AI [ artificial intelligence ] was a hot topic at Fall 2024 High Point Market, with several panels devoted to discussing how interior designers and kitchen and bath designers can use AI tools to enhance their back end workflows and augment their creativity.

But the truly BIG NEWS at High Point Market - from my [ admittedly biased ] perspective - is that Fall 2024 High Point Market marks the first time in history that an AI designed product has ever been shown at High Point Market, the world’s largest furniture tradeshow…and it’s my AILA sink for Thompson - EEEK!

Please indulge me while I take a moment here, on my blog, to celebrate and share more about this truly momentous occasion - not just for me, not just for the Thompson family, but for the world of interior design.

In the opening image, you’re seeing Alejandra Thompson de Jordan, Vice President of Marketing for Thompson, sharing the story of AILA with a group of interior designers, new to market, who were on Jeanne Chung’s Insider’s Tour.

Jeanne and her husband, Ray, own the vibrant retail emporium, Cozy Stylish Chic, in Pasadena, CA and are Thompson dealers in SoCal. Jeanne herself goes by @jkchunginteriors on IG.

[ Note: On social, Thompson is known as @thompsontraders, but their legal brand name is THOMPSON and that’s how I refer to them here. ]

A BIT OF BACKSTORY

As many of you know who are my friends and who might be reading this post know, I have been very involved in educating and speaking about all things AI and virtual spaces [ metaverses ] for the past 2 years, as well as producing major activations for tradeshows and brands around these 2 topics.

But the most exciting thing that’s come from all of my speaking and educational activities surrounding the use of artificial intelligence was the invitation I received in June of 2023 to collaborate with luxury kitchen, bath and lifestyle brand, THOMPSON, to design a sink for them in Midjourney, which their coppersmithing artisans would then produce out of solid copper for real world use.

I wrote this blog post about the entire backstory of how this collaboration came to be:

https://www.savourpartnership.com/blog/2023/6/29/leslie-carothers-partners-with-thompson-for-ai-designed-sink

Having my AILA sink - the world’s first kitchen and bath product ever manufactured from an AI generated image make its #HPMKT debut in the Thompson family’s beautiful exhibition space within the new @313spaces building was a dream for me!

But even better?

Seeing Stories shared on Instagram, by interior designers I don’t know, who genuinely fell in love with AILA, like this one from Heather List Martin, an interior designer based in Charlotte.

Heather: if you see this? Thank you!

Heather does beautiful interior design work, including kitchen and bath design, an example of which you can see below, beautifully photographed for her by Dustin Peck. See more of his work, here, and follow Heather on Instagram here.

This IG Feed post, shared by another interior designer I don’t know, Jen of Baxter Hill Interiors, also thrilled me to read.

Jen: if you see this, thank you so much! Follow Jen on IG here.

Other designers - some of whom I know and some of who I don’t, also shared nice comments about my AILA sink with me… like these.

To each of you: thank you!

i will forever be grateful to the beautiful Thompson family for giving me this opportunity, but more than that, for the friendship, kindness, warmth, hospitality and love they have shown to me over the years I’ve known them now.

For any interior or kitchen and bath designer that knows this family, they know that this is a VERY VERY SPECIAL family, with boundless energy and the very special gift of making everyone they meet feel like they are the most treasured person on earth.

Some of you may know that, in 2022, before the AILA sink was ever a glimmer of a thought, they underwrote a 2.5 day weekend retreat for 12 of my TX based interior designer friends in the Texas Hill Country.

They didn’t require that I invite anyone they knew.. they just said to me, “Invite whomever you want - if you like them, we’ll like them, too.”

Imagine spending 2.5 days in a TX Hill Country Airbnb home with 12 people you’ve never met before AND cooking for all of them, too!!!! That’s what the Thompson women did, though, and I wrote about it all here:

https://www.savourpartnership.com/blog/thompson-traders-weekend-retreat-recap

Thompson family: thank you so very much for everything!

You are INCREDIBLE and I love you all so much.

Lastly, if you haven’t yet seen ALL of the beautiful products the Thompson family offers, make sure to visit their website here:

https://www.thompsontraders.com

And know this, designers: if you can design it - whether you submit an AI image or a hand sketch or a CAD drawing, if they can make it…they will. They offer complete customization capabilities through their CUSTOM program which you can find out more about here:

https://thompsontraders.com/custom/

And if you want more info on the AILA sink, please find it here: https://www.thompsontraders/product/aila

I leave you with this wonderful image from when AILA first debuted— anywhere - at the National Kitchen and Bath Show in February of 2024 and so many of my friends and the Thompson family’s friends were there to celebrate with us.

I will never forget this moment.

Thank you again, Thompson family, in being so forward thinking in your approach to product design, and for making my dreams come true…and the dreams of so many designers who utilize your custom capabilities for their client’s projects.

If any of you reading this have any questions, please email me here:

leslie@savourpartnership.com

My hope is that all of you who are interior designers and/or kitchen and bath designers reading this post will explore the use of AI for designing products for your client’s projects - products that are completely unique to their needs and which make them proud to own something that noone else in the world will ever have.

Leslie Carothers

https://www.instagram.com/lesliemcarothers
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesliecarothers