LIFESTYLE
Lifestyle & Culture From Across The African Diaspora
Eva and Cory’s San Francisco Victorian Dream Home
For a city that’s famously only seven-by-seven in square miles, San Francisco carries a lot of history, a lot of stories — and even more dreams. One dream that’s come true in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights neighborhood is that of Swiss-born interior designer, Eva Bradley of Studio Heimat and her husband, artist Cory Bradley. The creative couple’s Victorian home boasts 3,000 square feet, including 5 bedrooms in addition to generous outdoor space, breathtaking views and a historic, century-old facade. But for them, the magic started years ago and thousands of miles away.
Hana Getachew: Life On The Bolé Road
For Hana Getachew, the Bolé Road is a lot of things. It’s the name of her celebrated textile line, a gorgeous collection of traditionally-inspired Ethiopian pillows and accessories, currently enjoying a collaboration with West Elm. It’s a popular thoroughfare in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where the designer was born. Most of all it’s a metaphor for all of the important journeys she’s been on in life, starting with the first one.
Malcolm Simmons: A Designer’s Stylish Abode
Malcolm Simmons has been designing all of his life. A native of Virginia who spent years living abroad before studying graphic and interior design, he’s now known as the owner of the design consultation company, Mas Means More. For the last two years, the self-styled “environmental graphic designer,” has made his home in a 2-story colonial-style condo in Arlington, Virginia.
Heavenly Gaines’ Modern Brooklyn Apartment
New York City is full of hidden gems, places that seem ordinary enough on the outside, but inside they are marvels of design creativity. Interior designer Heavenly Gaines has created one such oasis. Her apartment in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn is a beautiful mix of colors, textures and eras.
Chanae Richards: A Country-Style Retreat In Philadelphia
Interior and production designer Chanae Richards is the founder and principal creative behind Oloro Interiors. The firm provides locations and design services for a variety of photo and video projects in addition to Chanae’s residential design work.
Stephanie Watkins: A Colorful Maryland Paradise
Stephanie Watkins has a full plate. For most of every day, she’s a nursing professor at a Maryland university, with 15 years of experience in her field. The rest of the time, she’s a full-on creative, the mind behind Casa Watkins, a lifestyle, interiors and content creation site that serves as an outlet for all of her many creative endeavors. Her other major outlet for the past 11 years, has been her home - a gorgeous, 3100 square foot single family home in Aberdeen, Maryland.
Marie Cox: A Modern Ranch House In Raleigh
As anyone who’s ever been there will tell you, North Carolina is a beautiful place. Rolling hills, fantastic beaches, and a sky that seems to go on forever are just the start of its charms. It’s also one of the nation’s largest banking hubs. That makes it a natural place to find someone like Marie Cox. An accomplished executive and one of the few female Vice Presidents in banking, her Raleigh home is the perfect blend of comfort and culture, all presented with Marie’s eye for beautiful details and a remarkable collection of art.
Sarai Reed’s Cozy DC Apartment Is Big on Style
Sarai Reed is the woman behind Apron Saint, a design and lifestyle brand that offers home consulting services. The brand’s tagline, “home is wherever you are and whatever you make it”, sums up Sarai’s approach to design - home can be created absolutely anywhere, no matter how big or small one’s space is. In Washington DC, Sarai has made her apartment, that’s just a little over 500-square-feet, into a beautifully curated home for herself, her girlfriend April and their dog Lambo.
David Quarles: An Artsy Memphis Interior
Life is about passion, finding it and pursuing it. So when life in the corporate sector failed to ignite his, David Quarles IV set off to find it on his own. What he found was that he was a man of many passions, among them his new careers in jewelry design, interior design and fitness. With so much pursuing to do, he needed the right space to do it in, which he found in an artsy mid-century ranch, in Memphis, Tennessee.
Anthony Dunning’s Designer Pad In The Bronx
To say that Anthony Dunning has an eye for design would be an understatement. As the lead designer for his own company, Dunning is responsible for the creation of beautiful spaces in many homes and businesses. His own home is a living portfolio of his design ideas. His two-story apartment, located in the Riverdale section of The Bronx is a design-lover’s dream.
It’s A Family Affair Part 4: A Refuge
One of the more interesting functions that my family house has served over the years has been that of a refuge for members of my family as they made the transition from one stage of life to another. My Uncle Allen — my grandmother’s brother — lived there for several months after leaving the Air Force. My uncle Rodney did, too, having served in the Air Force as well. Other family members came and went for a multitude of reasons. More than once the change in circumstances came after a fire had claimed another home. For me, the house was my first home. I lived there for a year before my parents moved first into an apartment, then into the house that I grew up in.
Michelle And Forrest’s Vibrant Atlanta Wonderland
Photographer Michelle Norris is one half of the creative team behind Tropico Photo. Norris runs the Atlanta-based photography company that with her husband and business partner, Forrest Aguar. Their 800-square-foot, one bedroom condo is proof that a small space can hold even the biggest design ideas.
It’s A Family Affair Part 3: Passing It On
A lot had changed for my family and for the house by the middle of the 1970s, specifically with regard to who was calling it home at that time. Aunts and uncles alike had married and moved away. And in spring of 1972, Mama passed away. When that happened, the house wasn’t sold, but instead was passed down to my grandmother, Alice Harper, beginning a line of inheritance that continues to this day.
Leyden Lewis: A Brooklyn Home With Art At Heart
New York interior designer Leyden Lewis is both the name and creative drive behind the Leyden Lewis Design Studio. For the last sixteen years Leyden has made his home in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, in a beautifully appointed apartment that he shares with his partner, Lazhar and their dog, Nika. For many, creating the feel of a whole home in the 800 square foot, open-plan space would pose a daunting challenge. But for Leyden the challenge has been a nearly two-decade-long opportunity to test his abilities and try out new ideas.
It’s A Family Affair Part 2: Inspired By The Past
By the 1960s, the home my mother lived in was full. The house roster included my mom, Jacqueline, my grandmother Syjunia, and my great-grandmother, Mama, as well as my great-aunts, Debbie and Elaine, great-uncle, Allen, and cousin Gordon (who the family affectionately referred to as “Snuffy”). Like for so many other Black families, “the house” was the official hub of my family’s life. It was the setting for countless family events from Sunday dinners to proms, holiday gatherings and late-night penuchle games. “Our house was the center,” my mom confirms. “We were there for every holiday. Everybody would come [for] Mother’s Day, Easter, Christmas, it was always at the house.”
Beautiful Embrace: Inside The LA Home Of Model And Activist Nikia Phoenix
Nikia Phoenix loves the skin she’s in, and she wants you to love yours just as much. Once the awkward girl with freckles, the model now known for her gorgeous skin knows that the road to feeling at home with yourself is neither short nor straight. Yet she’d be the first to suggest that it’s the one best travelled, and that the best thing about traveling it is that there’s no need to do it alone. That was the driving sentiment behind Black Girl Beautiful, the 23andMe star’s self-and-communal love brand aimed at Black women everywhere and of all ages.
It’s A Family Affair Part 1: The House
At the beginning of 1956, the Belfield area of Philadelphia was a predominantly white part of the city. With few exceptions, just about all of the African Americans to be found there were domestic workers, coming in and out of houses as they finished their work as maids. But in October of that year, a new family arrived. Made up of three generations — a grandmother, her four children, and two grandchildren — they were only the second Black family to move onto the block.
TaLaya And Kerrick’s Pattern-Filled North Carolina Home
A home is more than just a house; it holds our memories - the feeling of the way things were and the hope of what they might become. So when North Carolina couple, TaLaya Brown and Kerrick Faulkner inherited the house that once belonged to Faulkner’s grandparents, it was a chance to touch the past while looking ahead to the future. With rescue dog Honey in tow for good luck (she had been rescued, after all), the two set out to make a new home out of an old house.
Kalyn Chandler: Live-Work Luxe In New York City
New York is a busy place. For those who don’t plan ahead, the hustle and bustle can run them right over. Fortunately, for Kalyn Chandler, the founder and creative director of the lifestyle brand, Effie’s Paper, the solution to the constant run between work and life was to put the two together in one amazing space. Living and working in the same place might seem confining at first thought, but for this creative the answer laid in making sure that there was enough room to fit both sides of a full life.
Paul Suepat: Color And Whimsy In Brooklyn
Kingston born and Brooklyn-based, artist Paul Suepat is a student of contrasts. Focused constantly on the nebulous space between ambiguity and definition, his art moves between sculpture and painting, whimsical figures and strong abstract shapes, specific emotions and imaginative contexts. His home too is a class in the power of opposites. Here, trend-forward rooms defined by bright splashes of color sit beside (or beneath) spaces where restrained motifs speak more of the past than the future. And everywhere there is art. Art that Paul creates and art that he admires; pieces gifted from fellow creatives and pieces left from his massive installations for public works and private galleries. The effect is magical, and each room, no matter how different, feels like somewhere that deserves further exploration.