November 4, 2025

A Conversation with Emile from The Rascal House

In our latest FRANK conversation, we sat down with Emile - the semi-anonymous founder of the cult design world Instagram The Rascal House and author of The Rascal Review Substack, whose feed and scrawls invite us into a world of beautiful objects and furniture he uncovers at auctions to bring to our attention. Emile spoke fondly of Josef Hoffmann; his appreciation for the unexpected colour pairings in painter Sanzo Wada’s collection of Japanese studies; and the trance-like allure of Fools Gold by The Stone Roses.

Is there a particular era or place you wish you could have worked in?

Josef Hoffmann was a professor at Vienna’s School of Arts and Crafts (Kunstgewerbeschule) from 1899 to 1936—I wish I could have been one of his students during any of those years.

What’s an unusual source of inspiration that has found its way into your work?

Maybe not unusual for some, but I often reference A Dictionary of Color Combinations, Vol. 2—painter Sanzo Wada’s collection of Japanese color studies. It features nearly 200 pairings that simply work and are instantly familiar. Think Andover Green + Deep Indigo + Orange Rufous—random and somehow harmonious. It’s a tiny, pocket-sized manual, which makes it even more precious.

Share a song that you listen to when feeling creatively challenged.

Fools Gold by The Stone Roses.
Ten-plus minutes of jangly guitars, hypnotic drums, and melancholic vocals that put me in a creative trance.

What’s the ghost in your work—the thing that lingers but isn’t obvious?

I’m drawn to the use of figurines in furniture and architecture. They can appear anywhere from wood marquetry and graphic design to silver and plaster reliefs. The Swedish Grace designers were masters of this—see Gunnar Asplund, Anna Petrus, or Carl Malmsten.