Kiosk Showcases Handmade World Goods

(Hammock Swing, courtesy of Kiosk)

Janet Ramin - In an era of excess, big box stores, and homogenization, one can easily miss the small stores that offer original products made by local artisans. And in a city the size of New York, finding that unique store is the equivalent of finding gold in a riverbed of common rocks. But New York certainly doesn’t lack inventive entrepreneurs. Enter Alisa Grifo and Marco tel Haar Romeny.

Alisa was a burnt-out set designer. She wanted a new way to express her creative side and somehow combine travel with it. She met Marco in Sweden who was also looking for ways to put his computer expertise to good use. Combine the two, shake well, and you have Kiosk.

Kiosk is a curated store that acts more like a gallery, offering products from around the world. Alisa and Marco’s philosophy involved hunting down unique items that reflected the culture of the country they were visiting and bringing it back to their store to share it with their customers, along with the product's history. In the past several years, their collections included items brought back from Japan, Sweden, Mexico, Germany, Portugal, Finland, and of course America. Currently their collection focuses on items from America, many from the state of Vermont. Above is a hammock swing from Vermont.

(Fawn Sled, courtesy of Kiosk)

Kiosk also offers a fawn sled from Minnesota, made of ash wood and great for those snowy hills (above photo)! From India, we have the Tiffin lunch box, used by many natives (next photo, below). The Tiffin is very practical and offers three compartments to store various foods - and it includes plates to eat on. 

(Tiffin lunch box, courtesy of Kiosk)

Past collections also included Fortuna, an old-fashioned pinball game from Jukka Toys in Finland, a butterfly can opener from Japan, furniture wedges from Germany (so practical for those wobbly furniture on uneven floors), to name a few (see photos below). 

Past collections also included Fortuna, an old-fashioned pinball game from Jukka Toys in Finland, a butterfly can opener from Japan, furniture wedges from Germany (so practical for those wobbly furniture on uneven floors), to name a few. 

Besides accessories and toys, Kiosk also carries unique foods that you won’t find in your local supermarket: chestnut paste from Provence, dried salted tuna (Muxama de Atumc) from Portugal, cloudberry jam (Hjortron Sylt) from Sweden, and smoked cherry blossom herbal beverage (Sakura Rosen) from Japan. 

Their offerings are far-flung and eclectic, making shopping at Kiosk truly a global adventure. 

Decorating? Make It Moroccan!

Janet Ramin - It may have started with Valentino stealing a kiss in the casbah or Lawrence of Arabia storming across rippling sands astride a camel, but our fascination with desert cultures has had a long history and continues till today. In our latest mood board, let's explore the exotic desert land of Morocco to discover the elements of Moroccan style.

Natives of the desert have lived primarily a nomadic, tribal life and consequently their furnishings had to be portable too. Through their travels, they carried with them

• pillows for their seating
• small tables and folding chairs for dining
• rugs to cover the sand 

Eventually some natives settled into walled cities - the casbah - but their homes still echo their past nomadic lifestyles. 

In our mood board above, we show the traditional pillows and ottomans that would typically grace a Moroccan home. The blue Ikat pillow and the large, fringed ottoman are both from Wunderley. The small portable Zeneb table features Moorish geometric patterns, including the pointed arches as its legs. The Hamsa Eye mirror above is made of camel bone and silverplate.

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