Premiere Designers, Erin Martin and Bokja

There's a new magazine out that caters to luxury living, wine, cuisine, destinations, real estate, luxury cars, authentic antiques, high end, custom and luxury furniture, fresh interior design ideas, and design trends. It's called "Premiere Designers."

In Volume One I spent some time on "The Real Deal : ERIN MARTIN."



Erin Martin, formerly of Seattle, is the daughter of an architect and an interior designer, who owns a very creative furniture store and gallery in St. Helena, California.

Premiere Designers has a blog called Clique. In the blog I came across "Bokja."



Bokja originates in Lebanon in a store opened by two women, Houda Baroudi and Maria Hibri. The two have a blog, Bokja Bites, that explains their design philosophy and the origin of their designs.

Bokja is a Turkish word that describes the elaborately and detailed fabric created to cover a bride’s dowry. Embroidered by the bride’s relatives, this fabulously worked textile is meant to be a reminder of her past to be treasured in her new life as a married woman.

Baeoudi and Hibri find fabric and assemble the pieces to upholster a chair or sofa. Each piece of fabric has a story and together a piece of art.

Each piece of Bokja furniture is a surprise for the eyes. The chairs and sofas appear to be calling the shots on how they want to be reupholstered. Says, Hibri, “We don’t care if things match. If we like the fabrics, we find they end up liking each other.” Fabrics are varied and one chair might consist of numerous textiles that originate from places as far apart as Samarkand, Aleppo and Istanbul. They submit to no rules when it comes to combining designs and styles: floral motifs might be matched with check and stripes; kilims with wood block prints; rich velvet with crisp linen.

So far the buzz is very loud. Their designs have appeared in International Herald Tribune Style Magazine, Elle, Luxury Culture.com. Style and Grand Designs, etc. Bokja is loved by Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock, and Kate Hudson.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design gallery
Become Our Fan on Facebook