The Best Online Destinations for Lighting and Home Design
There’s a particular room in the Metropolitan Museum of Art that Jessica Wilpon Kamel and Christina Akiskalou have looked to for inspiration. It’s sparse: white walls, a few pieces of wood furniture, light pine floor. Kamel and Akiskalou like the simplicity and the intentionality. The space is a reminder of what a well-designed room should be: a place that serves you and lets you live comfortably.
The room at the Met is the Shaker Retiring Room, the museum’s homage to Shaker design. And it makes sense that it resonates with Kamel and Akiskalou, the principals of the design studio Ronen Lev. They create interiors that echo that aesthetic: functional, clean, and warm spaces so beautiful in their simplicity that it’s hard to pinpoint the details you love. Everything they do just looks and feels great. Take goop MRKT Nantucket (which Ronen Lev designed): Warm and minimalist, everything works together, blurring any lines between function and beauty. It feels as if you’re visiting an ascetic home or a general store on the Danish coast.
Ronen Lev has a way of enhancing whatever the function of the space is. “Our approach is centered on a warm minimalism, which feels inviting and timeless but never too stark,” says Kamel, who founded the firm in 2015. “But it’s also not filled for the sake of being full.” And that means considering every detail. In Nantucket, “there isn’t a hook on the wall that we didn’t think about,” says Kamel.
Which makes us wonder about those hooks: Where did they find them? In a perfect world, Ronen Lev would design every last detail of every last corner of our lives. But in this world, we’ll settle for knowing the designers’ favorite sources and places of inspiration, which they handed right over.
(Editor’s note: We added a few goop favorites to the mix.)
1stdibs
This is Kamel and Akiskalou’s “resource for sourcing just about anything,” says Kamel. 1stdibs is an online treasure trove of global antiques, art, and furniture.
ABC Stone
Ronen Lev’s “go-to for natural stone,” says Kamel. It’s a socially responsible organization dedicated to the continued development of the cultural arts.
Design by JDK Interiors; Photograph courtesy of Ryan Dausch.
Allied Maker
Understated and elegant contemporary lights from husband and wife Ryden and Lanette Rizzo, all handcrafted in New York.
Armadillo & Co.
Thoughtful, beautiful handmade rugs. The company honors fair trade practices and helps support education in Uttar Pradesh, the state in India where the majority of its rugs are made.
Artemest
A meticulous inventory of hard-to-find Italian home goods.
Burrow (a goop favorite)
These sofas are completely customizable, have genius built-in hidden chargers, and are easily the most comfortable pieces of furniture anywhere.
Cle Tiles
A stellar resource for eclectic artisan tiles.
EST living
An online design haunt that “features the most beautiful homes from Australia and beyond,” says Kamel.
Fair Design
The digital version of one of Ronen Lev’s favorite NYC showrooms. Fair Design features high-end handcrafted furniture and lighting. (It also produces Field + Supply, a modern makers craft fair in upstate New York.)
France & Son (a goop favorite)
A huge selection of streamlined furniture, including some of goop’s favorite lounge chairs.
Hawkins New York (a goop favorite)
goop staffers have long loved Hawkins New York’s wabi-sabi mix of Japanese and Scandinavian furniture, recycled glassware, and industrial lighting.
Lumfardo
Incredible vintage and custom lighting.
Modernity
Modernity features rare and high-grade furniture, ceramics, glass, and lighting by the most celebrated contemporary Scandinavian designers.
Rikumo
This is the very best in Japanese craftsmanship, design, and aesthetics, according to Kamel.
Supply Showroom
A boutique direct-to-consumer fabric and wallpaper showroom based in Austin, Texas, that features whimsical, bright, colorful designs.
Stone and Sawyer
Beautifully crafted ceramic table lamps made in upstate New York. Stone and Sawyer’s “colors work in any and every space,” says Kamel.
The Urban Electric Co.
Follow the glow in a favorite design restaurant (Petit Trois, Basic Kitchen) and chances are you’ll find one of these understated lighting pieces on the wall.
Zak and Fox
Unique textiles and a “beautiful showroom,” says Kamel.
