Guest Curator: Sarah Rich

We’re happy to introduce a new feature at Supermarket, Guest Curators. We reach out beyond the walls of Supermarket and ask interesting people to tell us what they think is super at Supermarket…and why.

Our first guest curator is long-time friend of Supermarket, Sarah Rich. Sarah is an editor at Dwell magazine, senior contributing editor at Inhabitat, and co-founder of CivilEats.com. When not writing about design and architecture, she can usually be found reading recipes. She lives in San Francisco. Twitter @sarahrich.

What Sarah finds Super

Busy Bees
by Earthy Beginnings

I look forward to my friends having babies just so I have more excuses to buy onesies. I love them almost without exception, but I am especially smitten with this honeybee graphic (and of course it’s nice that it’s 100% organic cotton).

Semi Truck Leather Coaster
by Shara Porter

The coasters in my house are several generations old and while I love them, they’re more of a default item than a conscious design decision. I’ve been searching for the perfect set to call my own and I’m certainly taken with these leather ones with their sharp, metallic stamps—my favorites are the truck, the airplane, and the baby hawk. I really like that they’re soft and the use of recycled material is a plus.

City Plates
by notNeutral

While I like the trend of putting super cool patterns and designs onto melamine—it’s an easy medium and makes an affordable plate—I really covet the sets I’ve seen that put fantastic graphic art onto ceramic. As a map enthusiast (and a food enthusiast), I’d love to set a big table with these City Plates.

lessay photograph
by labokoff

Of all the ways the internet is awesome, I particularly appreciate it as a means of giving greater visibility to emerging artists and making art more accessible to the general public. It’s hard to pick favorites from Supermarket’s growing gallery, but I do love Labakoff’s collection, especially this evocative, well-aged print.

Itch
by Square Cat Habitat

I think this thing is pretty darn smart. The fact that I adore cats aside (which I do), if I had one (which I wish I did) I’d love a well-designed, good looking method of preventing my furniture from being destroyed. On top of that the design really considers the cat—its wall-mounted placement permits not only scratching, but long stretches too. I’d definitely pick the coconut fiber over the “faux.”

Pebble Soup Bowls
by Kim Westad

Almost all of my favorite foods can be eaten out of bowls (namely ice cream) so I like to have a wide range of sizes and types in the cupboard. These pebble soup bowls are a really nice size and depth— substantial enough to hold a main course but easy to cradle in your hand. They remind me of the classic nesting mixing bowls my mom used to use for baking, but the pebbled base and hand-thrown quality add a really good touch of modern craft.

What’s Your Number?
by typography photography

I have a softspot for letterpress of all kinds. In fact, the emergence of so many great letterpress shops in the last few years has led me out of the digital abyss to embrace letter-writing and snail mail once again. I like the Typography Photography as a salute to the technique itself, and this blue-tinted pic is a lovely image simply as a piece of art.

Hollow Dining Table
by Brave Space

Being an editor at a magazine about homes, I regularly look through photos of amazing places and imagine how I’d design and furnish my own “dream house.” Most of my fantasies revolve around the kitchen, but of course I’d want a place to feed people whatever I’m cooking, and I certainly wouldn’t mind if it were on Brave Space’s Hollow dining table (and chairs).

Wild Horses Kitchen Towel
by Humble

They’re horses! I really like Humble’s collection of towels and pillows, some of which feature straightforward animal prints, but the best of which feature really beautiful graphic patterns formed by grouping animal silhouettes symmetrically. The horse kitchen towels would be my pick because they’re an inexpensive way to make a kitchen feel like it has some design intention behind it—even in a rented apartment. (I also love the greyhounds.)

Hookmaker
by Design Glut

I love a clever twist on a classic object and this is a great example. As a person who obsessively puts her keys by the door at all times to be sure she never loses them, this would be a welcome addition to my entryway. It’s subtle, smart and functional.