From Giancarlo Valle, Young Huh, and More: 8 Design Collabs We’re Loving Right Now

By Alia Akkam

If the market's latest debuts have any lesson to tell, it's that the design community indeed works better together. From storied rugs by Giancarlo Valle for Nordic Knots to sculpturally intriguing lighting by Sabine Marcelis for IKEA, industry brands across categories are coming together to bring thoughtful new offerings to designers’ tool kits. Looking for the latest in furniture, decor, lighting, and beyond? Meet the industry's latest dynamic duos.

Giancarlo Valle x Nordic Knots

"Folk traditions exist in every culture. It's almost like a universal language. We wanted to distill that down into its simplest form," Valle tells AD of the inspirational seed that bred his new, homage-paying rug collection. Made in collaboration with Swedish rug maker Nordic Knots, the series plucks a few heritage motifs in particular—hands, buds, and loops—to repeat throughout the New Zealand wool floor coverings. Hand-drawn by Valle, the relaxed designs are interpreted atop grounds of ochre, forest green, and barn red.

The Varmblixt collection by Sabine Marcelis for IKEA debuts on February 1.

Sabine Marcelis x Ikea

After a dizzying year that included her rainbow-hued transformation of the Vitra Design Museum's Schaudepot and the engaging public seating installation Swivel at St. Giles Square in London, the Rotterdam-based designer is starting off 2023 equally strong with the release of Varmblixt, coming February 1. This assemblage of 20 products for IKEA reinforces the furniture behemoth's latest mission to elevate lighting from a merely functional component to one that instills rooms with emotion.

Among the highlights? An LED pendant lamp fashioned out of curving white-frosted glass pipes, and an LED wall mirror outfitted with a semi-transparent glass panel and light strip. A series of hand-tufted wool rugs, redolent of a sunset with their gradients of deep orange and amber yellow, are also in the mix, as is Marcelis's signature motif, the chunky doughnut, which is translated to serve-ware and a glowing orange glass lamp.

The Young Huh for Modern Matter collection will debut on January 24.

Young Huh x Modern Matter

Drawing from sources as disparate as nature and antique Korean ironwork, AD100 designer Young Huh presents a hardware collection for Modern Matter. Launching January 24, the fixtures shimmer in hand-finished, 100% solid burnished and polished brass. Along with delicate lotus buds and cat paperweights, there are arresting coin knobs, some bolstered by regal backplates or sleek drop or ring pulls.

The French Braid collection by Sasha Bikoff for Walter Wickers.

The French Braid collection by Sasha Bikoff for Walter Wickers.

Sasha Bikoff x Walters Wicker

French Braid, interior designer Sasha Bikoff's new range of outdoor furniture for Walters Wicker, is just as swish as her interiors. The four-piece collection conjures both the romance of the Provence countryside and the elegance of the Bel Design movement that flourished in 1960s and early ’70s Italy–epitomized in such pieces as the playful hanging lounger that shapes after a ripe pomegranate or the hourglass-statured side table. Crafted from powder-coated aluminum and woven resin fiber, the pieces are embellished with curving braided perimeters and enriched with upholstered cushions in au courant shades of plum, scarlet, and sienna.

The latest Ginny Macdonald for Lulu & Georgia collection marks the second collaboration for the duo.

Ginny Macdonald x Lulu & Georgia

An ode to her British upbringing, Ginny Macdonald's second furniture range with Lulu & Georgia stays true to the LA-based designer's crisp, tailored aesthetic. Turned legs with an hourglass-like silhouette accent tables and case goods, while seating, such as the Belmont media lounger, are crafted with roomy dimensions in mind. Our predicted bestsellers? The collection's upholstered beds, timelessly clean-lined with just the right amount of exposed wood detail to feel elevated and of-the-moment.

Mary McDonald x Patterson Flynn

Mary McDonald stands on the collection's Masquerade rug.

Mary McDonald x Patterson Flynn

Mary McDonald's timeless spaces are often imbued with an air of theatricality. The same goes for her second series of abaca rugs for Patterson Flynn. Consider Masquerade, an exuberant large-scale interpretation of the pinwheel, or Polestar, an ode to the sunbursts emblazoned in the marble floors of her favorite European castles. McDonald delves even further into history with Compass, her riff on a Napoleonic star motif that adorned imposing furniture of the Directoire period.

Color Atelier cofounder Burju K. and FrenchCalifornia founder Guillaume Coutheillas

The Memories en Couleur collection by FrenchCalifornia for Color Atelier

FrenchCalifornia x Color Atelier

Burcu K. and Olivier Garnier, the couple behind the eco-friendly paint label Color Atelier, turn out coveted finishes that simulate ancient textures (as seen recently in the homes of musician Vanessa Carlton and designer Michael Hilal). The maker's mineral-based limewash, for instance, is the basis of Memories en Couleur, a capsule collection hatched by the bicoastal design agency FrenchCalifornia. The six grounding colorways include soft, white Enfance; yellow-tinted Poudre; earthy Terre; and cool, gray Reve. Rounding out the line, blackened blue Ciel and silvery green Cap Ferret provide more dramatic punches of color.

Martyn Lawrence Bullard

Martyn Lawrence Bullard x Duchateau

Monumental architects of yore inspired designer Martyn Lawrence Bullard's wide-plank wood flooring collection for Duchateau, the lifestyle brand's inaugural designer line. The six colorways of UV-lacquered and brushed-surface European white oak dreamed up by the AD100 talent call to mind the luminous English countryside retreats of Sir Edwin Lutyens, the sunny midcentury California abodes by Richard Neutra, and the creamy 19th-century Paris apartment buildings by Georges-Eugène Haussmann, as well as Pierre Jeanneret's iconic Chandigarh cane chair, Andrea Palladio's stately oeuvre, and Oscar Niemeyer's beachy, modernist Brazil.