Gretta Solie, 27, and Alex Cutler, 33, went vintage furniture shopping on their second date. She’s a plant stylist who started her own houseplant business in college, he’s an artist—and that was three happy years ago. The couple now live together in Altadena, CA, and they used last spring’s lockdown to launch their own furniture line, Willow, which grew out of a shared “love of tile and a desire to use it in unconventional ways.” Working in tandem and figuring out things as they go, they specialize in tiled wooden forms: side tables, shelves, and benches that have a satisfyingly bright, clean-lined look.
“We source our wood locally and spend one day batch cutting and assembling all the frames for the pieces we’re going to make that week,” says Gretta. “All our tiles come from a family-owned American company.” Alex and Gretta’s backyard served as their initial workspace; they’ve since moved into a Downtown LA studio with floor-to-ceiling windows. They design, make, and sell everything themselves from start to finish: if you’re local, you can arrange a pickup, but they also ship all over.
N.B.: Willow, it turns out, is one of several young companies around the world specializing in similar tiled designs. Some others to check out: Ktown Corner Store and Super Studio in LA; Ikon in Copenhagen; Poly Designs in Melbourne; Fleur Studios in Currumbin, Australia; and Bubblegum Dreams Shop in Rouen, France.
For more made-in-LA furniture, see:
- Base 10: An LA Furniture Maker Influenced by Japanese Tradition
- Made in California: A Curated Collection of Handmade Furniture from Honeyed Figs
And peruse our Tile archives for more inspiration, including:
- Wayne Pate’s Painted Tiled Collection for Balineum
- DIY: A Summery Tiled Side Table
- An Inventive, Budget-Conscious Kitchen Built from Leftover Tile
