Canfield is where industry and inspiration meet,
preserving the past while pointing to the future.
Robert Southey was a British poet best remembered for penning “The Three Bears,” a tale about a mama, papa and cub who return from a walk to find a young girl has tampered with their things.
Southey was on to something: He knew home is a sacred place.
Earlier, he wrote, “There is a magic in that little world, home; it is a mystic circle that surrounds comforts and virtues never known beyond its hallowed limits.” And anyone who has ventured far can relate to his confession, “often has my heart ached for that quiet haven.”
Shinola’s designers have thought long and hard about how to become a welcome fixture in such a personal space. Its customers buy products meant to be lived in, worn out, and well loved. Heirlooms like these aren’t made overnight, and are intended to be timeless.
Shinola’s foray into home goods isn’t a flash in the pan, or a new direction. It is the extension of a brand Americans first got to know nearly a decade ago.
Shortly after debuting its watch collection in 2013, the company started selling wall clocks. Next came audio products. Today, Shinola’s shelves include board games, candles, and a snazzy power supply. The Shinola Hotel, located on the Motor City’s main drag, features objects, art, and textures that guests want in their home.
The next step in Shinola’s place in the home launches this summer at 441 West Canfield Street, just a couple doors down from the company’s flagship store. It is here, in the heart of Detroit’s midtown, where The Shinola for Crate & Barrel Collection will live.
The collection represents the direction Shinola can take the home when people let the brand in to their respites, celebrations, solitude, and everyday ordinary lives.
This includes a signature Detroit-inspired take on furniture and houseware classics, including lighting, décor, bedroom, and living collections — all designed by way of a collaboration of two American brands committed to building things well or not at all.
The Shinola for Crate & Barrel Collection is also available online at crateandbarrel.com, as well as at 16 Crate & Barrel stores. But to fully understand the collection, one must consider its origins.
Shown here during its renovation, the site of the flagship Shinola Canfield store was originally part of a series of automotive service and sales centers, including the Willys-Overland Motor Company.
A PIECE OF CANFIELD
In 1912, trolleys ran up and down Detroit’s bustling Woodward Avenue. The city’s car industry was fledgling, adding to the shipbuilding and timber fortunes that were made in the prior century. This is a period when horse-drawn and horseless carriages alike navigated cobbled streets lined by Victorian-style houses like the historic Whitney Mansion.
On an industrious block on Canfield between Second and Third, the Willys-Overland Motor Company erected buildings to sell and service vehicles. Before designing the iconic jeeps for the U.S. military, Willys-Overland was a mass-market maker of a variety of automobiles, and its Canfield location put it in close proximity to the city’s emerging middle class.
In 2013, long after Willys-Overland faded from existence, 5,000-square-feet of that original space transformed into to the first Shinola store. Alongside timepieces crafted at the first major U.S. watch factory opened in nearly a half century, there were journals handmade in Minnesota, bicycles welded in Wisconsin, and more finely crafted products.
It’s fitting that this same building and street is where Shinola’s vision for the home is on display.
Detroit’s style is decidedly eclectic and unique to a region defined by hard work, the Great Lakes, Motown, and the automobile. This style is seen on the grille of a classic Chevrolet, the hand-painted signs that dress downtown high-rises or the gritty architecture of low-slung brick buildings surrounding a factory.
Canfield is where industry and inspiration meet, preserving the past while pointing to the future.
MODERN HEIRLOOMS
The Shinola Home store showcases thoughtful design, quality craftsmanship, and materials that stand the test of time. It draws from deep stories—the process, culture, and tradition of craft—and honors the artists, weavers, artisans, and makers that preserve them.
Opening August 18th, the Shinola Home Store is a showroom destination for all that turns four walls into a home.
Art Deco echoes in the furniture pieces, each inspired by traditional woodworking techniques found in various pockets of the world. The Utility accent tables, for instance, pay homage to the meticulousness of Japanese-style joinery.
Pillows and upholstery reflect American quilting patterns and traditional embroidery techniques. Pieces like the Runwell Mirror take their cues from the architecture of a certain home-away-from-home—the Shinola Hotel.
An artist series highlights Detroiters David Rubello and Steve Shaw, whose art prints are made available for the first time.
Crafted from solid white oak, the Michigan Chair was designed to evoke resting at a lake house “Up North,” sunk into a deep-seated chair with a good book and crackling fire.
Objects in the home are filled with stories. A clock, a chair, a throw, or a coffee table. Built with care, they endure and take on a character that sets the tone in the home as the home offers magic and a mystic circle for those who live in it.