For her latest launch, Natasha Baradaran looks inward for inspiration.

L.A.-based interior designer Natasha Baradaran.

In past years, L.A.-based Natasha Baradaran (natashabaradaran.com) has pulled from multiple sources of inspiration for her stunning furniture collections. Along with her multicultural background and her mother’s jewelry collection, international travel has provided endless enlightenment. But when the world shut down in 2020, Baradaran had to take another approach.

“In the midst of a pandemic, when I found myself stuck at home, I began to rediscover Los Angeles through fresh eyes,” she explains. “My own home and the Southern California lifestyle became my muse. The more I looked inward, the more I discovered a vast ocean of inspirations all around me. NB Essential is a love letter to L.A.”

Clockwise from top left: Maquette side table; Quadrata sofa; Goccia chair; Globeau poufs; Maquette dining table, all from the new NB Essential collection by Natasha Baradaran.

While her past pieces are supremely elegant, Baradaran’s newest collection is, while still sophisticated, decidedly more laid back. “The energy of the moment pulled me to create pieces that are a little more relaxed, comfortable, casual,” she says of the seating covered in her brand’s sumptuous textiles, sculptural cabinetry covered in dyed vegan parchment and more. “Pieces in my last collections often found themselves in formal... rooms, whereas these pieces feel at home in more intimate spaces like your den, breakfast room and bedroom.”

The lockdown—while undoubtedly awful—gave the designer space to lean into her own creativity. “In the midst of a new world unfolding, the design process for my furniture collection became a clean slate,” she explains. “With that came a newfound freedom to move in a different direction... to evolve with the moment.”