It feels monumental to begin this blog with such a big announcement! If you’ve been following along on our Instagram account @wilhousedesigns , by now you must have had some inclination that candles were in our near future. We just couldn’t resist sharing those sneak peeks! However, the addition of an entire new website venture has been much more tightly sealed. Surprise! Now before you hop over to check it out (and who can blame you, we’re beyond excited to show it off), we hope you’ll read on for the inside scoop on the evolution of Wares Co.
First, it's important we note that Wilhouse Designs is not changing. While you have seen us add a little color into our lives the last few months, we're calling it a refresh, not a restructure! Andrea will continue to bring the bold, the innovative, the modern, and the creative into the interior design world, and she's thrilled to be immersed in some really exciting renovation projects as we speak. But with one ultra-motivational trip to Atlanta Market in January and the addition of few new team members to help facilitate the mission, we realized it was time to take the leap into the next phase of Andrea's dreams for the business. The ultimate goal has always been to introduce a curated collection of homewares, a sort of sister company for Wilhouse where Andrea could share favorite pieces and make her aesthetic attainable for everyone. We dabbled in the idea during out first anniversary celebration earlier this year and really enjoyed the entire studio shopping experience. But we had fallen in love with a few special product lines, as well as some fabulous original artists we discovered at Market, so the pull to go big continued to tug at us. After hours, Andrea drafted the initial concept for Wares Co. and even secured the website, and so she dated the idea secretly until one day a logo and a simple "I think it's time" appeared in my email.
Enter the Wares Collection. A very official, "oh my goodness, this is really happening" online shopping experience we then spent several months refining. Wares Co. intends to be a very dynamic homewares journey for our clients and all you friends out there. We plan to continue layering in new collections frequently; bringing you carefully curated original art selections, new lines of accessories, linens, and everything in between. The list will simply grow organically as we discover unique collections that sing to us. We are so excited to offer you all thoughtful additions featuring the kind of color, pattern, and texture that will truly make you feel something when you see them added to your spaces!
We mentioned a dreamy, super inspiring trip to Market serving as the catalyst to push these aspirations into high gear. We can't say it enough, that whirlwind trip opened our eyes to all the possibilities. It flooded us with color and further honed the entire Wilhouse aesthetic. We were on fire! As we shopped for clients, we tucked away product photos and business cards and even placed orders for a few things that felt like statement pieces we couldn't leave without (like those gorgeous coffee table books above and Andrea's favorite statement jars). But it still felt like a "maybe some day"... until we rounded a corner on the High Design floor and fell head over heels for our next big thing! The electrifying display of colors in a simple, clean, and modern packaging had captivated us first, but within moments we were desperate to know what the rich fragrance was. There was a depth to the scents that was unmatched by any other fragrance line we had seen so far, and we couldn't help but linger as we begin forming familiar connections with what we were smelling. One fragrance transported Andrea to her engagement trip to Italy with Alan. Meanwhile, I couldn't take my nose out of a candle that reminded me of childhood summers barefoot in the grass. We didn't realize it when we eagerly took the rep's business card, but it was right there in that booth that the idea of signature scent stories for our projects began to take shape. We chattered about Glasshouse Fragrances the rest of the day, and it quickly became apparent that this foundational collection which would kick-start our new adventure was no longer a matter of "if", but "when"!
The Glasshouse Fragragrances booth at Atlanta Market- it was love at first sight!
Fast forward several months of dreaming, scheming, website design (thanks to our ultra-talented new intern who has made it her baby since she started), and an amazing photoshoot to usher it all in, and we are bursting at the seams to finally take you along on the next leg of this journey!
So, you ask, besides the immediate love affair with Glasshouse, why candles first? What lead you to chose home fragrances as your first key collection for Wares Co.? Well, we could wax on about the psychology of smell. Smells have a stronger link to memories and emotion than any other sense, and there is definitely a science to explaining that type of sensory experience. But it all amounts to our deep desire to further enhance the feeling of home for our clients. We hope to harness that evocative power of smell to trigger positive memories, good energy, and feelings of comfort and sense of place in their new spaces. We truly believe that pairing the right fragrance with their new aesthetic will complete the total sensory experience we want to provide!
This leads us to our favorite part of the story, as we invite you to peak behind the curtain to discover why Glasshouse Fragrances feels like the perfect fit. Now, we’re not daring to imply that the universe meant for us to partner with Glasshouse, but we must admit so many little aspects have us smiling at the “kismet” of it all. The first and most obvious being the name and branding similarities. The gold accents, the vibrant colors, and that name! I mean, don’t Wilhouse and Glasshouse sound like sisters already?! We’re eager to follow up on Instagram with the fun reel where we realized the gold metal base for those scent scene diffuser sticks actually echoes our Wilhouse logo! But it goes deeper than simply agreeing with the overall aesthetic of Glasshouse, we wholeheartedly agree what they stand for, too! This empowering woman-owned company was started in Australia in 2006. (Yay, girl bosses!) Single mom Nicole Eckels was a New York transplant looking for a quality candle that spoke to all the exotic aromas in her new country, and when she found the market lacking, she rolled up her sleeves and learned to make her own! In a recent interview for Authority magazine, Nicole explains “I had a mother who loved beauty and the transformative nature of makeup and fragrance. Her love of it led me to believe that your sense of smell is the most powerful one of all.” She goes on to note “I started Glasshouse Fragrances because I believed in my vision and believed there was a demand for what I would go on to create… I love the creative process and the challenges that running a business brings, and I knew that by following my passion, we would be successful.” What seemed to strike a chord the most was Nicole’s summary - “Your gut is where your talent and vision live, and it’s a unique point of view. This has served me in my life and in business. I wish I knew that from the start, I would have trusted it more and believed in myself when others didn’t.” The Wilhouse team operates under that very same philosophy as well, often double checking with each other to make sure we’re following what “feels right” for the dreams Andrea set in motion last year! The interview served to confirm, we’re so glad we trusted our gut intuition on Glasshouse!
"Our fragrances are daringly potent and absolutely addictive, designed by the world's leading perfumers. In short, we were created by scent addicts for scent addicts." - Glasshouse Fragrances
Founder Nicole Eckels has taken her company from test runs in her kitchen, to a luxury brand that is obsessed with quality, and it shows! The candles are all made by hand- hand wicked, hand poured, and hand polished. The soy blend wax and recycled cotton wicks offer a clean and even burn. And we’re excited to show you just how easy it is remove the leftover wax once you’ve finished the candle so that you can reuse those gorgeous glass jars! A candle made with the highest possible standards deserves the proper TLC, so we’ll be offering the special Glasshouse wick trimmer as well. The 24 carat gold-plated trimmer was designed to get that perfect wick height, which we learned is crucial to avoid smoking candles and unsightly soot on the jar! (Apparently, we had been candle-ing all wrong before!) If flames aren’t an option at your house, were also delighted to carry the line of diffusers, as well as a new liquid-less diffuser system called the Scent Scene that is quickly becoming a Glasshouse best seller!
Reuse & Recycle- The glass jar, lid, and silicone seal encourage recycling and up cycling. Swipe to see a few of the possibilities.
With home fragrances so delicious that followers began to request the same scents in perfume form, Glasshouse thankfully answered the call with personal fragrances and hand care products. We’ve chosen to dip our toe in with the line of luxury hand lotions, and we’re pleased to share they are vegan friendly and leave our skin feeling buttery soft, yet non-greasy. As we learn your favorite Glasshouse scents, we look forward to introducing the complimenting perfumes, soaps, and body creams into our foundational Glasshouse collection at Wares Co.
We’ve poured out our love for this incredible company, but you’ve simply got to see the textures and premium packing that captured us initially! Interestingly enough, one olfactory-centric research article we read suggested that people tend to smell in color. For example, test subjects were handed pieces of paper dipped in scents, and they associated a citrus scent with the colors yellow, orange and green. When given vetiver, a grassy scent, they envisioned green and brown. So it would seem there is a clever sensibility to Glasshouse with their vibrant color and scent pairings!
If you've stuck around through our entire love note to our favorite new brand and all the energy it took to make this dream come true, thank you. Thank you for being here and for all the support as we counted the days. We look forward to your feedback and hope to see your name on a shipping label very soon. Or if you're local, please be sure stop by the studio so we can help you create your home's personal scent story. Now without further ado, here's the link to our Wares Co. website. Click the "shop here" button below.
Cheers, Andrea & Jen
Sources:
Design/ Brand Styling- Andrea Wilson @ Wilhouse Designs
Photography- James and Company Photography