Design News: Libertine and Harris Reed Offer Stylish Interiors

Plus Yoko Ono’s participatory art arrives at The Broad

Words by DAVID NASH, ELIZABETH VARNELL, and MARTHA HAYES

A Well of Outdoor Living in Carpinteria
Having inspired design aficionados and tastemakers since 1996, Shane Brown’s Culver City–based Big Daddy’s Antiques has reinvented itself 80 miles up the coast in Carpinteria as THE WELL GARDENS, a nine-acre property that offers an incredibly immersive, wholly unique curation of antiques and furnishings as well as new emphasis on botanicals and outdoor living. The space, which is located across from the Santa Barbara polo fields, opened April 18. More than two acres serve as a greenhouse space with winding pathways, olive trees, historic oaks dripping with lanterns, water features carved from limestone, and a serene pond. The updated concept also acts as the nursery for The Well family (of The Well in Summerland) while maintaining its reputation as a creative hub for design. “As [our] roots expand along the California coast, the mission remains unchanged,” Brown says. “To design a living, timeless story with a palette of historic antiques binding human experience with botanical life.” 3376 Foothill Rd., Carpinteria; thewellbybdantiques.com. D.N.

Nathan Turner’s Page Turner
From the reimagining of a client’s 1990s Malibu beach house to a tropical penthouse in Singapore, NATHAN TURNER’S I LOVE DECORATING (Abrams, $50) is more than an anthology about interiors; it’s also an inside look at Turner’s unique design process. Filled with personal stories and practical advice that takes readers on the often daunting and improvisational journey of home design, each of the 11 gloriously photographed projects showcase Turner’s well-traveled approach to design and traditional aesthetic. nathanturner.com. D.N.

Harris Reed’s Wilde World
HARRIS REED, the California-born designer whose namesake fashion house presents maximalist demi-couture collections, is immersing himself in interiors. He has joined forces with Tim Butcher and Lizzie Deshayes, founders of London-based hand-painted, hand-embroidered silk wall coverings firm FROMENTAL, on a collaborative line of designs for walls, plus cushions and throws. His fashion collections form the creative foundation of the launch, which includes wisteria prints, plumeria in jewel-toned hues, and tiger stripes in pewter, copper, and other bold tones. A meadow filled with stark wispy trees is depicted, and there’s a lavish naturescape of flora and fauna created in bold colorways meant to evoke the spirit of bohemian decadence and named after author and poet Oscar Wilde. fromental.com. E.V.

Adaptable Homes, Ready to Build
After the devastating wildfires of January 2025, the question of how to rebuild quickly but wisely became urgent. In searching for a solution for those affected, East L.A.–based designer Sarah Weichel (Swike Design) and architect Ben Jones (BRCJ Designs) also identified a gap in the market. Enter HOMESTEAD. Sitting somewhere between custom architecture and off-the-shelf plans, Homestead offers two architect-designed homes (1,500 and 2,250 square feet) that can be adapted to individual sites and local codes. Each plan meets IBHS Wildfire Prepared Home Plus standards, with features including ember-resistant vents, enclosed eaves, Class A roofing, defensible landscaping strategies, and readiness for solar. thehomestead.la. M.H.

Libertine’s Rebel Rugs
When JOHNSON HARTIG launched fashion label Libertine in 2001, he became known for his irreverent mix of punk, art, and science. Now the L.A. designer is bringing that same fearless eye to interiors with a debut rug collection for PATTERSON FLYNN. The starting point was personal: Hartig couldn’t find rugs for his own home that felt timeless yet a little unexpected, so he designed them himself. The result is a collection that plays with saturated color, rich texture, and offbeat charm, drawing on wide-ranging influences, including 17th-century Indian textiles, 1970s Paris, and scientific illustrations. Hand-knotted in wool and silk using Persian and Tibetan techniques, the rugs feel as thoughtful as they do expressive. Jilly, for example, features an intricate floral pattern inspired by vintage block prints reimagined in soft, tonal hues. pattersonflynn.com. M.H.

Armani/Casa’s Finer Fibers
Drawing on botanical and stone motifs, ARMANI/CASA’s Precious Fibers 4 wall coverings collection, created with Milan-based Jannelli & Volpi, takes inspiration from the stage as well as the runway. The intertwined patterns, prints, and hues made of silk with non-woven fabric backing reflect both the Italian house’s runway roots and its founder’s love of theatrical performances. Ancient Rome’s marble palaces, the setting of Costantino Dall’Argine’s ballet Attea, informs one design; “Willow Song” from Gioachino Rossini’s Otello led to elongated leaves on pleated matte silk. A checkerboard motif becomes three-dimensional in a Siegfried pattern named for Richard Wagner’s opera, and naturally, the moiré ripples and watercolor look of Odette reference the enchanted setting of Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. 125 N. Robertson Blvd., L.A., 310-358-0901; armani.com. E.V.

Yoko Ono’s Plea to Give Peace a Chance
For seven decades, Yoko Ono has developed a boundary-breaking avant-garde art practice involving simple acts meant to forge peace and connection. THE BROAD’s Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind spotlights the ideas she has explored to get viewers to pause and reflect. On view are materials from her collaborative Bed Peace, staged in 1969 with John Lennon in Amsterdam and Montreal. Press pictures illustrate the concept as she and her new husband used the publicity of their honeymoon to call for an end to the Vietnam war while seated between the sheets. Ono’s oeuvre calls for participation, and the works compiled here — at her first solo museum show in Southern California, organized in collaboration with the Tate Modern — compel viewers to contribute their thoughts and ideas to her creations. Interactive instruction works from the ’50s are also here with short actions for viewers to take or ponder. Wish Trees for Los Angeles, first realized with hopes written down and tied to Santa Monica tree branches in 1996, will also take over the museum’s East West Bank Plaza for the duration of the show as new entries are penned and attached to downtown olive boughs. May 23–Oct. 11. 221 S. Grand Ave., L.A., 213-232-6200; thebroad.org. E.V.

Night Gallery’s New Exploration of Nature
NIGHT GALLERY in L.A. has curated a group exhibition, Blush, at Christie’s San Francisco with works by female artists addressing nature and beauty amid the push for artificial intelligence that’s reshaping their practices. The landscapes they depict and what they see in the wild is filtered and transformed through this lens. The residency — with works by painters Jane Swavely, Mira Dancy, Sarah Blaustein, Cynthia Daignault, and Sarah Miska, alongside those by landscape artist Lily Kwong, multidisciplinary artist Wanda Koop, sculptor Anne Libby, and photographer and video artist Elise Rasmussen — groups together pieces with organic subjects mediated by the modern world. Possibility and deep feeling coexist with the technological factors that haunt and enthrall us. Through May 9. 49 Geary St., S.F., 415-982-0982; nightgallery.ca. E.V.

Jasper Morrison’s Minimalist Campout
Understated and thoroughly useful items are the sort that catch British designer Jasper Morrison’s eye. Now he has teamed up with the Danish furniture line founded by Mette and Rolf Hay to refine outdoor necessities like folding furniture made with lightweight, water-lacquered beech, portable cooking and grill tools, and more. The purposeful, minimalist line, HAY OUTDOOR MARKET BY JASPER MORRISON, is a nostalgic take on classic camping gear, and includes more than 30 objects for a jaunt into the great outdoors. The furniture and accessories include striped textiles woven from durable recycled polyester and inspired by traditional striped Basque patterns Morrison discovered at a flea market. Shared open-air moments, both urban and remote await. dwr.com. E.V.