Inside the Buzziest Design Launches Our Editors Are Watching in May 2026

Welcome to ELLE DECORANDUM, a shopping “memo” from the editors of ELLE DECOR. Each month, we’ll share a first look at what we’re seeing—talking about, and adding to our shopping lists—so you can stay ahead of the curve.

Barrie Benson Designs the Next Chapter at Highland House

The Renzo sectional, inspired by Madeleine Castaing’s Paris apartment, tempers romance with real comfort.

A decade in, the dialogue between Charlotte, North Carolina–based interior designer Barrie Benson and Highland House furniture feels less like a collaboration and more like a natural fluency. Debuting at High Point Market this April, the anniversary capsule distills Barrie’s signature worldly and colorful style with impressive craftsmanship and difficult-to-execute upholstery details. The collection also offers a confidence in restraint: the McHale dresser, with its undulating burl veneer, carries the gravitas of a “new old” piece, while the Silvie cocktail table channels 1940s French refinement through a reeded brass frame.

“Working with Barrie to expand our collaboration has been a true privilege,” says Nathan Copeland, Highland House President. “Her design language resonates with our commitment to craftsmanship and timeless silhouettes. These pieces elevate everyday spaces while remaining deeply livable.” This is furniture designed to slip easily and effortlessly between rooms, styles, and decades. It feels like evidence of longevity, when done well, it its own form of innovation. Available to the trade, highlandhousefurniture.com.

From Kiln to Table: Guillaume Sardin in Malicorne

French artist Guillaume Sardin brings his whimsical, illustrative style to a collection of dinner plates, transforming the tabletop into a kind of playful canvas.

In Malicorne-sur-Sarthe, one of France’s oldest centers of faïence, a gestural and poetic body of work by Paris-based artist Guillaume Sardin has just emerged from the kiln. Created within a historic atelier in the Pays de la Loire, the collection reimagines traditional ceramic forms as painterly canvases: plates and vases are treated less as objects than as pages for a whimsical narrative.

The results are instinctive and expressive. Bold brushstrokes sketch mythological vignettes, from elusive gods to an octopus mid-chase, while two larger vessels trace the passage of day into night. Made using local clay and fired in conditions that still court chance, each piece carries the alchemy of process. It’s a body of work that collapses art and utility. Paintings, perhaps, but ones meant to be lived with and used daily. Price upon request, guillaumesardin.com.

In Common With Launches Murano Glass Lighting with Laguna B

The new Lido series by In Common With, created in collaboration with Venetian glass atelier Laguna B, brings the romance of Murano glassmaking into a boldly contemporary lighting collection.

There’s a certain magic that happens when contemporary design meets centuries-old craft, and the new Lido series by In Common With captures exactly that. Created by co-founders Nick Ozemba and Felicia Hung in collaboration with Venetian glass atelier Laguna B, the collection marks the studio’s first foray into Murano glassmaking.

Debuting this May at Quarters in New York, the series translates the rich visual language of the sought-after glassware Laguna B has become known for into a suite of lighting that includes orb pendants and the modular Cosmos chandelier, where hand-blown glass meets tailored metalwork. Two historic techniques anchor the collection: the improvisational goti de fornasa, where traditional artisans use leftover glass to create one-of-a-kind drinking vessels, and the intricate murrine process, where glass is stretched into rods and sliced into patterned cross-sections. Each introduces a sense of spontaneity and irregularity to the designs.

“Much of our work exists within the duality of tradition and modernity, control and spontaneity,” say Ozemba and Hung. “We embrace irregularity as evidence of the hand, the process, and the material itself.” That philosophy feels especially resonant here, where Murano’s centuries-old craft traditions are reinterpreted through a distinctly contemporary lens. The result is a lighting collection that feels both storied and current, arriving squarely during a cultural moment seeking more color, craft, and pieces that carry the imprint of how they were made. From $1,700, incommonwith.com.

clé’s New Tile Collection with Cristina Celestino Channels Seaside Style

Marine motifs and classical garden geometry converge in richly patterned tile, equal parts retro fantasia and architectural surface design, the collection transforms walls and floors into expressive compositions steeped in Mediterranean color, rhythm, and craft.

A sun-drenched sensibility runs through the latest launch from clé, created in collaboration with Cristina Celestino and storied ceramic house Ceramiche Giovanni De Maio. Spanning five designs—Chloris, Graphe, Helios, Peplo, and Thalassa—the collection draws on the language of the seaside, where marine motifs meet the order of classical gardens.

Celestino balances sharp geometry with ornamental flourish, using bold color and rhythmic pattern to create surfaces that feel both architectural and atmospheric. There’s a retro inflection to the work, though it remains grounded in a distinctly contemporary sensibility: repeating forms establish structure, while painterly details introduce movement and ease. The result is a collection that transforms tile into a narrative device—layered, expressive, and deeply rooted in craft. Presented through clé Guild, it marks a natural evolution of an ongoing creative dialogue. From $24/sqft, cletile.com.

Cuff Studio Embraces Ornament with Scalamandré

There’s a more ornamental mood emerging at Cuff Studio, where the new Petal Promenade collection layers sculptural silhouettes with richly patterned textiles from Scalamandré.

There’s a new chapter unfolding at Cuff Studio, and it’s one steeped in pattern and a touch of theatricality. Petal Promenade, the studio’s latest collection, draws on the reimagined classicism of 20th-century decorative arts, filtered through the lens of founders Wendy Schwartz and Kristi Bender. Anchored by textiles from Scalamandré, the collection moves beyond the fashion-driven exuberance of past collaborations into a more layered, ornamental terrain.

“We were yearning for a collection that honored the historical, but through a modern lens,” the founders note, describing pieces that are “more ornamental and also delicate in scale…layered with a bit of whimsy and tension.” That balance plays out across sculptural furniture and lighting, where Brutalist gestures meet floral upholstery and lacquered finishes.

A visit to Scalamandré’s archive proved catalytic, introducing a richer decorative language that feels evocative rather than nostalgic. The result is a dialogue—between California ease and New York energy, past and present, structure and softness. Or, as the designers put it: “We look back to move forward,” expanding their vocabulary while remaining unmistakably, and confidently, Cuff Studio. To the trade, cuffstudio.com.