As my tastes refine and style evolves, I find myself increasingly more intentional about the pieces I choose for my home. As you guys know, I'm a big advocate for mindful design, which emphasizes understanding the social impact of our purchases and celebrating the story behind them: where they're made, what they're made of, and who makes them.
I get so excited when I find brands like Meridian who are making change for good around the world. Meridian collaborates with master artisans from Ghana to Peru bringing their story to the global stage, helping to preserve indigenous crafts, and empowering often disadvantaged communities. Every purchase through Meridian directly supports the artisan who made the piece.
My exquisite Meridian bone inlay box comes from a family of master artisans in Rajasthan, India. The handmade box is adorned with intricately carved recycled and naturally occurring bone through methods that have been passed down through multiple generations.
If you can imagine, it takes a entire team of individual artisans to make just one box. One artisan is responsible for hand carving each piece of bone into delicate leaf shapes. A second person affixes those pieces onto a wooden frame in the intricate botanical pattern. The third artisan fills the outline of the pattern with black resin to create the background. And finally, an additional person sands and seals the box to completion. Uffda-I need a nap just explaining the process! No doubt there is loads of love and skill that goes into each and every box.
We use our box for storing TV remote controls in our living room. I love having a pretty spot to tuck them away when we're not using them, and also knowing exactly where they'll be when Netflix calls. It's equal parts form and function-just the way we like things around here! I've been trying the box in a few different spots around the living room, and I think the media console is my favorite spot for it. What do you guys think?
This post was created in partnership with Meridian. I only partner with brands I personally use and love. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Process photos courtesy of Meridian. Follow them on Instagram for more artisan stories and sneak peeks at their latest collaborations.