2026 Commercial Design: Brown Estate by Catherine Kwong

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After designing Brown Estate’s downtown Napa tasting room in 2017, Catherine Kwong was enlisted to tackle the concrete box a couple of doors down, transforming it into an elevated office, a.k.a. Brown HQ. “It’s an industrial space, so we wanted to highlight those elements—the super-tall ceilings and windows, and the polished concrete floors—by layering in luxe materials like soft wool drapery, patinaed bronze lighting with opaline shades and leather and mohair seating,” she says.

The reception area features a desk as well as metal and glass screens, all custom by Alexis Moran, plus Croft House shelving and an Urban Electric Co. pendant. Photography by William Jess Laird.
An Erberto Carboni- designed armchair for The Future Perfect beckons near a bar with custom shelving by Palmer Industries and Obsolete sconces. Photography by William Jess Laird.

Taking cues from residential interiors, Kwong conjured a workspace that is always “guest ready,” with zones for various functions, from meetings and presentations to tastings and private events. A pop-up tasting bar for the Brown Estate’s House of Brown label allures near the entrance. A key aspect of the project was creating a mez- zanine area that allows for sequestering desks, monitors and “the mess of daily work,” as Kwong describes it, “without worrying about disrupting the magic going on downstairs.”

A tasting venue with a custom banquette by West Coast Industries also includes a table from Form, Hay chairs and Obsolete sconces.Photography by William Jess Laird.