If I believed in the heaven and hell dichotomy, heaven would be the Henry Road store and hell would mean being locked out of the Henry Road store while being forced to peek inside its windows!
I’m sure you’ve already heard of Henry Road,but just in case…Henry Road is both a line of products and a store created by and opened by designer Paula Smail. Paula’s collection of home textiles, accessories, paper goods and fabrics are bright, bold, pattern-driven, oh so droolworthy and among some of my favorites out there. They are for sale both online and in the Henry Road brick and mortar shop (located off of Ventura Blvd. in LA), where you can also find works from other designers as well as vintage finds as well.
I’m super excited to be sharing my interview with Paula today for Wednesday Indie Artist Fixx. And if that’s not exciting enough, Paula is having a sale to celebrate her one-year brick and mortar opening. Starting on May 1st, everything in the Henry Road online shop will be 40% & most things in the shop too (while stock lasts) and the sale will run until May 10th. You know I am so there…got it marked on my calendar!
1. What’s the name of your business, what do create and sell and how did you get your start?
My business is called Henry Road and is named after a street I lived on as a child in South Africa. I design textiles and make pillows, table cloths, bags and other stuff. I sell through my website and through my store which I opened a year ago. I love having the store as it gets me out of my studio and allows me to do one of a kind things like lampshades and upholstery. Trawling through markets for fun vintage items to sell is such fun. I have always had an interest in and passion for interior design so when I decided to leave my corporate job and look for something more creative to do, doing something related to interior design made sense. Through a series of arbitrary happenings and decisions, I ended up here.
2. What are your inspirations in your art and life?
I pretty much am inspired by everything that catches my eye. I am as likely to be inspired by a single flower or a plate as I am by a building or a piece of clever design in a magazine. I have been lucky enough to live and travel all over the world — the sensory overload of a new culture, place, food is a joy.
3. What’s better all the money in the world or all the free time?
Both sound pretty good but if I had to choose, I would go for the money as the free time without any money would be plain scary to me!
4. What are some of your biggest pet peeves?
People who talk on cell phones while someone is serving them in the supermarket or elsewhere.
5. What blogs and mags do you read and what shops do you shop at?
Am a design magazine junky. My favorites are Vogue Living (Aus), Living etc, Selvedge and most of the French interior mags…..but mostly I read a lot of them. I skip around on blogs depending on what I am working on at the time — they are great sources of inspiration and ideas. Shop everywhere and anywhere.
6. What’s new? Any products or projects you’d like to share?
We are celebrating our store’s first Birthday so getting ready for a big sale May 1-10 is taking up time at the moment as is planning for the change up we will do in the store and online once the sale is done!
7. What are you reading, watching and listening to?
Just finished reading The Sharper your knife, the less you Cry , am half way through The Elephant and the Dragon — can’t remember what else is on the nightstand. Watching too much television — like all the crime dramas and Dancing with the Stars and American Idol are my current guilty pleasures. Most of my listening time is now in the store — currently in the CD player — Francoise Hardy, Keb Mo, Carole King, Gilberto Gil and Isabelle Mayereau.
