Life & Work with Michaele Simmering of Atwater Village

Today we’d like to introduce you to Michaele Simmering.

Hi Michaele, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Kalon began almost by accident. Johann and I were living in Berlin in the early 2000s, surrounded by a very experimental culture, and when we came to Los Angeles we started making pieces for ourselves. We were incredibly particular—honest materials, clean forms, nothing superfluous—and those pieces didn’t really exist in the market. I was in grad school and pregnant; it felt like a now-or-never moment to try our own studio. We prototyped a few things at home, people asked where they could buy them, and in 2007 Kalon was born.

From the start, the idea was beauty with integrity—objects whose decisions are legible in the work. We chose domestic production, natural finishes, and real joinery even when it made things harder. Our first major piece, the Caravan Crib—designed for our own child—set the tone: purposeful, materially honest, built to last and evolve.

Nearly two decades on, we still design slowly and live with everything before it leaves the studio. We work with craftspeople in the U.S. and Germany, and we think of the home as an ecosystem—objects shape how we live, what we notice, and what we value. Kalon is an independent design studio and a cultural platform; alongside collections, we produce editorial projects and programming that explore the made world. The through-line is consistent: sculptural, pared-back forms; quiet materiality; and a belief that well-authored, functional objects can shape the way we live.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It’s never been a smooth road. We launched Kalon in 2007, right on the cusp of the financial crisis, and were immediately told it was the worst possible time to start a furniture company. On top of that, we insisted on doing things most manufacturers said were impossible — working only in solid wood, avoiding synthetic finishes, keeping production regional. At the time, sustainability wasn’t a buzzword in design; it was viewed as impractical. We had to convince both craftspeople and customers why it mattered.

There were many moments when it would have been easier to compromise — to offshore production, to chase trends, to grow faster than felt right — but we knew we’d regret that. Staying independent has always meant moving at our own pace, sometimes slower than the market demanded. But it also gave us resilience — resilience that has carried us through not only the challenges of our beginnings but also the upheavals of today: a global pandemic, political instability, wars, tariffs, and economic volatility that have put enormous strain on independent studios.

If anything, those struggles have clarified our values: to keep working with integrity, to build deep relationships with our craftspeople, and to design work that endures. Nearly two decades later, those early struggles are the foundation of Kalon’s identity.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Kalon is a design studio, but I’ve never thought of our work as just furniture. The objects we make are pared back and archetypal, rooted in natural materials. We ask people to fall in love with those details — to see beauty not only in the object itself but also in how and why it’s made.

What we’re known for, I think, is pushing boundaries in both sustainability and design. Much of what Kalon has done is to shift the conversation. Our work is often described as timeless and archetypal, defined by rigorous materiality and quiet precision. Every element is intentional. The result is work that feels effortless, yet deeply considered.

What sets us apart is our interest in creating work that speaks beyond this moment. We see our work as part of a larger cultural dialogue, in conversation with ideas, histories, and practices that shape how we live. Our projects — from our Matter & Meaning series to our journal and showroom programming — are extensions of that thinking, positioning Kalon within a continuum of cultural production as much as design.

What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
The design industry is in a period of explosive change. Over the next decade, I see it becoming increasingly crowded as technology lowers barriers and opens the field to new participants. At the same time, we’re seeing massive failures, massive consolidations, and massive growth. It feels less like incremental evolution and more like another industrial revolution — expansion in every direction at once.

For independent studios, the challenge is survival. Political conflict, economic volatility, tariffs, and climate crisis are already reshaping the ways things are made and sold, and making it harder for smaller studios to endure.

At the same time, I believe this moment is forcing a reckoning. The industry has to move beyond sustainability as a marketing line and embrace it as the foundation for how things are produced and consumed. Regional manufacturing, thoughtful material use, and slower, more deliberate design aren’t trends — they’re necessities.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kalonstudios.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kalonstudios/

Image Credits
Portrait: Piergiorgio Sorgetti