Venus Williams may be globally celebrated for her legendary career and dominance on the tennis court, but design has quietly run parallel to her athletic achievements for years. As an established entrepreneur and the founder of the interior design firm V Starr, Williams has long bridged the worlds of sports, culture, and aesthetic expression. Now, her latest professional chapter brings those distinct worlds together in a major new collaboration spanning both Crate & Barrel and Crate & Kids, offering consumers a fresh lens through which to view modern living.
Launching on September 15, the appropriately titled “Grand Slam” collection encompasses a wide-ranging assortment of furniture, lighting, and home decor. In developing the line, Williams drew deeply from both her lifelong immersion in competitive tennis and her professional design sensibilities. Rather than relying on heavy-handed or literal sports motifs, the references to tennis are integrated with subtlety and sophistication. Sculptural silhouettes and refined materials take absolute precedence, while clever details—such as a pleated lampshade that recalls the movement, flow, and shape of a tennis skirt—pay homage to the sport without sacrificing contemporary elegance.
“Collaborating with Crate & Barrel and Crate & Kids on this collection was so much fun,” Williams shared. “I’ve always believed that great design should feel timeless, and that was how we wanted to approach the collection.”
The genesis of the project involved an immersive creative journey for Williams and the design teams. Before finalizing the collection, Williams and the collaborators traveled to Milan, a city globally renowned for its rich artistic heritage, where they were instantly drawn to luxurious materials and distinctive, forward-thinking design. Those European influences manifest visibly throughout the collection’s material palette, proportions, and bold forms. The Roland Coffee Table, for instance, directs primary focus toward a striking, sculptural silhouette, while the liberal use of marble introduces some of the physical richness and textural depth that the team encountered during their time in Milan.
While the primary Crate & Barrel offering leans into adult sophistication, the Crate & Kids portion of the collaboration adopts a slightly different yet complementary approach, balancing youthful energy with refined taste.
“I’ve always loved mid-century modern design,” Williams explains. “With the Crate & Kids collection, we wanted to bring that same sense of sophistication into kids’ spaces while still keeping that playfulness and fun that feels true to how a kid would live.”
This delicate balancing act is perfectly encapsulated by pieces like the Alley Wood and Terrazzo Kids Desk. Its warm wood frame and sustainable-feeling green terrazzo surface effortlessly borrow from a more grown-up material vocabulary, yet the piece manages to retain the essential color, charm, and personality expected of a child’s bedroom or creative workspace. Other pieces within the youth line similarly introduce whimsical details while maintaining the broader collection’s overarching emphasis on considered forms and high-quality materials.
For Williams, the Grand Slam collection ultimately feels less about decorating with overt tennis iconography and more about translating authentic influences from different chapters of her life into tangible, functional objects for the home. The spirit of tennis is woven quietly into the structural details, the artistic energy and materiality of Milan inform the furniture’s high-end finish, and her extensive background in interior design grounds the entire project with an acute attention paid to how the individual pieces might live and breathe together in real-world spaces.
Editorial transparency guidelines note that the reporting and background context for this launch were developed with standard editorial processes, while the collection itself rolls out to shoppers globally this fall through Crate & Barrel’s standard retail and digital channels.
