “Situation” With Sourdough and Pistou Is Delicious!

Crate & Barrel x Athena Calderone L'Enchere Square Wool Ottoman

Crate & Barrel x Athena Calderone Solace Wood Art Print

Crate & Barrel x Athena Calderone Bol Délicat White Footed Centerpiece Bowl

Crate & Barrel x Athena Calderone Bibelot Wavy Black Metal Mini Table Lamp with Rattan Shade

Necessary Objects

These items may contain affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission if you make a purchase using this link.

Living The Essentials:

The BASICS: 93 Kitchen Essentials That Honor Beauty and Utility

Sensible can be stylish.

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The BASICS: 93 Kitchen Essentials That Honor Beauty and Utility

The 8 Skincare Products I Swear By

Living Beauty & Fashion:

The 8 Skincare Products I Swear By

How to Make the Swooniest Pin Boards

EyeSwoon TV Design Therapy:

How to Make the Swooniest Pin Boards

77 Home Essentials That Put the Practical in Pretty

Living The Essentials:

77 Home Essentials That Put the Practical in Pretty

the Books

Live Beautiful

From celebrated design expert Athena Calderone, a look into how interior designers and creatives decorate their spaces. Click here to order today & snoop our upcoming book tour events!

Peek Inside and Order Your Copy

Cook Beautiful

Where design meets food, where culinary tradition marries food styling, where home chefs become experts.

Peek Inside and Order Your Copy

@eyeswoon

Rosy cheeks in a rose marble bathroom wearing a sparkly rose colored crop. Everything’s coming up roses to celebrate The Première Watch with @chanelofficial #CHANELPremiere #CHANELWatches

Ahh, the Angolare sofa! This low, modern, and modular sectional taps into my love for juxtaposition with its perfect balance of soft bulbous proportions against harsher, angular seaming and lines. Taking inspiration from 1970s Italian and German forms, we designed this sofa to be buildable, including corner pieces for a larger sectional, an armless option, and an ottoman to suit your needs. I absolutely LOVE this dusky basil green but it also comes in two other earth-inspired hues: pecan and mink in a plush-to-the-touch faux mohair which only further accentuates its curved contours. Believe me, this sofa is just as comfortable as it looks with it’s perfectly slanted back. Form and function in equal measure, always!

@crateandbarrel #AthenaForCrate

I've always been intrigued by the behind-the-scenes in design. The decisions that lead to an end result are rarely obvious. And boy, what a story this unique side table has to tell. Upon delivery, the original walnut French 50s side table was mistaken for trash. But not only was it destined for the dumpster, it was also crushed (almost beyond repair) in the compression garbage truck. Well, never one to accept defeat, out came the wood glue and a vice alongside some heavy manipulation, a few tears, and the will of both me and my husband. Together we humpy-dumptied the table back together again. Sure, you can still see its scars, and yes, I can only style this table at a very specific angle to hide its crushed perimeter but I love it all the same. I also knew this damaged relic deserved to see the light of day so it was reimagined for our #AthenaForCrate @crateandbarrel collection. The Revival table retains its identifiable ridging on the legs but the wood finish was updated to a cerused, wire-brushed oak and the tabletop material shifted to travertine, modernizing the original design that still resides in my Amagansett home. What I love most is how the ridge detail inspired countless other pieces throughout the collection too!

Photography: @a_gaut
Styling: @colinking

Finding 🤎 at the stone yard

A field trip to @abcstone to explore slabs just might be my forever favorite activity. I whole heartedly believe that before selecting any stone you need to see it in person. And furthermore you need to enter with an open mind as you will never know what will capture your eye until you see it first hand. While I initially thought I wanted reclaimed stone for my Brooklyn patio I quickly came to realize it was more so the imperfect and pitted texture I was after. How beautiful is the Dolomite Flamed stone cut and ready to be laid by @brooklandscape — excited to share sooooon!

Nothing I love more than a timeless classic. Why is it that the LBD gets so much attention? The perfect tailored trouser feels far more important to me — shall we coin a new term? Who’s down with PTT, yeah you know me!

Also, watching my garden unfold from this window is the most exciting!

@LouisVuitton #LouisVuitton

Thank you @voguemagazine and @ejtay for sharing my story and my love for the perfectly imperfect natural material of rattan. I love to be led by design at every turn. While you can’t always count on it to occur, when the union of two very separate ideas, periods, price point, and vision seamlessly come together, it is the stuff design dreams are made of. Enter the L’Union arc floor lamp. I was in Paris shooting for Live Beautiful in July 2018 when I made my way to Les Puces, the Paris Flea to meet with a dealer I was Insta friends with. I saw this 1950’s French iron floor lamp but it had no shade. Smitten by its form, I purchased it hoping I would find its perfect match eventually. It sat incomplete until a deep late-night dive into Etsy led me to a 1970’s rattan shade that I hoped would unify with the blackened base. Well, that unification became an instant vintage classic, an icon within my space as seen for the back cover portrait of Live Beautiful by @nicole_franzen. Unintentional and perfect, I knew creating this lamp for the #AthenaForCrate @crateandbarrel collection would be an instant star based on countless inquiries. And as expected it has already become our best-selling piece!

To be written about amongst the iconic Gabriella Crespi and my dear friend @studiorobertmckinley is the stuff dreams are made of!

Photo: @a_gaut
Styling: @colinking

Materiality is everything to me. Successful design is in the delicate union of texture and tactility—never one overtaking the other but rather a symphonic balance of all. My collection for @crateandbarrel was born from these very principles and the key material players are ceramic, wood, marble, travertine, plaster, and rattan—all expressed beautifully here in my Brooklyn bathroom. Snoop my favorite pieces from the collection (and the stories behind them) in tomorrow’s exclusive newsletter! Sign up at the link in bio.

Photo: @a_gaut
Styling: @colinking
Design: @athenacalderone

After two years of ideating, sketching, designing, and sampling each piece in this collection with the @crateandbarrel team, it felt incredibly surreal to see the pieces come to life in my Brooklyn home for this week's launch. Yes, we moved all my furniture out and outfitted the entire #AthenaForCrate collection within my townhouse. While the collection is certainly rooted in a European sensibility, it was also the intimate relationship I have with YOU that helped to inform my direction and I want to take a moment to express my deepest gratitude for your overwhelming support—I am truly blown away! A huge goal of this collection was to create timeless designs that will live on in your intimate spaces for years to come. As a thank you, I'm sharing an exclusive newsletter with all of my favorites from the collection and the process behind the design—every piece has a story to tell. Sign up at the link in bio to get it direct to your inbox on Tuesday.

Photo: @a_gaut
Styling: @colinking
Production: @_studiolou_

A beautiful new home is met with a beautiful new family within the most beautiful new design gallery. The @thefutureperfect’s Goldwyn House is simply sensational — I could not be happier for you @davidalhadeff!

Our love is on lock 🔐
I’m yours. You’re mine. Wouldn’t have it any other way!
@tiffanyandco #TiffanyLock #ad

Something beautiful is coming… 👀
Subscribe to our eyeswoon newsletter to be the first to know. Link in bio!

A visual palate cleanser…

Whenever Victor tells our love story, he shares a tale from when we were “just friends”. I had just moved to NYC and we were inseparable. I wasn’t aware of it at the time, but Vic tells me that every time he’d drop me off at my apartment on east 3rd after an epic day together, he’d longingly wait for me to pause and look back over my shoulder at him before walking inside. Well baby, perhaps I didn’t give you the glance back then, but I’ve been looking back at you for 23 years now. Happy anniversary lover. You are mine forever and always.

This was look two — 09.11.99

A chaotic working weekend in anticipation of something big!

Here’s my sage advice. If you’re feeling exhausted after a long work day get yourself into an @the_attico dress and instantly feel sexy AF! I mean… damn girls💥

Continually in awe of you my friend — congratulations @rogangregory. Please go see Imperfect Truth @randcompanynyc — opening Friday!

No light, no problem. The design and renovation process of my cozy, curated, and formally cobwebbed basement on todays eye-swoon.com and on @dominomag

Let’s do this! Ready to navigate this beautifully creative concrete jungle again. NYC you are a beast — unrelenting, unforgiving, and absolutely perfect! When I moved to this city in 1997 I had no idea who I was or what I wanted in life. But low and behold throughout all my uncertainties, insecurities, starting & stoping, trying, giving up, and presumably failing, you made me me so THANK YOU. Also, it took me 15+ years to find my purpose and that’s ok!

Have some VERY exciting things launching over the next few weeks — cannot wait to share. Exactly mid month is the day, sign up for my newsletter to be the first to know!

Let’s talk about the TV room in my basement… it’s definitely teeter-tottering between a functional space and something beautiful. I wanted to insert a design statement downstairs that complemented our home above so I included a mix of textures, materials, and that perfect union of time-worn and new — design is always about a balance. I was really cognizant of the slick terrazzo tiles so I introduced some warm wood tones and a plush rug for that extra layer of tactility and comfort. The elegant curvature of the @maidenhome Leonard sofa and their Mulberry Ottoman juxtaposed beautifully against the vintage iron and stone coffee table, too. Whoever said a basement couldn’t also be an alluring one clearly never met me! Beauty and utility strikes again!

Photography: @mikeydetemple

Follow the before and after of this renovation process in my stories!

Cheers to the holiday weekend. The departure of summer. And (for me) embracing sober September! With that, this image is an oxymoron — just like me!

Designing any space always has its challenges, but a basement? Now, that is a whole other level of creative constraints. As you all know, working with limitations is where I thrive however this renovation in my Amagansett home really tested my inventiveness. But after 13 years of looking at cinder block walls, random storage, and crickets jumping around, it was finally time to turn this ratty space into a functional but liveable—and beautiful!—space our family could enjoy. Because you should never rob a practical space of decorative objects—yes, even in a basement!

Thank you for today’s feature @dominomag and @LydiaGeisel — check out the story on their site. And to learn more about my process along with before & after pics, head over to eye-swoon.com. PLUS, we included a complete source list so you can shop the look.

Photography: @mikeydetemple
Design: @athenacalderone
Tiles & Terrazzo: @cletile
Cabinetry: @wayfair
Rug: @beni_rugs
Contractor: @northhavenbuilders_nhb

A mindful morning— gently entering the day.

A continued source of inspiration for so many, myself included! The most thoughtful and creative innovators of design. The most kind. The most soulful. And the most loving humans, Dads, leaders, and friends that ever were. You set the bar high my loves. Congratulations @nateberkus @jeremiahbrent — welcome home.

@archdigest
Photography: @sans.mars
Styling: @kellemiles

Playing with pretty stone-y things.
Ideation underway!

Kicking off the work week blissfully immersed in a field of sunflowers. Quite different from last Monday’s Fed Ex car crash conundrum. Anyway, hope your day is off to non fender bender-y great start. Thankfully no one was hurt — just the car!

Photo @mikeydetemple
Location @amberwavesfarm

Back in BK with an exciting week ahead for my boy. Could not be more proud for @jivancalderone to begin his creative journey @nyutisch @clivedavisinst tomorrow! But until then, I happily rearrange as per usual. Part creative output, part nervous energy.

Goes on a boat. Gets giggly. Sometimes, you just need some laughter. And the sea. And the sunshine. And your friends! What a way to enter the weekend

📷 @talimagal
🛥 @boatsetter

Yup, I move my favorite things around the house throughout the day. Mostly because i’m chasing light. But also, just because I love beauty. I could not be more excited to create and collaborate @dhaene_studio @janeyangdhaene

Summer in the city — coming in HOT