Quick Takes With: Grier Stockman

It’s Quick Takes: Labor Day Weekend Edition, and who better to feature for one last riotous, colorful, no-holds-barred celebration of summer than the Stockman sisters?

If you’ve seen the bright, happiness-inducing textiles of Block Shop, you know the sisters’ work. Writes Grier: “My sister Hopie and I run Block Shop, a home textile and apparel online company and IRL store based here in Los Angeles. Hopie is our CEO and creative director, and I run ‘brand,’ which means I live and breathe Block Shop, am very online, hold researched (read: strong) opinions, and run around a lot. Between shoots. Between warehouses. Between my sisters’ painting studios and Block Shop. I also write our newsletter, Notes from the Studio, which my mom thinks is Block Shop’s best product. Can you tell I’m the youngest child?”

Today Grier shares a sumptuous movie on rewatch, an iconic design book, and what to bring to dinner. Plus, the perfect playlist for the long weekend…

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

Four Thistle Napkins in lilac from Block Shop tied in a bow with two hand-dipped geranium red tapers.

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

The House Book by Terence Conran. This iconic, irreverent 1974 guide to interior design is endlessly entertaining. It’s also a prime example of why good design doesn’t need to be expensive.

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

The Epic Covers Block Shop playlist. Close followers of Block Shop know we put out really fun playlists from time to time. For the first time ever, we asked the Block Shop universe to put forth their #1 favorite cover and we got hundreds of submissions. The Epic Covers playlist are all the greatest hits. Find it here on Spotify!

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

The Phantom Thread aesthetic lives rent free in my head. When I rewatch it (regularly) I double down on my theory that this film inspired a whole wave of 20teens interior design: deep, moody palettes of rich burgundy, taupe, and forest green with pops of pastel. The set design is a study in restraint and scrupulous research. The Tartan ascot? The lavender taffeta? Cascading ivory silk? Help, I’m fainting!

Which Instagram account do you go to for design inspiration?

@tat.london is a feast for the eyes! When it comes to Block Shop design inspiration, we try to avoid Instagram altogether and stick to our art history library instead. Our foray into florals and more figurative designs takes inspiration from a range of sources—from Joe Brainard to Alexander Calder’s wire circus sculptures, Pennsylvania Dutch folk art to Mughal miniature painting to French Art Deco wallpaper, and on and on.

My favorite sheets are…

Good old fashioned L.L.Bean cotton percale sheets. They feel so crisp and luxe and the price is right!

My favorite paint color for the bedroom is…

Stone Blue from Farrow & Ball. It’s a rich, warm, liveable blue with a point of view. It gives the room a perma-dusk feeling which is very relaxing.

My unpopular design opinion is…

A potted begonia or geranium should be the only house plants allowed.

First design love?

The 1970s White House overhaul by Sister Parish.

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

Block Shop’s new store in Atwater Village, Los Angeles! It’s a riot of color and texture and all sorts of treasures abound, from our own textiles to Puglian splatterware, rare books on design, pearl-drop earrings from Sapir Bachar, soaps and apothecary, plus special antiques we’ve collected. All four sisters (there are four of us total!) drew up our wildest fantasies into the physical store; feels like if Little Women dressed up in a palazzo in Milan. We hope you’ll come visit!