Lohi Telegram / Exploring the World of Dusty Deco

A home reflects those who live there. In my own bedroom, there’s always a pile of books waiting to read, a few pieces of clothing thrown over a chair that I mean to pick up (but rarely do), and in the living room is a collection of plants that have been in my family for more than a century, outliving several generations.

The most interesting homes are the ones that develop organically over the years, where not everything is bought at one place or at the same time, but that are allowed to be eclectic. Even though technically not a home, Dusty Deco’s showroom is a bit like this. Edin Memic Kjellvertz and Lina Kjellvertz founded the company – which is now also partially owned by Nordiska Galleriet – in Stockholm, before relocating to Palma.

After staying in their showroom for a few days, exploring the neighbourhood and experiencing the Dusty Deco philosophy firsthand (as we literally lived in it), we sat down with Edin to learn more about the brand and their approach to design. Listening to him talk about the evolution of the brand is a bit like reading Michael Singer’s The Surrender Experiment; one thing leads to another, and life unfolds in an intuitive and organic way by following one’s impulses and answering questions with “yes” more times than saying “no”.

What did you do before Dusty Deco?

A long time ago I worked with sales at Acne Studios, mainly towards the Middle East market and Russian-speaking countries, with Paris and Stockholm as my base. It was a very fun but also educational period of my life. At Acne Studios, we obviously talked a lot about fashion, but we also discussed design in general. Those conversations opened my eyes to the world of design.

How did you go from talking about design to running your own design company?

Both my wife and I used to travel a lot professionally. She worked at H&M, and I was at Acne Studios. We always liked going to local markets, including flea markets – when we were in Paris, we would often go to Puces de Clignancourt, for example, and we were constantly collecting stuff.

Our apartment was full of things, the basement was full, the attic was full. We had to incorporate a rule: if we bought something, we had to let go of something else. So, we started selling stuff online, we would take nice photos of the things we wanted to sell, using our apartment as a backdrop, and pretty soon we understood that people were looking for cool vintage stuff, and not necessarily from a name brand.

Our sales increased. I got the opportunity to leave my position at Acne and start consulting for the brand, as long as I took care of my markets and my job. Our business grew, which made us buy even more stuff. Eventually, we opened a small shop in Stockholm, that would only be open during weekends. The plan was for us to keep our regular jobs. But we continued to be quite successful in selling vintage things, and so we decided to quit our jobs and focus on our vintage business. The weekend shop became a store in a more central location, open every day, and we would regularly go on trips to add more inventory.

Our business grew, and the more we sold, the more we bought. We started selling more expensive things, and that made us also buy more expensive stuff during our trips. We ended up with a very big store, in central Stockholm, with a focus on high-end vintage, combined with no-name objects. Somehow, everything we selected fit together.

We wanted to create entire worlds through interior design, usings art and selected objects to create a sense of a home in the store. I’ve always found it really fun to curate rooms, to create fictional worlds. I constantly live in a dream world. My outlet is our showroom and our stores, constantly changing things up, hanging art, fixing things and rearranging.

Weren’t you anxious about leaving your permanent jobs and going into a new industry?

I had the luxury of having my consultancy, so I could make some money from it while staring up Dusty Deco. But both Lina and I are good at being spontaneous, thinking that everything eventually will work out: A cat always lands on its feet. Perhaps we’re also sometimes too similar in that regard. Of course it’s scary, but that’s what gets makes you work a little harder. Today we have two children and two dogs, but we’re still the same way. Lina can see a house and tell me that she wants to buy it, and I say OK. Now we have a company with employees, so of course there has to be a certain structure. But I think both Lina and I get a kick out of making impulsive decisions.

How did you start designing your own products?

We first started designing rugs. We were getting a few requests for interior design-assignments, and when we were planning the spaces, we realized that we were missing certain types of products that we needed to make it look like we wanted to. Rugs especially, and se we decided to start making our own. We found a producer in India, a family business of three generations all working together. They were able to create things that looked a bit quirky, like a tie-dye pattern that we thought was really cool.

We introduced the rug in the store, and that became the starting point of our own production. After that we didn’t do so much for a while, we let it evolve naturally. Soon, things were moving very quickly, and so Lina and I decided we needed a break to think about how we wanted the company to develop and also how we wanted to live our lives. For the sake of the relationship, for ourselves and for everything else.

At that time, Lina’s mother lived in Mallorca. We would visit quite often, and so we thought, why shouldn’t we spend some time in Mallorca? So, we tried it, and it was fantastic. We said to each other, if we can create a life for our family here, that would be a dream come true.

Together, we made the decision to stay in Mallorca and to sell our apartment in Stockholm. We still had the Dusty Deco store, and didn’t really know what to do with it. We had a very skilled guy managing it, but I noticed pretty quickly that when we weren’t on site, we couldn’t convey our vision to the customers or the story behind the objects, and so sales were slowing down a bit.

At that stage, we were introduced to Axel Söderberg, who had just bought Nordiska Galleriet. We began collaborating with him, finding vintage pieces for Nordiska, and Lina – who’s good at finding new brands – helped him with the store’s details department. It was around then that we decided to close the vintage part of our business and start everything from scratch. We started a new brand using the old name, Dusty Deco, which sells furniture and pieces that we’ve designed and produced ourselves.

Closing the vintage store and opening a new business seemed like a golden opportunity to be able do what we love, and to be able to live here, in Mallorca. We decided to do it, the decision really wasn’t that complicated. It’s been five years now, and in that time, we’ve lived here, continued to grow the company and to design new products. For good and bad, we wake up with Dusty and we go to sleep with Dusty.

What sets you apart from other brands?

The furniture industry is quite conservative, but we try to add a new perspective by doing something different. We want to add a bit of rock’n’roll, deliberately creating an atmosphere that’s not so perfect or meticulously arranged. Life is a mix of things, and so a home should be about putting different things together; something from the flea market next to a family heirloom, a work of art, or whatever it might be. Highbrow and lowbrow, expensive and cheap. That kind of bricolage, where everything is mixed together – is the DNA of Dusty Deco.

What I enjoyed the most about working with vintage was exactly that, the unexpected meetings. I’d have some money in my pocket and a car waiting to be filled with things, and then I’d just drive, stop somewhere that looked nice, and meeting someone who suggest that you go somewhere else to meet their friend. And suddenly you find yourself drinking wine in a barn with a French antique dealer. It’s a lovely way of working!

We wanted to bring that feeling into the new company, that it should feel like a community, a world where our customers understand us and like the same things we do, they might listen to the music we listen to or watch the same movies or travel to the same places.

How does the name work when you sell new products?

A lot of people ask, “do you mean dusty like dusty?” and yes, we do. I remember when I first started at Acne Studios, and people wondered about the name and asked if it was the same as the kind of acne you might have on your face. And yes, absolutely, but it meant something different [Editor’s Note: Acne stands for Ambition to Create Novel Expressions]. Acne was associated with something negative but became something positive, which I think is pretty cool.

We were trying to come up with a name when we first started our curated vintage business. And one day we were in Barcelona, ​​we had borrowed a friend’s house and were sitting in the garden drinking wine, listening to Dusty Springfield’s “Son of a Preacher Man”. … and so, we decided on Dusty Deco. But the name could be applied to anything; Dusty Hotel, Dusty Bar, Dusty Records, Dusty Jeans… there’re endless possibilities, and I want to do it all [laughs]! So far, we’ve only reached Dusty Deco, but the end goal is Dusty Hotel.

Tell me about the Dusty Deco showroom, how long have you had it for?

We’ve had it for three years. Previously, a Swedish artist lived here, he was here for twelve years and used the space as a gallery. The house is a city palace dating from the 17th century. The family that owns the hotel didn’t want to sell but the apartment was too big for them, so it was just sitting empty.

When the artist moved out, we contacted the owners almost directly. We met the owner, who showed us around a completely empty apartment. We told her that we were from Sweden and that we work with design and art, but that only made her say no, she thought Swedes only like to party.

Getting the apartment was like being in a casting process; we came here several times. Lina is fluent in Spanish, and that gave us some respect. Then we brought our children, dressed in school uniforms from a Spanish school, and that was also positive. Gradually, the owner agreed to rent to us. Since then, we’ve just been filling it with things.

The showroom is an apartment but also our creative office, It’s about this fictional couple that lives here. The atmosphere should be like you’re in someone’s home, not in a showroom. You should come here and feel like you’re part of something, that our DNA is reflected in this apartment.

I buy new art all the time, I buy vintage objects, and we add our own collection. The design is a continuous change. I’m here a lot, I’m obsessed with art and redecorating, it’s like therapy. It’s wonderful. To have this type of apartment, with its high ceilings, traditional Spanish aesthetics and incredible architecture – this is my dream. It’s a bit rundown, old and worn tiles – it’s the perfect environment for our products. It’s very fun to fill up with stuff. But sometimes we add design classics and contemporary art, and that creates a nice contrast, mixed with our products.