Home Bound

Ethiopian-born Swedish-American Marcus Samuelsson steps out of his many, many kitchens and into the rest of the home for his debut interiors collection, which just released this week. Created in collaboration with West Elm, the 32-piece assortment excites from all ends of the spectrum, from furniture and lighting to tableware, textiles, and art. Colorful in tone and spirit, the work is a calling card to his multicultural upbringing and the vicarious spirit that pervades his restaurants around the globe today. Here, the lauded chef discusses the many inspirations and creative minds that brought his vision to life with longtime friend and Family Style food editor Sophia Roe.

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Sophia Roe: Marcus! 

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Marcus Samuelsson: How are you?

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SR: I’m happy, I’m happy. 

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MS: It was good to see you [at the James Beard Foundation Awards] in Chicago.

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SR: I know, even briefly, it was nice. I want to talk to you about designing a home collection as a chef. Is that something you always wanted to do? To get outside of the kitchen and focus more on the home?

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MS: I’ve been making furniture and prototypes for years. Starting with Red Rooster, it’s always been clear to me that the dining room is an extension of food and the total experience. With Chase Hall, I went back to a more Scandinavian design, and I really enjoyed that. Now, my home collection with West Elm is really where Scandinavia meets the mystique of Africa, all-in-one. There are some Nordic touches, but there are also a ton of colors and patterns that come from the African side.

SR: This beautiful combination of influences feels so you. Is that what you enjoyed the most?

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MS: What I loved most about it was actually the process of collaborating. The entire team at West Elm was incredible. They knew that I didn't know what the design process was. But they also knew what I was trying to say with the collection, and that was fun. Then, going into lighting, we had roosters, so there was a body of work that they could look at. I really enjoyed their drive and commitment. If the material was not right, they went the lengths to get what we needed.

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SR: That's amazing. Okay. So let's talk about the color theme. It is so specific. It's so bold. I can't wait to get these pieces in my kitchen because I have a lot of natural light. I'm curious to know how you landed on the color. Is there something that directly inspired it? 

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MS: It was actually through working with my daughter. We would do this collage together where we wanted a melody of colors: burnt orange, brown, and turmeric. Most of the time, when we design restaurants I start with painting; drawing out the colors I want the space to be. It was the same idea here. We started with two original artworks. There's a Swedish alphabet in there—there’s like this “o” with umlaut—so it looks abstract, but for us it's not. That is then translated over to the coffee pot, to the cabinet, which was very much inspired by Harlem. We wanted the inside of it to look like a Dapper Dan jacket, for example.

“How many arguments or passionate conversations have been solved over dinner? The dinner table is part of that; it's listening. So let's create something that you can both work off, eat off, and gather around.”
— Marcus Samuelsson

SR: That's amazing. I was wondering about that cabinet. It's my favorite piece.

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MS: I love that you say that. It came from having this incredible open dialogue: Why not think about a fashion designer when we think about patterns? It was like 30 people, and we all went back and forth. It was great.

SR: Wow, so it was really collaborative. It's like a kitchen, where people have no idea what goes into their meal. Right? Do you have a favorite piece from the collection, or are they just all your babies?

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MS: I mean, I'm very biased to that cabinet, too. But I also love the lighting because that sets the mood. We are all in stressful environments, and when we come home, we need to be at peace. Whether it's riding on the subway, or sitting in an office, or being in a meeting—life is hectic for everybody. Once you get home, it's personal. The right kind of lightning is key to that. I also love the plates because I remember as a child looking at our plates at home, dreaming that I was a chef, and plating with the leftovers. Looking at those plates now, I think Well, there's another eight-year-old out there who is thinking about the same thing.

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SR: You know, that's true. As a chef, you're only as strong as the support that you have on the table, right? I was even thinking about the textiles, the napkins, the cutlery, all of those things are so important. Has this collaboration between you and West Elm made you think about how to go about designing the inside of a restaurant differently? Are you going to take these things with you moving forward?

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MS: Yeah, it's very important to constantly evolve. Look, you’re doing a magazine now, and before that you were interviewing people, right? You’re still within food, but you are evolving, and I think it's very important for us as creatives. I entered this with the desire to tell a story the way I tell a food story. But I also knew that I was going to collaborate with people who know how to do this in a different way, how to design a restaurant where people have an experience—they sit, they gather, they have conversations. 

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SR: That's right.

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MS: How many arguments or passionate conversations have been solved over dinner? The dinner table is part of that; it's listening. So let's create something that you can both work off, eat off, and gather around. 

SR: To me, these pieces look like heritage pieces, ones that you're meant to buy and pass down. In a world where things are very trendy, they do not feel that way. Were you thinking about legacy within the pieces? You know, they feel like pieces that you would give to someone, and then they give it to someone else—things that you're meant to hold onto for a really long time.

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MS: I'm actually very slow with my work. And if you’re slow and sit with it, you can't catch a trend. I love that you saw heritage because I didn't use that word, but maybe that was the word that I was searching for. It was not photographed in Connecticut or Maine or Martha's Vineyard; It was shot in Sweden. For West Elm to make that commitment, and to have the team come over to the village where I grew up in… there was a lot of heritage there.

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SR: Wow, that is amazing. I didn't know that. So was that something that you wanted to do at the impetus? 

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MS: The photographer said we could get that coastal feel from America. Of course America's gorgeous, but I grew up in the fishing village where my father was from. Those fishermen, you know, their hands are different. The smell is different. The yellow is not the same yellow. The red is different. I asked if we could go and get it. They were like, “Give me a day,” and I said, “Great, let's go before anyone changes their mind.” 

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Marcus Samuelsson's West Elm home collection is available online now.