14 WINTER 2026 FROM THE EDITOR I remember that when I was younger, my mother had a big wooden cutting board – one that never actually saw a single vegetable. It was our jigsaw-puzzle board, stationed at the end of the dining table. I took the challenge seriously as we dumped the pieces in a satisfying scatter. I had my method: Ziploc bags in a lineup, each filled with pieces grouped by color, pattern or the faintest shift in tone. It felt like a small intellectual triumph every time a section came together, and without realizing it, an early lesson in patience and perseverance. Design – and life – still works that way. We start with fragments: an idea here, an instinct there, a detail that doesn’t quite make sense. Slowly, with confidence and a willingness to experiment, the picture comes into focus. It’s not about speed but about seeing possibility in what looks like chaos, trusting that the pieces we’ve chosen will eventually fit. This issue celebrates that process. The designers we feature embrace the beauty of assembling a vision, trusting instinct as much as intention. Their spaces remind us that good design is about resolution – how the choices align, how the story holds together. As we step into a new year, I find comfort in that. In the small acts of sorting, refining and reshuffling, if necessary. In knowing that clarity arrives not all at once, but piece by piece. Here’s to the puzzles we’re solving now – and the ones waiting for us just out of view. THE BIG PICTURE Photograph Monica Spezia / Styling Alice Salerni A C E R A MIC PIECE BY MONICA C A S T I G L I O N I S I T S O N A N A RT I S A N AL TABLE UNDER A METAL S C U L P T U R E B Y H E R F R I E N D A N T O N I NO SCIORTINO. BETWEEN B R O N Z E AND CLAY, THE ARTIST A N D J E WELER – DAUGHTER OF D E S I G N ER ACHILLE CASTIGLIONI – T U R N S TOUCH INTO A WAY OF T H I N K I N G A N D L I V I N G . ARTIST A N D J E W E L L E R : MONICA C A S T I G L I O N I