TASTEMAKER KELLY WEARSTLER HITS A HIGH NOTE WITH HER LATEST COLLABORATION
BY SEBASTIAN PHILLIPS
There are a few designers working today with a visual universe as instantly recognizable as Kelly Wearstler’s. From interiors to barware, furniture to textiles, her aesthetic fingerprints appear almost everywhere luxury lives. She has created stone and tile collections for Ann Sacks, leather-and-marble barware for Giobagnara, rugs for The Rug Company, and lighting for Visual Comfort & Co. Farrow & Ball translated her distinctly California sensibility into richly pigmented paints, while Proper Hotels & Residences showcases her signature blend of glamour, materiality, and sculptural restraint.
That philosophy shapes her latest collaboration with British atelier Edelweiss. The Timbra, a rounded, rimless piano unlike anything on the market, feels less like an instrument and more like a collectible design. Handcrafted from layers of natural birchwood veneer, its fluid, wave-like contours transform the piano into a functional work of art.
“I wanted to create something that felt like sculpture first and piano second, without ever compromising sound,” says Wearstler. “When people encounter it, I want them to feel something unexpected, to see a work of art before realizing it’s also a beautifully crafted instrument.”
Thankfully, the engineering matches the visual ambition. Beneath its sculptural silhouette, the Timbra incorporates the harmonic technology that has made Edelweiss one of the world’s leading piano manufacturers, including a self-playing feature that fills a room with live acoustic music at the touch of a button.
The result feels decorative yet deeply functional, nostalgic yet futuristic, and unmistakably Kelly Wearstler.
