Our most recent ‘Friday Five’  guest is Kyra Hartnett, co-founder of Twenty2 Wallpaper.

In 2001, Twenty2 started as a multidisciplinary firm, founded by Kyra and her husband, Rob. They created graphics and interiors for retailers as well as full-service residential projects. 

We are lucky to partner with Kyra and her team at Twenty2, to translate our patterns to wallcoverings.

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Here is an excerpt from the conversation. To listen to the whole chat, tune into our IGTV here.

1 – How are you, your family and the business is doing at these uncertain times?

We feel incredibly grateful that our family is healthy. Our work team is healthy and business has remained robust during this time. There certainly was a bit of a slowdown in March, and we were prepared for the worst, but I feel grateful that things have remained robust. I am thankful for the position that we are in and recognize how privileged we are to be working in an industry with a big future.

2- What led you to start Twenty2 and how did you come up with that name?

We founded our business in January 2001, almost 20 years ago. My husband and I are partners, and we met at work at an Australian clothing retailer in NYC called Country Road. It was one of those companies where they provided a lot of autonomy. It was big enough that you could approach a project that you were not nearly qualified for, and it gave the best experience. 

I was a drama major in college. I had no previous work experience relevant to what I was doing at Country Road in marketing, customer service, and brand building, but I took on those different roles. Rob started working right out of high school in retail and visual store display, so he did not go to college and just went for it. He felt like he could make something of himself another way, through learning on the job. We had a great magnetism at work. 

We quickly fell in love and got married in the fall of 2000. We realized that we wanted to parlay that connection and that aptitude for working together into something else. Rob left Country Road shortly after we married and dabbled in production design and other things related to design. We were given the opportunity by a college friend of mine, an actor named Taye Diggs, to create his first grown-up pad in New York City. He knew that I love design, and knowing him very well, I could design his home as a reflection of his personality. He remains a wonderful friend to us and, we’ve since created several apartments for him. It was a great opportunity that led us to where we are today. 

We became immersed In high-end home decor and fell in love with mid-century modernism, vintage furniture design, and throughout our work, we focused on the wall.

We were coming out of the 90s era where things were minimal and stark. Our business beginning coincided with 9/11, and we understood people’s desire to nest and layer their spaces in a much warmer way than the austere look of the 90s, which I think is a lot of what’s happening right now during this pandemic as well. I think people realize and take comfort in the safety and the sanctity of their homes. 

We spent time at the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York City, one of the country’s most extensive wallpaper archives. The curator at the time still works there today, and is an incredible asset to our industry. He let us just pour over all of these incredibly beautiful screen prints to help inform where we might want to go with this idea. 

We decided to make a wallpaper collection. We started meeting with manufacturers, which was incredibly hard to find back then. Much has changed in terms of the generosity of our industry’s spirit, where we all share resources. Our current business model has benefited immensely from word of mouth. People thought we were crazy because the wall covering industry had shrunk so much since the 80s!  We decided to go all-in, as you do in your 20s when you don’t know any better. We innovatively used screens to make multiple SKUs and launched the collection at ICFF  (International Contemporary Furniture Fair) in 2003. We were one of maybe three wallpaper exhibitors that year, which is certainly very different now. 

We quickly established ourselves out of a showroom in New York City, where we were the only wallpaper line. We became known as the wallpaper people because the wallpaper was so unique. For about 10 years, we developed our own collections and were represented in showrooms across the United States. Then, we transferred our talents to what we are doing now, which is being a manufacturing resource and partner for other designers. 

We no longer make our own patterns or prints, we do not want to compete with our customers, and we want them to feel safe sharing their pattern work with us. It has been an incredible transition for us to leverage the equity of our knowledge and expertise and we have a lot to offer to our customers.  It’s a collaboration with our clients that take advantage of all that we can contribute to their development and success. Our goal is to build a long-lasting partnership. 

So the name, funnily enough, was a lucky number of Rob’s growing up. He had a band called Route 22.  When we were thinking of a business name, that’s what we landed on with the quirky early 2000s spelling of the word Twenty and then the number 2. When we were in one of our first interviews for a press piece, someone said to us,  did you meet when you were 22? We did the math and had met when we were 22 but had not realized it, so it seems to be working out well for us, and we’re going to stick with it.

3- Can you tell us more about your plans to expand your business into other categories?

For several years we have adjusted our business model to become manufacturing partners for wallpaper but have always loved textiles as well. Rob is passionate about technology and is always looking at the next new wallpaper machine that we could get to provide the very best result for our customers. Similarly, he has kept his eye on textile printing and the available manufacturing methods. He is focused on the environmental impact of these various methods,  because a large portion of the world’s water pollution comes from the textile industry. We care about our environmental impact in all details of our processes down to shipping materials and internal efforts. 

Pre- COVID, we decided to expand our offering to textile prints enabling our customers to produce textiles and wallcoverings in one place. It will streamline the process for a lot of our customers.

This summer, we started shifting into gear and rented more space in our building, doubling our space. Just a few years ago, our team was three or four people and now we’re seventeen people! We needed to ramp up our hiring efforts to ensure that our textile clients received the same kind of service. We have customers anxiously awaiting collaborating with us, and we found some great talent to join us. We are moments away from starting that new endeavor.

I have to ask, what is your favorite textile or wallcoverings pattern of ours?

I love your Bandra wall covering.

I think it’s so beautiful on grasscloth.

I also really love the Juhu, which is iconic to your brand.

The Marine Indigo colorway on the gray grasscloth is graphic and beautiful, and one of my favorites. 

To listen to more of our conversation, including the additional  questions below, tune into our IGTV

4- If you were not doing textiles, wallcoverings, and design, what do you think you would be doing?

5- What’s something you’re grateful for that has been meaningful? Have you created any new routines during this time of quarantine and homeschooling?