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How a Hardware Line Born from a Jewelry Collection Captured the Zeitgeist of Vibrant Young Designers
How a Hardware Line Born from a Jewelry Collection Captured the Zeitgeist of Vibrant Young Designers
By Rebecca Sherman
For designers Kat Weeks Mulford and Lee Addison Lesley, the road to success is paved with gemstones. Friends and business partners for 20 years — they met while studying graphic design at the Portfolio Center in Atlanta — they launched their jewelry collection Addison Weeks in 2012 with a focus on semiprecious stones set in 24K gold-plated metal. In 2016, Oprah fell in love with a pair of their stud earrings and included them on her Favorite Things list. The recognition was life-changing, garnering Addison Weeks national attention that skyrocketed sales and infused the fledgling company with money to pursue another dream: home design. They started out designing a few small products, such as brass tray handles.
When Charlotte interior designer Barrie Benson asked them to translate a favorite Addison Weeks bracelet into a cabinet pull for her collection of furniture for Highland House, Mulford and Lesley came up with 20 designs, all of them studded with gemstones — “and a hardware line was born,” Mulford says. Modern Matter — founded in 2019 and based in Norfolk, Virginia — quickly filled a niche that had been missing in the decorative-hardware market. “There’s a lot of really cheaply made hardware out there, and we’ve always loved heavy vintage hardware we’d find in flea markets,” Mulford says.
“There was a need for luxury hardware that’s chic, fun, and innovative. Since we weren’t inherently hardware designers, we weren’t concerned with the limitations of scale or dimensions, and that turned out to be a blessing. We just designed what we wanted in our own houses.” Handcrafted in solid brass by artisans, the pulls, knobs, and hooks come in different finishes and sizes. Backplates allow for customization with a dozen different gemstones, including tiger’s eye, lapis, malachite, Dalmatian jasper, and moonstone — a best seller. There’s also a rotating collection of exotic stones such as pink onyx or chrysoprase. Most of their hardware can be customized via their website, with delivery in three to four days. Collaborations with other top designers include Michelle Nussbaumer, Eddie Ross, Sarah Bartholomew, and Young Huh.
Mark D. Sikes will debut a collection in early 2023. “We love to tap designers to find out what’s missing in the market,” Mulford says. “Collaborators are drawn to us because we break the rules.”
The first collaboration.
KWM: Once while at High Point, someone asked us to give a designer a ride to the airport in Charlotte, since we were going that way. We had a car full of stuff, and we go to pick her up, and it’s Michelle Nussbaumer. We are massive fans of hers. For the first 10 minutes, she thought we were her Uber drivers. It was 82 miles to the airport, and there were tornados all around us, it was a crazy drive. But she’s such a creative force that by the time we got there, the three of us had designed a whole line of hardware. We took the ball and ran with it, and six months later at the next High Point Market, we had 30 pieces of hardware based on Michelle’s vision. She couldn’t believe it — that’s how we grew organically. It was people taking leaps of faith in us and us in them.
In the future.
KWM: For 2023, we’re moving into cool decorative hooks — we just launched beehive hooks with Sarah Bartholomew — and we’re really thinking about how hooks can be paired with back plates. We’re also really excited about some latches we’ve been designing with Mark Sikes — hardware that has more interior guts like mechanisms within. One of the big things I’m super excited about is our cool decorative doorknobs. That’s really going to turn everything upside down, to have some crazy doorknobs.
The challenge is not Lee and I dreaming up new and cool innovative things; the challenge is reining us in.
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