Christene Barberich is a creative powerhouse. Writer of the beloved newsletter and Substack A Tiny Apt. and co-founder of Refinery29, Christene's perspective on design is grounded in the fashion she loves. She is drawn to clean lines with messy edges and bold prints paired with accessories that whisper loudly. All of this came into focus in the tiny home project she took on with her husband, architect Kevin Baxter.
Kevin has a passion for traditional, yet somehow non-traditional materials. For this tiny house, the meant using straw-insulated SIPs, or Structural Insulated Panels, that fit together like puzzle pieces to form a cocoon of a home that treads lightly on the earth. On the outside, the project is clean, modern, and it sits quietly in a field of tall grass and bright wildflowers.
Inside of the 650 square foot jewel box, Christene fitted patterns together like puzzle pieces, too. She treated wood grain with the same reverence as the fancy kitchen and bathroom tile, and she sourced vintage pieces that bring the depth that a new build demands. Material, texture, and warmth are held as sacred.
When she asked us to do a light for the kitchen, we were immediately game.
The project was an opportunity to stretch the boundaries of our classic Porcelain Pendant, and resulted in the Large Dome, a bigger version that holds onto all the beauty we love in its smaller sibling. Still hand thrown. Still porcelain. Still luminous.
As everyone who has ever built something knows, it takes a while to build a dream. The light was installed before so many of the finishes were put in. Boxes of tile were on the floor, and much of the interior of the home was still a sketch, but we could see where it was headed.
In a shoot for House Beautiful months later, photographer Christian Harder captured Christene's vision, realized. Things others may be scared of having become noisy exist in a harmony that is somehow peaceful, like the symphony of grasshoppers in the field outside filling the afternoon with noise that is everything but noisy.
