Bringing Summer Home
To your walls, dining table and beyond
As we hit the tail end of summer, I’ve been thinking about how to prolong that summer feeling once I’m back in London and the days begin to shorten. How do I hold on to the vibrant colours, the long alfresco meals, the easy rhythm of poolside afternoons? For me, the answer is always at the table.
When I imagine gatherings that feel like summer, I often look first to artists who managed to capture the season in paint or print. Their work transports me instantly: shimmering blues like swimming pools, bursts of citrus orange, and a light that seems to linger forever. They remind me that summer is something you can carry indoors.
With each artist I’ve highlighted, I’ve paired a tableware counterpart: makers and stylists whose pieces bring that same spirit to the table, helping me bring summer home onto the table, long after the season has passed. Today I’m starting with David Hockney.
David Hockney and life around the pool
David Hockney’s pools, parasols, and shimmering blues always feel like an invitation to linger. They remind me of growing up in Dubai, where I was lucky to have summer all year round. Locals would joke that unlike the rest of the world with four seasons, we only had two: hot and very hot. Once it got very hot, we’d escape to the coast in Egypt where we spent days on end by the beach. If the waves were too strong, we’d retreat to the pool instead and spend entire afternoons poolside.
There’s something I quite enjoy about hosting a pool day for friends: it’s relaxed, people can come and go as they please, you can really lean in to colour. Some days we’ll fire up the BBQ or make pizzas in my beloved pizza oven, but other times I keep it simple with a spread of fruit, crudités, dips, and finger food as I’m a firm believer that the food should be easy to grab with your hands while still wet and wrapped in a towel.
When I think of an effortless pool spread, I can’t help but picture the pool at Casa Lawa: a guesthouse in Sicily that regularly hosts retreats with resident chefs. The house itself is rustic and pared back, yet the striped prints of the poolside furniture add a playful contrast that instantly makes you happy. Hosting there feels simple but generous, long tables under the trees, sun-warmed ceramics, and days that flow easily between swims and shared meals. It’s that same endless-summer spirit I never tire of.
Next on my list is Slim Aarons whose work you will have likely come across even if his name doesn’t sound familiar.
Slim Aarons and the real Mediterranean summer
His photographs of bronzed afternoons, striped umbrellas, and long lunches under the sun have come to define Mediterranean leisure. He captured summer not just as a season, but as a way of living, unhurried, glamorous, and always around a table.
Dining alfresco is quintessential Dolce Vita and embodies exactly what I imagine when I first think of a Mediterranean summertime meal. It reminds me of family-style reunions with friends on holiday where the food continuously flows, the views are spectacular and the tableware is always perfectly summery. While it can be hard to make the delicious pasta you had on holiday or replicate the scenery, I’ve found that this one is the easiest to recreate via tableware.
The Big Mamma Group does this so well through their eclectic plate selection at their restaurants. Walk into Circolo Popolare in London and you’re instantly transported elsewhere. At home, if I’m looking to recreate a similar vibe, I turn to Villa Bologna, Solimene & the Buon Ricordo vintage plates (which I collect) whose ceramics carry that same Mediterranean spirit.
Etel Adnan & the colours of sunset
Lebanese artist, Etel Adnan is a master of colours and it’s safe to say of summer colours. Her work distills sunsets into bold blocks of colour, capturing light in its purest form. Her paintings take me back to some of my favorite sunsets, most recently in Antiparos, at a place simply called Sunset.
Sometimes when a place is recommended over and over, I expect it to be overly curated and too polished. Sunset was nothing of the sort. At first glance it felt almost too simple, without much to catch the eye. But as the evening unfolded, the first plates arriving just as the sky began to shift, the place revealed its charm. The horizon turned into a canvas of every color imaginable, the perfect backdrop for an aperitif. In that moment, I understood why everyone had insisted we go.
That same feeling runs through the work of others too. Creative studio Studio Schmaus always plays with colour in a way that makes me think of Adnan’s sunsets, bold, unexpected, and a little bit joyful. They often use pieces by Ursula Futura, whose glassware we now carry on SOFRA. Her pieces have a way of distilling summer into pure colour. On the table, her glass platters catch the light and shift the mood in a playful manner, the same way a sunset can suddenly change everything around you.
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In SOFRA News…
I’m excited to share a few new arrivals that bring that endless-summer spirit to the table. For that Mediterranean lunch that lingers, Villa Bologna manages to capture sunshine and seaside vibes in ceramics. A nod to Latin American craftsmanship comes with Casa Latina, whose pieces carry the warmth of tradition and the vibrancy of summer gatherings. And for glassware that feels like a celebration in itself, bright, playful, impossible not to reach for, Gather adds the kind of colour that turns even a scoop of ice cream into a small event.
Until next time Sahtein, and thank you for pulling up a chair,
Dana x
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