Inspired Craftsmanship
Always Bespoke, Never Beholden: Designing for Enduring Appeal
How Brizo® collections blend tradition and innovation—and how interior designers envision spaces that are at once timely and timeless.
In a culture where trends shift at breakneck pace, designers face a particular challenge: how can a place feel modern in a moment, yet independent of short-lived fads? The blend of tradition with innovation is a careful one, according to design and product experts. But with a sophisticated sensibility and meticulous intention, the balance can be beautiful.
Interior Designer: Natalie Kraiem / Long Branch, NJ, 2022 / photographer: Kirsten Francis
For Natalie Kraiem of Natalie Kraiem Interiors, everything begins with the client. “The home is the ultimate place to feel comfortable and calm,” she says. Authenticity is paramount to every project.
“The home is the ultimate place to feel comfortable and calm.”
According to Kraiem, that means designing a home that will live alongside its owner well into the future. “We design each home knowing that the clients’ needs and taste will evolve with time,” she says.
Understanding the home itself is, likewise, a worthy starting point.
Interior Designer: Natalie Kraiem / Long Branch, nj, 2022 / photographer: Kirsten Francis / featuring the Artesso® Pull-down prep faucet in Polished Chrome.
Interior Designer: JKath Design Build + Reinvent / Minneapolis, MN 2021 / photographer: Spacecrafting Photography / featuring the Invari® Single-Handle Wall Mount Lavatory Faucet with lever handles in Brilliance® Polished Gold.
“We lean into the original era of each home when possible,” says Katie Kath of Jkath Design Build + Reinvent. “We often work with existing elements of the home, grasping traditional elements that feel relevant and layering in fresh, clean lines for a modern flare.”
To fashion a space that feels genuine and alive, a client’s desires always take priority over trends. “We always make sure the space is designed without following trends,” Kraiem says. “Timeless design is classical, modern, and innovative at the same time.”
“Timeless design is classical, modern, and innovative
at the same time.”
Seth Fritz, manager of design futures for Brizo, believes this approach extends across the industry. “No one is really identifying themselves with one specific trend,” he says. “What they’re trying to create is a space that feels very theirs.”
Interior Designer: JKath Design Build + Reinvent / st. paul, minnesota, 2022 / photographer: Spacecrafting Photography / featuring the invari® widespread Lavatory Faucet with arc spout and Lever Handles in Brilliance® Polished Nickel.
Interior Designer: Natalie Kraiem / Long Branch, nj, 2022 / photographer: Kirsten Francis / featuring the invari® widespread lavatory faucet with angled spout and lever handles in Polished Chrome.
There’s room within a home for established and innovative beauty to coexist. Traditional, transitional, and contemporary design can live side-by-side and still feel cohesive, according to Fritz.
To create harmony between seemingly separate aesthetics, designers select elements that blur the boundaries. “Tradition and innovation can work very well together, incorporating one another,” says Kraiem. “I tend to prefer design elements that combine both. Traditional design has unique and beautiful elements, and innovation is very important to make the design flawless and efficient.”
“Tradition and innovation can work very well together, incorporating one another.”
Fritz says the Brizo portfolio is created with that goal in mind. “The word that comes to mind the most with Brizo is versatility,” he says. “But that doesn’t mean designed for everyone, for every space. It means you can use the objects in different ways to tell a different story in the space.”
Interior Designer: Natalie Kraiem / Long Branch, nj, 2022 / photographer: Kirsten Francis / featuring the artesso® bridge faucet with side sprayer, Single Handle Pull-Down Kitchen Faucet and bar faucet in Polished Chrome.
In Kraiem’s eyes, the Artesso® Kitchen Collection fuses the timely and the timeless with its soft angles and intriguing silhouettes. “The juxtaposition of the classic lines in modern finishes creates tension in the design that turns out to be the interesting focal point that’s necessary in a space,” she says.
Interior Designer: JKath Design Build + Reinvent / Edina, Minnesota, 2022 / photographer: Spacecrafting Photography / featuring the odin® widespread Lavatory Faucet with lever handles in Brilliance® Luxe Gold®.
In her recent Fairmount Avenue project, Kath used the Odin® Bath Collection. “It has clean lines and simple design, yet it’s luxurious enough to stand up to a traditional beveled insert bathroom vanity in a dark stain,” she says. “This bathroom leaned traditional in many ways, but the Odin® Bath Collection is the perfect balance to achieve a transitional space.”
Interior Designer: Natalie Kraiem / Long Branch, nj, 2022 / photographer: Kirsten Francis / featuring the litze® widespread lavatory faucet with low spout and extended lever handles in Brilliance® Luxe Gold®.
Across the industry, the Litze® Kitchen and Bath Collection embodies the Brizo commitment to versatility. Despite the collection’s contemporary inspirations, it’s often placed in traditional settings. “They have details and nods to historical features that people are drawn to using in all different environments,” Fritz says.
For both product and interior designers, creativity is a guiding principle. For the Brizo team, it’s key to empowering designers. And for designers, it means creating spaces that will feel beautiful for decades to come. “On the design team, we talk about the never-ending pursuit of mastering our craft,” Fritz says. “And it’s being curious. It’s challenging yourself. It’s being open with each other. It’s pushing each other constantly.”
