My Pieces of The VOICE Collection with TOV Furniture
You guys!!! I’m officially a FURITURE DESIGNER!!!!
Yes! I’m one of six power-house interior designers that TOV Furniture brought together to create a historical collaboration that celebrates our voices, experiences and existence as Black interior designers! Don Ricardo Massenburg, Nile Johnson, Erika Hollinshead Ward, Nicole White, Justin Q. Williams and I collectively created 20+ pieces that came from our souls.
TOV asked me to describe my contributions in three words. I gave them…
Modern. Textured. Significant.
Each piece of my collection reflects a major design event in my life! The texture of the tall dresser mimics the texture of the art installation/headboard wall of my bedroom that I designed as a featured designer for the One Room Challenge.
The base of the coffee and side table reflect the design I hand-painted as a mural in my dining room that "broke the internet".
The arched raised panels of the media console is a nod to the very first piece of furniture that I designed as a contestant (and later, winner) on HGTV's Design Star: Next Gen.
Each of these events elevated my brand, amplified my platform and strengthened my VOICE in the design community as a whole. I dedicate this collection to my husband, Marcus Hamilton, who did me the honor of helping me name each piece after women, whose voices we loved to listen to together — Sade Adu, Etta James and Nina Simone.
The entire process started way back in February of 2021. TOV told each of us to create from within. No restrictions. No barriers. Design whatever we wanted and they would help us bring it to life. My process started with two questions: “What do I want these pieces to say?” “If I were a piece of furniture, what would I look like?” The first thing that came to mind was color and texture. I knew black | white | wood would be the basis of whatever I created. Its the consistent thread throughout my home and a lot of what I create.
I then knew that best place to create from was from my own needs. I looked around our home and made a list of what I needed. First was a new chest for Marcus. I loved the mid century vintage one that he had, but it just wasn’t functioning properly for him. The size was perfect for our room, but the drawers were too shallow and the needed a place to corral his growing jewelry collection. I designed the Adu chest specifically for him and the space that we retreated to together.
I dusted off my SketchUp skills and went to work on the concept. Below is what I sent to the TOV team.
And this is what we created!
The next piece our home needed was a side table with adequate surface space. I have two swivel chairs in our living room with a round table in between, but it’s not the best surface for decor items AND a place to put your drink! I wanted to create something that would solve that problem, so enter the Etta Side table.
I knew I wanted a surface that was rounded, but elongated for more surface space. I suck at drawing ovals in SketchUp, but the team got the point. I, also, thought it was the perfect piece to incorporate the hand-painted mural that I painted in our dining room, so I made that design the base of the table.
And here she is now!
The TOV team loved it so much that they suggested we add a coffee table version and I can’t thank them enough for that! I absolutely love how it came out!
And for my last piece, my designer brain kicked in. I love the vintage piece that sits below our TV in our living room, but I’ve always hated that it was a bit too small. I also hate that most media consoles that are sold to the masses are way too small for the gigantic TVs that people buy nowadays. I wanted to design a piece that was the perfect scale to support sitting under our (and everyone else’s) oversized televisions. I drew inspiration from one of my favorite pieces of vintage furniture, my Brutalist Lane dresser.
It’s the perfect scale and I love how substantial it feels. The collage of wood pieces that conceal the drawers speaks to my heart daily, so I knew I wanted to incorporate that idea into my piece. Again, I wanted to nod to the very first piece of furniture that I designed as a contestant (and later, winner) on HGTV's Design Star: Next Gen: a console table. Because the warehouse didn’t have anything in the right scale that would work, I had to create one. I’d originally planned to put two ottomans underneath, but then saw one of the arches that we’d cut out of the bookshelf that I customized. I took the arch and installed it upside down underneath the console and instantly fell in love!
My console table from Design Star: Next Gen Episode 1
My custom bookshelf from Design Star: Next Gen Episode 1
That center arch was something I wanted to call out in my new piece and considering the overall size of it, I had enough rooom to “repeat” the design on either side. I wanted both doors and drawers in this piece and wanted the design to stand out, just like the pieces on my vintage dresser.
And here’s how my Simone Credenza turned out.
I didn’t want hardware interrupting the overall design, so I specified finger pulls for the doors and it may be my favorite feature of the piece.
I can not begin to describe how proud I am of how these pieces came out. The TOV team were incredible to work with and made this process a literal dream come true. I’m still pinching myself that something I created is now being manufactured in mass and will soon be seen in homes all across the world. I mean…
WHAT IS LIFE?!? A dream, I tell you. A DREAM.
Thank you so much to the entire TOV Furniture team for being incredible and investing your time, energy and money in this first of it’s kind collection!
You guys can shop the entire collection RIGHT NOW on the TOV Furniture website. You can even shop by designer! I can’t wait to see each piece in the wild!