A Natural Home
Erin Pollard
Sometimes, we’re called to make a change in the way we live our lives. The birth of a child, a health journey, or simply a slow-growing ache for beauty, ease, rest—moments that stir within us a desire to pare back and soften the edges. To bring the outside in. A natural home is about more than materials or aesthetics, important though they may be. Rather, it’s about creating grounded, warm and restorative spaces that have a positive effect on how we feel, and bring us closer to nature.
Erin Pollard, is a former fashion exec and founder of Underwater Weaving, an American basket atelier. A second generation weaver, Erin and her mom weave all the pieces themselves, and also create DIY kits and monthly classes to preserve craft traditions and catalyze rituals that get our hands closer to nature.
Splitting her time between a Brooklyn brownstone and a charming fishing shack in Montauk, explore how she balances urban life with ritual and a reverence for all things natural.
Where in nature do you find inspiration?
Serene landscapes and moments like mornings on the lake I grew up on in Maine, the dynamic ecosystem that surrounds our home in Montauk where we garden and chill at the beach. The quiet rhythm of a rainy day in Brooklyn is also a really creative cocoon for me.
How do you find fulfillment in everyday moments or rituals?
Finding creativity through interacting with nature has become an antidote to the digital responsibilities we all carry. Giving myself permission to weave and arrange things is something that feels very personal and protected – I feel most alive when creating a beautiful mess with plant-based materials. Doing this keeps me grounded.
Tell us the story of your home - from its sense of place or how you have transformed it to become an expression of you?
We stumbled upon our home just as we were about to sign the lease for something our hearts weren’t quite into. Our current place needed a lot of work, but we saw the potential. My husband and I both make things. He designed a lot of the furniture in our home, all the lighting, and the ceramics. My mom and I make all the baskets, and I style the space with lots of plants, flowers, in-season produce, natural fabrics, and textures that bring it to life as the seasons change. We have a lot of our kids' and friends' art throughout the space, which creates the feeling of home. We also love color, our house feels sort of moody and classic on the Parlor floor, but gets more contemporary and colorful as you go up!
How do you choose which items become part of your home? Are provenance and materials important to you?
We like well-made furniture and belongings, but nothing too fussy, because we live with our things. We want to know the origin story of something before it comes into our home.
For us, home is somewhere between a place and a feeling. Describe your home in 3 words?
A collection of stories (that’s four).
What seeds are you sowing this spring, personally, creatively or otherwise?
We’re quite literally planting the vegetable garden this weekend, and my basket brand is growing– we have so many lovely installations, events, and moments al fresco planned. I’m doing more writing and planning Issue No. 2 of Underwater Magazine.
Living naturally means….
Embracing simplicity, mindfulness, eating the food we grow, making things, and reducing waste. I’ve needed to reconnect with the rhythms of nature, and I’ve found that that also helps me live in alignment with personal values and passions. Ultimately, living naturally is a series of choices adding up to a lifestyle that feels grounded, balanced, and true to your essence.
"Giving myself permission to weave and arrange things is something that feels very personal and protected – I feel most alive when creating a beautiful mess with plant-based materials."
