Welcome to Mr. Thread, thanks for being here! Every week, I bring you the interior design news and industry intel that actually matters to your business. This journal will help you stay informed, grow your business, and uncover your next opportunity. Please reply directly to this email and let us know what you think. We read every message.

Issue #00012 : February 05, 2026

Hello readers.

Amazing news: our fledgling journal has hit a dozen issues. Each one takes our small team countless hours of research, trend-spotting, analyzing, and writing.

No AI slop will ever come from us. We’re seeing real growth, but more importantly, we’re attracting quality readers.

Among you are CEOs of publicly traded companies. AD100 icons. As well as a new generation of students and juniors in design. I am glad you’re all here and hopefully finding the intelligence from this journal beneficial.

Now that we’re finding our stride, the mission is becoming crystal clear: surface money-making ideas for anyone interested in the design industry. Make sense of what’s happening. Help you find that spark—whether you’re 25 or 65—to be economically strong, empowered, and wealthy in this ever-shifting economy.

One thing I’ve noticed: our reader base has a lot of Gen-Xers, myself included. But it’s never too late to find your billion-dollar idea. Remember, Ray Kroc started McDonald’s at 52, while the average age of founders of the most successful companies is 47.

To my colleagues, hopefully something in here sparks a billion-dollar idea for you too!

Keep reading to learn about Bed Bath & billion-dollar crypto scheme, why Pinterest is the future, and how to burp your home.

If you know anyone who would enjoy Mr. Thread, we’d appreciate your help spreading the word.

See you next week.

Daylight robbery
The Financial Times just covered something I’m embarrassed to admit: curtains are prohibitively expensive. I don’t have them in my bedroom, and I’m in the soft furnishings business! I tell my wife, it’s like that old proverb: “The cobbler’s children have no shoes.” Meaning that professionals often neglect to apply their skills, time, or resources to their own homes or families because they’re too busy working for others.

But there’s a real angle here about privacy coming back. Curtains deaden sound. They bring soft material into your home. The way curtains move when windows are open makes a room feel alive. The way light shimmers off them is beautiful. Curtains with sheers behind them are gorgeous. With maximalism returning, curtains are making a comeback. They’re traditional, layered, and rich. But they remain really expensive.

Here’s a business opportunity: someone figure out how to make quality curtains accessible and you’ve got yourself a billion-dollar business. There are companies doing it—you can buy cheap curtains from Target—but they feel horrible. There’s also a sustainability angle here. Clients move and can’t throw away their custom-made curtains, because they’re too beautiful. Perhaps someone should make an eBay for curtains.

Blood on the streets
Architectural Digest just did something I’ve never seen from our industry magazines: they published a political piece. Anne McDonald, a Minneapolis designer, wrote about designing while her city is under siege from ICE operations.

The message of the article is beautiful. McDonald was in London for Design Destination London, visiting workshops, watching metalsmiths shape molten material, learning about English design. Meanwhile, she’s calling home, asking her teenage sons: Was there ICE at school today? Did you see anyone taken?

Her conclusion: “That’s the duality. The work and the witness. The beauty and the resistance.”

I love that McDonald wasn’t escaping reality—she was being emotionally rescued by a moment of beauty and normalcy. That matters. Our industry has a real responsibility to create that kind of refuge. I’ve seen the hand-painted fabrics we make bring people to tears. Art can heal.

But here’s where I differ from AD’s editorial choice: I think they have a duty to stay out of political positioning and focus on showing beauty. Not out of cowardice, but because turning design into a political megaphone can be antithetical to the sacred mission of what we do. And what we do is make beautiful, sacred objects that inspire humanity as a respite from the politics.

As Nick Cave beautifully said: “We are not in the business of saving the world; rather we are in the business of saving the soul of the world.”

AI is coming for the rendering business
Business of Home just published an insightful piece by Jen Fernandez on whether AI will put renderers out of business. The technology is here, but we’re maybe six months to a year away from something truly usable. (Check out this real-time rendering product I saw on X/Twitter.)

When you’re buying fabric as an interior designer, seeing it in a finished environment is critical. But creating beautiful imagery is incredibly expensive. You have to pay for the set, the stylist, the photographer—these are expensive propositions across hundreds and thousands of fabrics. For small companies, it’s nearly impossible.

I’ve been trying to solve this problem for years. Even with all the advances—Sora, Nano Banana, Midjourney—we still can’t get imagery that feels real. Creating a beautiful image using AI still requires that human piece in between.

This creates a brutal dynamic where smaller, independent artists are disadvantaged. We can’t afford to show our fabric in use, which makes it harder to sell. The rich keep getting richer. A couple of years ago, getting a properly rendered room that would pass for real would cost you more than setting up an actual photo shoot. Now, at least the costs are about equal.

Here’s the opportunity I keep screaming about: If you can learn this skill properly—not slop, but real, high-quality AI rendering—you can build a six-figure independent business. Even the two massive companies that serve West Elm and Pottery Barn, the ones doing thousands of catalog images, their best work still looks fake. You can tell.

If I were 23 and desperate to start work, I would learn this skill, set up a funnel, and you’ve got a business in a box making hundreds of thousands of dollars. You just have to figure out the marketing side, which in this digital age is easier than ever.

Wayfair’s latest influencer play
Perigold—Wayfair’s elevated offshoot—just tapped fashion influencer Olivia Palermo for a brand collaboration. She’s got 8.2 million Instagram followers.

Perigold is Wayfair’s attempt to capture the luxury market. You’ll find brands like Scalamandré and Kravet here. But many of us won’t touch this platform because it looks like we’re selling out. We’re set up to-the-trade, meaning we only sell to interior designers. Perigold cuts out the designer.

Will Palermo’s campaign read as authentic? That’s the question with all influencer marketing.

I think if it’s authentic and real, it will always move the needle. If you truly believe that Palermo shops at Perigold, that signal of trust is powerful, especially in an AI world. The problem is how clearly, blatantly, so much of it is money-related. This is 2026, and the audience can sniff it out right away.

Pinterest over Instagram

Business of Fashion just published a piece on why some brands prefer Pinterest over Instagram, and the data is remarkable.

Canadian footwear brand Maguire increased its Pinterest ad spend by 77 percent between 2022 and 2025. In that same period, sales generated on Pinterest increased 86 percent. Today, Pinterest is their top-performing paid marketing channel in the US, with a 5.59 percent conversion rate compared to Meta’s 1.72 percent.

You see, Pinterest users are actively researching and planning purchases. Actor Diane Keaton wrote a book about it, called “The House That Pinterest Built” (2017).

For smaller independent interior design brands, our products are difficult to search. Punch “red velvet” into Google and it will serve you cake, not upholstery. The Pinterest search and filtration system is much better suited to our needs. Plus, interior designers already use Pinterest as an essential tool. Most project management software integrates directly with Pinterest because designers use it to create mood boards for clients. It’s baked into our workflow.

For small, independent brands, Pinterest levels the playing field. Consumers who have a precise look in mind are more willing to take a chance on an unfamiliar brand. If they’re searching for orange ballet flats or large-scale damask in navy, and your brand has exactly that, they’ll buy—even if they’ve never heard of you.

While everyone is obsessing over Instagram followers, the brands looking at Pinterest are seeing better ROI. In the third quarter of 2022, Pinterest’s business was evenly split between awareness, consideration, and conversion. By Q3 2025, two-thirds of their revenue came from driving sales. Follow the money.

Where the smart money is moving—and how to get there first.

Inside the purchasing software gold rush
Business of Home just gave glowing coverage to Annuaire, a new platform that hopes to solve the industry’s purchasing problems. Why is the industry’s paper of record wasting ink on this janky startup? Annuaire sounds like a life insurance company or a dodgy airline. The website looks like it was built in two days. Did anyone even vet this company before writing the article? Someone’s paying a PR firm serious money to get this kind of coverage.

The problem Annuaire claims to solve is real—I’ve spent decades dealing with cumbersome spreadsheets, obtaining pricing, finding reps. But here’s what concerns me. All these platforms should be terrified of Notion, ChatGPT, and Pinterest. The AI world is consolidating fast among six or seven trillionaire companies that will solve these problems in a snap.

Think about the risks. You migrate to a platform like Programma HQ, spend months learning it, configuring invoicing. Then in one year, they don’t get their Series A funding and vanish. Your time and money are gone and you’re back to square one.

These platforms are dead companies walking. Be very careful starting one—because giants can eat you—or even using one, because they could disappear overnight. The market is about to get consolidated, and these startups will be the first casualties, and puff pieces in the trade press won’t save them.

Mr. Thread watches the stock market, so you don’t have to.

Home Depot stock signals the thaw is real
Home Depot shares jumped 1.2 percent Wednesday as 30-year mortgage rates dipped to 5.96 percent. Meanwhile, Williams-Sonoma hit a 52-week high of $219.72, capping a 20.22 percent year-to-date rally—the best performance in three years.

These are the two stocks I watch obsessively because they tell us where the industry is headed. Home Depot reports Q4 earnings Feb. 24, and analysts are watching closely. CFO Richard McPhail said there’s still “no catalyst or an inflection in housing activity,” but if rates keep dropping, customers may finally stop postponing major renovation projects.

The tariff uncertainty remains, but the sales momentum is undeniable. When Home Depot’s customers start spending again, so do ours. When Williams-Sonoma posts three consecutive quarters of growth, the luxury home goods market is recovering. The thaw I’ve been talking about seems to be happening.

High hopes for USA luxury market
LVMH just dropped their Q4 earnings, and here are the top lines: the United States saw growth, benefiting from solid local demand. Fashion and leather goods sales fell 3 percent globally, but the US showed a very nice rebound.

For those of us whose clients are mostly US-based, this is good news. I know we keep hearing all this bad news about luxury struggling, but there’s actually an optimistic nugget here. 

Europe saw a decline in the second half of the year. Japan was down compared to 2024. But the rest of Asia saw noticeable improvement with a return to growth in the second half.

Chairman Bernard Arnault called the group’s performance “solid” in light of “a fast-changing, agitated and at times unpredictable economic context.” He added: “2026 may also present challenges.”

My takeaway: Don’t panic about US consumer sentiment. The top earners (the people who spend millions renovating homes) continue to open their purses. That’s our customer base, and they’re still spending.

In related news: US buyers are snapping up luxury bargains from Japanese eBay sellers because the weak yen slashes USD prices by 20-30%, combined with abundant pre-owned supply. Tip: You can buy a pre-loved Louis Vuitton keepall for under $600.

Bed Bath & Beyond wants you to gamble your house on crypto
Bed Bath & Beyond—yes, that Bed Bath & Beyond, the one that went bankrupt in 2023—just announced it’s acquiring Tokens.com to launch a platform for “asset tokenization.” Translation: they want you to turn your home equity into tradable digital tokens. Here’s how they say it works. Instead of applying for a loan through a bank, you’d use their platform to access financing by tokenizing your assets. Shares jumped 7 percent on the news. Of course they did. 

Let me sound the alarm here: trading your home’s equity for pretend internet money is suicidal. Crypto assets are wildly volatile. Bitcoin swings 10 percent in a day. You need a strong stomach to pull off this kind of high-wire act, and some regular people are going to lose their shirts. 

This is a post-bankruptcy company pivoting into blockchain because the retail business collapsed. If anyone offers to tokenize your home equity, run. Fast.

RIP Saks Off 5th
Saks Fifth Avenue’s parent company just announced it will close most of the Saks Off 5th discount chain as part of its bankruptcy restructuring. All but 12 of the roughly 70 stores will close.

The 12 stores remaining open will serve as clearance venues for unsold inventory from Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, and Bergdorf Goodman. They’re stopping purchases of inventory specifically for Off 5th.

The discount business—both brick-and-mortar and e-commerce—is projected to lose $139 million in its latest fiscal year. CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck said the move lets Saks and Neiman Marcus focus more fully on their luxury clientele with the goal of selling more items at full price.

This is the right call. Here’s another iconic brand recognizing that chasing discount customers dilutes the luxury positioning. When you try to be everything to everyone, you end up being nothing to anyone.

Trump reduces Indian tariffs
President Trump just announced a trade deal with India, reducing tariffs from 50 percent to 18 percent. He’s calling it a win. Critics are calling it “a permanent tax hike” since the average tariff before Trump was 2.5 percent. The real “win” is that it could have been much worse—we were staring down 50 percent.

India is a massive manufacturing hub for interior design products. Companies moved factories there after being urged to leave China. Now they’re navigating this new reality where 18 percent is locked in permanently.

The deal includes vague promises about India buying $500 billion in US goods and stopping Russian oil purchases, but India’s Prime Minister Modi was notably silent on those details. 

If you’re sourcing products from India, run the numbers on your specific products first. This is the new normal, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Unless you’re Utah-based design power couple Shea and Syd McGee. They’re taking the US government to court to get refunds on Trump’s “unlawful” tariffs. 

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