designer's notebook - from founder Anki Spets

This May the VoyageLA staff interviewed textile designer, Anki Spets, about the how AREA got started in 1990 and how it's grown since. Anki provided some great insight into the joys and difficulties of starting a business. "Being an outsider is sometimes good, I did not second guess the idea to start a textile design company and think my informal...

Summer is nearly here and that means warm weather. Our collection of linen bedding and clothing will keep you cool.  1. BREATHABLE The weave in linen allows more airflow and won't cling to your skin. Louie linen bedding 2. LIGHTWEIGHT AND ABSORBENT Moisture is absorbed and evaporates quickly. Linen can absorb 20% of its dry weight before giving a feeling of being...

The main thing is to always remember not to take ourselves too seriously. We make great sheets that sure, are very useful. Importantly, it has to be fun!2006 was a big year for creativity and growth. We came out with Heather Grey and Heather Natural, undoubtably some of our best fabrics that still are so relevant and build the foundation...

Introduced in 1995, our Speed Rail bed was made of aluminum scaffolding pipes and fittings from the local hardware store, Metropolitan Lumber in Manhattan's Soho. Pictured here is the Speed Rail bed in our Varick Street showroom (left) and featured in a home from Architectural Digest magazine in 2002 (right). In the early days of AREA, we had no bed...

Printed fabrics were the very beginning of AREA. They have changed over time but the techniques and how Anki designs them are still the same. Here you can see the steps in design - in this case, linen/cotton blend table top items from 1998-99. Anki made the original print for the circles pattern below by hand printing on a small...

Here's a little history about the bedding featured in this week's anniversary post, DIA grey.We loved this diamond patterned collection when it was first introduced in 1994. The fabric was a cotton/linen blend that had the best qualities of both materials - sturdy sheen of linen with the softness of cotton.We reincarnated the RIGA pattern with our cotton sateen DIA...

OCTOBER 1990 our debut collection was first seen at the Home Textile show at the Hotel Pennsylvania in NYC. The black/white pattern is called NATURE.We got 3 customers! ABC carpet, ADHOC (best store ever, it unfortunately closed) and Stroud's, a chain from California. Not a bad start. The fabrics were screen printed in South Carolina and the cotton fabric was...

Anki Spets, owner and designer of Area, shares some tips on Remodelista today - Linen Logic: 20 Tips for Taking Care of Your Bedding, written by Margot Guralnick. We are excited to have this great post on such a nice website. Check out the article to learn helpful techniques for caring for natural fabrics.

The way cotton yarns are woven determines the look and feel achieved in the final fabric. There are two basic types of cotton fabric - percale and sateen.A percale is evenly woven, with one yarn over and one yarn under. This makes for a sturdy fabric with a matte finish and a crisp feel. Our Heather collection (shown below) are...