Escaping the mundane with Night Space candles
A person truly reveals herself in day-to-day habits–the little things. Kat Hammill loves white and won’t leave the house without making her bed. Danielle Armstrong loves grey and won’t stop listening to 80’s pop music. Lifelong friends, Kat and Danielle combined their experience in New York-based design, to create a product that is truly a manifestation of the two founders' shared experiences and memories. Upstate New York native and former Design Director of Decorative Accessories at West Elm, Kat Hammill, along with co-founder Danielle Armstrong, a former communications manager, have formed Night Space candles.
They create scents that make you feel good about your space and intrigue guests as soon as they walk into the room. Warm, inviting and minimalistic, Night Space candles are made from fine fragrance and are 100% pure soy wax, cotton wick, and hand-poured in the USA. Their ceramic vessels are handcrafted in Portugal and are beautiful enough for reuse when you are finished burning.
Here & There Magazine caught up with Kat to go behind-the-scenes and talk about life leading up to Night Space, the concept behind the label and more.
Let’s talk about your duo? Where did you two meet?
We met in Upstate New York in the 7th grade. Danielle was the “new girl” in school and I decided to share my locker with her. Who knew 30 years later we would be collaborating together in this partnership. We’ve always had a strong friendship and our careers overlapped from time to time, I (Kat) being on the creative side and Danielle being on the business side of boutique and luxury home goods.
How did this collaboration come to life?
I honestly think we were both in a place in our lives where we were craving a whole life change. We had both been working so long designing and representing other home and gift collections that we really wanted to do something for ourselves. Something we could feel really connected to that we thought was missing from the market. I think the idea of craving something creative that’s your own, that you can build, develop and ideate together is really exciting. Also, like every working mom out there, we were looking for a better work/life balance.
What’s your main goal with Night Space?
The name Night Space comes from the fact that we developed most of this brand in our “off” hours when the house is quiet, things feel calm, and the creativity flows late into the night. Night Space honours a day's smallest gestures and life’s biggest events and is truly a manifestation of our shared experiences and memories. Our goal was to create a modern home fragrance beautiful enough to reuse that is timeless, iconic, and not overly branded. We set out to create scents that make you feel good about your space and make guests curious to ask questions as soon as they walk in. Creating a collection that evokes a sense of calm, relaxation, but can also be invigorating and inspiring was very important for the overall feeling of the brand. We love to burn scents at different times of the day, different rooms, and different seasons so we want to curate a collection of scents that has something for every mood.
Where does your inspiration come from? How do you build a scent?
I would have to say most of our inspiration comes from travel, nature, and shared memories. We also spent a good year evaluating the market and we decided we wanted to create something that leaned more feminine since everything out there seemed to be falling in the darker, moodier, masculine world. We think the fragrance palette behind our colour series collection signifies self-expression and a world where anything is possible. A passion for travel and a desire to escape the mundane, we spent so much time combining each colour and scent with a distinctive approach and audience in mind. The warm earth and cool sea palettes take you from the streets of Havana to an artist’s studio or a night carnival. The neutral sky and metallic sun colours stimulate your senses with very contrasting notes. While our purest colours from white to taupe are like a restorative escape or meditative mountain retreat.
Night Space candles are encapsulated in ceramic vessels, the wax is handmade in Portugal, and the candles are hand-poured in upstate New York out of delicate fragrance, 100% pure soy wax, and a cotton wick. The vessel, with the lid, is designed to be a bud vase after you have finished burning through the candle: a thoughtful detail.
Why choose a reusable material like ceramic?
Our intention was to merge the world of home decor and home fragrance in a way that wasn’t overly branded, was sustainable, modern and simple enough that it looked and smelled beautiful in any space. There is a softness to the earthenware, and the glazes complement the scents, so you feel like you want to keep it long after your candle is done burning.
What’s next for Night Space?
We always struggle with this because we have so many ideas and thoughts about how we can see Night Space evolving. We will definitely continue to put out new scents under the colour series collection, but we will start to incorporate more limited-edition scents. We are also excited to expand the collection into new product offerings; we just launched our room mists which are water-based scents great to use on linens, furniture, and to freshen your space. We have always looked at our brand as more lifestyle, so we hope we can do more collaborations with other designers and eventually branch out into more home products.■
Words by Alexa Bouhelier-Ruelle
Photos provided by Night Space
