Long before a refreshing mint julep can hit your lips, grain must be malted, milled, mashed, and fermented, the resulting wash then distilled to concentrate the alcohol. Maturation can take years in a barrel to achieve the desired color, flavor, and smoothness. Good taste takes time. And the same can be said of decorating, as the AD100 titan Robert Stilin discovered while transforming a historic house in Louisville, Kentucky-a labor of love more than a decade in the making.
Nature is often the go-to inspiration for design, but award-winning French designer and De La Espada Atelier take that idea and make it strikingly literal. Their limited-edition Ensemble collection doesn't just nod to the outdoors but borrows directly from its forms and silhouettes, reinterpreting them in wood, stone, and textiles. The result is the next best thing to being in the forest, only brought indoors.