Quick Takes With: Fanny Singer

Does Fanny Singer need an introduction? Not for anyone who’s coveted something from her exceptional design brand, Permanent Collection, or read one her books *Always Home: A Daughter’s Recipes and Stories or My Pantry, which she cowrote (and illustrated) with her mother, who just so happens to be Alice Waters). And definitely not for readers who remember this mother/daughter kitchen tour, which is one of our favorites of all time.

But let us extoll all the reasons we love Fanny and her singular style anyway, including the following: her Substack, the Green Spoon (“it takes a lot of my focus these days, since feeding my toddler is always top of mind”); the collection of “culinary heirlooms” inspired by Alice’s kitchen that Fanny recreates for Permanent Collection (currently: “I’m working on launching a version of my mother’s gorgeous, extremely functional old oak wood dish rack for next year. Dish racks are impossible—why are they always so cheap and ugly? My mom’s is a treasure—made by the longtime farmer for Chez Panisse, Bob Cannard—and it’s one of the things I’ve been wanting to try to reproduce for years.”) There’s her platter project of limited-edition designs for the table (expect Volume II before too long). And there’s this: “My next book is devoted entirely to salad.”

Today Fanny writes in with her forever host gift, first design love, and a good design haunt in CA…

You’re invited to dinner. What’s your go-to gift?

Always a pair of pure beeswax candles. No one can ever have too many tapers! They smell lovely and—little-known fact—purify the air while they burn.

What’s on your bedside table?

Aside from fish oil pills, a multivitamin, and a bottle of oregano spirits? My very scratched Oliver Peoples glasses and a Permanent Collection x Martino Gamper tumbler filled with very fragrant roses from the garden. (They seem to bloom constantly in the LA heat.)

What’s your desert island design/art/architecture-related book?

This is a bit of an impossible question for me to answer—I’ve spent my life collecting art books related to the artists I’ve either written about, or know, or studied, or whose shows left an indelible impression on me. Deciding who would keep me company on a desert island would be like trying to pick just one friend out of a tight-knit group….but I think I might have to go with a book called Richard Diebenkorn: The Berkeley Years 1953-1966. I grew up on Diebenkorn and can always count on his landscapes to bring me home.

What podcast or playlist do you put on when you need inspiration?

I live for Ezra Klein’s podcast—no one gets into subjects as diverse and urgent with the intelligence and empathy that he seems constantly able to muster.

What’s a film or TV show whose aesthetic has stuck with you?

The Jane Campion film Bright Star, which tells the story of John Keats and Fanny Brawne’s unconsummated love affair in 1818. Campion conjures Keats’s poetry with beguiling visual metaphors rooted in nature. It’s an aesthetic touchstone for me.

Which Instagram account do you go to for design inspiration?

@communedesign, @charlesdelisleoffice, @themodernhouse.

What has been your best house upgrade?

Planting an herb garden and putting up redwood string shelving in our den to make it an art book library.

A simple or budget-friendly design move you wish you’d known sooner?

Buy everything used or salvaged. I’m obsessed with Pasadena Architectural Salvage. It’s where we got all our doors and knobs recently.

My favorite sheets are…

The washed linen sheets from Merci in Paris (which you can also buy online).

My favorite paint color for the bedroom is…

White. I love the decorator-favorite shade of white called Swiss Coffee by Benjamin Moore—it’s fresh and bright but bends warm and cozy, which I like for a bedroom.

Your design pet peeve?

Appliances like the washer and dryer being IN the kitchen.

My go-to kitchen utensil is…

The two-in-one spatula-spoon hybrid from Permanent Collection. It does it all!

Three words that describe my design style:

Eclectic, homey, abundant.

First design love?

The Sferico glassware designed by Joe Colombo in 1968: a series of six glasses, all based on geometrical figures. A friend’s mother had these glasses when I was growing up and I remember being completely in love with them—they’re no doubt responsible for my borderline problematic obsession with glassware.

What item from your closet do you have on repeat?

A very big pink button-down shirt from Frank & Eileen and a pair of two-tone Janus Pants from Verity & Daughters.

Favorite design shop to visit (online or in person)?

I’ve visited the Venice Biennale more years than not over the last twenty years, mostly to write about the art exhibit. Every time I go, I pop into the L’Isola shop and treat myself to a single Murano glass from the Carlo Moretti ‘Diversi’ line.

What is the last thing you purchased for your house?

Tala light bulbs.

Something you’re coveting?

A bigger kitchen!

I don’t leave the house without…

My Mother Tongue magazine baseball cap.

Thanks so much, Fanny! Follow her work via @fannysinger and permanentcollection.com.