For her latest tableware collection, the designer and prop stylist Kalen Kaminski drew inspiration from a 200-year-old schoolhouse. Kaminski, who started her home and clothing line, Upstate, in 2011, purchased the Berkshires building after becoming enamoured with its open floor plan and history. “I’ve always loved the idea of living in a space that was not intended to be a home,” she says. Its former occupant, the Avalon School, provided the collection its name, while the seasonal hues of the forest surrounding the property are soaked into its colourways. Napkins and tablecloths are hand-dyed with natural materials such as tree bark, madder root, cochineal and marigold flowers sourced from the Seattle-based dye house Botanical Colors. The glassware, ranging from stackable wine glasses to pitchers with swirls of burgundy, pink, yellow, purple and green, is handmade by glassblowers in Brooklyn. Later this month, Kaminski will host a dinner at her Chinatown studio in celebration of the launch with a meal by the chef Woldy Kusina, who’s known for his colour-saturated Filipino cuisine, and the photographer and chef Andrea Gentl, who recently published the book “Cooking With Mushrooms.” On the menu: slices of seasonal summer tomatoes sprinkled with edible flowers served on pink glass platters and mushroom margaritas poured from bulbous lavender-and-green pitchers. From approximately $50, youreupstate.com.
A Collection of Flower-Dyed Linens and Swirled Glassware
Host the ultimate springtime affair with Upstate’s curation of hand-dyed napkins and tablecloths.
Upstate’s Avalon collection, designed by Kalen Kaminski and styled here by the chef Woldy Kusina, includes an array of glassware, raw silk napkins and table linens. Courtesy of Upstate, photographed by Gentl and Hyers. 