Turkey & Some . . .

My first experience with group travel to Turkey, and a couple behind the scenes of designing and creating a line of wallpaper & tile.

Jul 17, 2024

Istanbul (October 2022) . . . I cannot wait to return.

Fying out of Austin is never easy . . . of course, on my departure to Istanbul, my flight was delayed and I missed my connection through London. You have to go through security AGAIN when making a connection in London and it isn’t pretty. I barely missed my flight. I had to stay in London for 8 hours and catch another flight to Istanbul. Slept in a lounge and hoped I wouldn’t miss my rebooked flight. I landed alone, at 4 am, in the biggest airport I have ever been to. Not the best way to start a trip that I was sort of questioning at this point, like what was I doing?! Why did I think traveling across the world alone to meet strangers was a good idea? Well, let me tell you it is one of the best things I have ever done. And I would do it again, and again and again.

The next afternoon I sat in the lobby of the hotel waiting for people who looked like they might be a part of this highly immersive tour. I finally laid eyes on some people and immediately recognized Elizabeth and Clare, who were our guides. Elizabeth is the owner of Tulu Textiles, Clare is a fabric designer and is an incredible actor, yes actor! Watch her in the Sisters Karras. These women have put together the most beautiful experience in Turkey and for that reason I want to respect their business and not give away too many of the details.

The tour was through Istanbul, Konya and Cappadocia and honestly, like most travel, you could stay in these cities for much longer than we did.

The first days were spent in Istanbul where we had a lovely walk and group dinner with a view of the city on the first full day. Incredible. The next day was amazing. We walked across the Galata Bridge to the Spice Bazaar, to the historic gem: the Rustem Paşa Mosque, this was my first time entering a mosque. Then up through Mahmut Paşa shopping area to the Grand Bazaar. Talk about being overwhelmed. I could not believe I was shopping for textiles in the middle of the Grand Bazaar. I had to take a moment to compose myself. You do not want to go the bazaar with anyone other than someone who has been and knows where to take you! Elizabeth and Clare introduced us to the best textiles and antiques dealers, jewelry dealers, and ceramics. It was an incredible adventure and it was only the first day!

I bought some incredible pieces that we are slowly installing in some of our projects . . . I know I cannot keep it all and want to share these beautiful things with our clients.

The next day we explored a lovely private museum which also housed a collection of Anatolian kilns. We took a trip down the Bosphorus to Eminönü/Sultanahmet - the old city.

We took a short flight to Konya and explored floor after floor after floor of rugs at the shop run by brothers Hüseyin (Tamam’s third partner) and Asim, it was truly magical. We stayed right across from Rumi’s tomb in the sweetest hotel.

Yes that’s us in the Wall Street Journal with Hüseyin!

We then drove to Üçhisar, Cappadocia. We met up with our amazing local guide, Mustafa, for a guided hike through the incredible Love Valley. You can tell by these images why it’s called Love Valley, wink, wink. He and Donna really hit it off. He was so lovely and I hate so much to have to write this but he and his son died in the earthquake.

Mustafa and Donna.

We had the most incredible group dinner at a private, original cave home in Üçhisar with gorgeous views and amazing local home-cooked cuisine.

Any chance you get to travel with a group that is small and immersive like this, do it! The people were so great: George and Lucy, designers from Kansas City, Molly, Lucy’s super cute sister, Jeannie and Kaoru, designers from San Francisco, Donna, antique dealer from Bali, Nancy and Melanie, sisters in law from Oklahoma, my husbands home state. And of course Clare & Elizabeth.

ADI Tile & Wallpaper . . . coming soon . . . and we are so very excited.

I have always loved tile, what designer doesn’t, I know but I have always wanted to design a line of tile. But of course, it had to be colorful, and made by someone that I trust. It was always a dream but until I started a coaching program and made it a priority it didn’t happen. My operations manager, Mira, scheduled out dates and deadlines for us and we added it to our calendars and stuck to it. And I am not going to lie being held accountable and hitting our goals is so freaking satisfying. I really look forward to our design development sessions and watching our designs come to life is so incredible. It’s a marathon as they say . . . definitely not a sprint.

Where does one start? Well, thankfully the company we are working with is a well known manufacturer of tile in Morocco. I have long admired their work and their business. Plus they are just really fun to work with. I had sketched a few designs but of course translating that to tile is another story. We played with scale and found that 8 x 8 tile is the most cost effective when it comes to packaging and shipping it. There are also so many different colors to choose from so we decided create a color story. Our collection only includes 8 different colors in various combinations. We wanted to create a collection that was cohesive, with interesting colorways and joyful designs. When we first started on the collection the colors did not feel strong enough so we went back to the drawing board, like we have several times. I could not have done this without our incredible designer, Claire. She has a great eye and technical drawing skills that I do not have.

I have played this video countless times! I think I screamed when it was sent to me.

Turkey & Some . . .

My first experience with group travel to Turkey, and a couple behind the scenes of designing and creating a line of wallpaper & tile.

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