MILAN — Interior designer Leanne Ford is big on giving her clients space to breathe with various shades of white.
The HGTV DIY guru, who rose to fame showing America that any middle-class home has the potential to become a Parisian pied-à-terre or zen oasis, told WWD, however, that her latest collection with Crate & Barrel is bursting with colorful influences — though products are still mostly in shades of white.
“We’ve worked together for many years now, which is pretty magical. This time, some of my favorite pieces evolved into new washes, silhouettes… then adding additional magic to pieces that I’ve wanted to for years,” said the longtime Crate & Barrel and Crate & Kids partner and interior designer on the eve of the release of the brand’s “The Origins Collection.” Ford’s designs are among Crate & Barrel’s bestsellers, according to the company.
For this collection, the fashion-world veteran homed in on some of her favorite artistic movements, from Bauhaus to Neo-classical to the catwalks of Milan. The Mellow collection for example — with quilts, white couches and chairs — called to mind the fall 2023 Prada men’s show, where vests and parkas were padded for extra comfort. While she loves a good collage board, dotted with pics of icons like singer Patti Smith and designs by Italy’s Carlo Scarpa, trends, however, are something she ignores.
“I tend to kind of keep my blinders on and create what I think is beautiful. You’re gonna live with this furniture, and if all goes well in 20 years, it’s still going to make you feel good,” she said.
Elsewhere, Ford updated the Chesterfield sofa with sun-bleached looking beige leather and incorporated the work of artists like Jackie Leishman who specializes in charcoal pieces, and whose artwork was recently featured in the home of celebrity fashion stylist Dani Michelle.
The Crate & Kids collection, which was directly inspired by Ford’s own foray into motherhood, is both fashionable and design-forward, with padded rocking chairs countered with a contemporary edge, an approach that renders each piece something that can be used beyond the crib years. Raising her daughter, Ever, who became a toddler during the COVID-19 pandemic, eased the aesthete’s views on style and reminded her what little girls actually want. “This version of our Crate & Kids collection is more feminine,” she said.
“Everything I create or do is very neutral. And then I had this little girl, and all she wanted was pink and purple and unicorns and sequins and rainbows, so she taught me to loosen up on that,” Ford said from her whitewashed Pittsburgh studio, with her signature polka-dot scarf tied around her neck.
Crate & Barrel and Crate & Kids senior vice president of product design, Sebastian Brauer, said the furniture itself is manufactured globally through Crate & Barrel partners around the world, from Europe to Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam and Indonesia. “These countries have master craftsmen that can carve and cradle these beautiful shapes, too,” he mused, adding that the company also included pieces produced in Portugal inspired by Ford’s handmade pottery. Some pieces even have her thumb prints in them, she quipped.
What makes Ford’s vision so unique is perhaps her experience in fashion as a designer for Betsey Johnson and early 2000s brand Heatherette. Her success runs counter to industry naysayers who insist it’s not easy to cross from fashion to interiors seamlessly.
After living in New York City and Los Angeles, Ford got fed up with the traffic and moved back home to Pittsburgh where she undertook the task of turning a midcentury modern in Sewickley Heights, she said, and became a star with the HGTV series “Restored by the Fords,” alongside her brother Steve who tackled home renovation projects in Pittsburgh. The journey began with a historic schoolhouse Leanne Ford purchased to live in, and American viewers became captivated with her cosmopolitan meets down-home spirit.
Recently, she finished working on a run-down old chapel in Texas, which she turned into modern temple slash event space The Emerson.
A lot of what she designs is born from a multitude of images in her head, she explains. “Pictures of rocks, pictures of stone and marble… you know, it’s music, it’s albums, it’s poetry, it’s words. It’s really just layered upon layered, but it just gives me a feeling.”
Her fourth collection for Crate & Barrel, which was shot at the contemporary cultural center MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House in West Hollywood at the end of October, will officially launch Thursday.
