Designer Nick Spain’s star has been on the rise the last few years—though technically his training isn’t in interiors. “My background is in theater,” he says. “I try to approach each project as a role to be played and imbue it with its own distinctive style.”
This goes some way to explain his knack for creating rooms that seem to have their own personality and point of view. After renovating his own home in the Berkshires—and giving it a name: The Filomena—Nick established Studio Nick Spain, formerly known as Arthur’s, and was off to the races. Now, he says, “I’m a designer and writer working across interiors and gardens. I’m thrilled to be working on my first project that involves both interiors and exteriors, allowing me to create a fully immersive environment for our client’s upstate home.” (Oh, and check out his guest appearance as a correspondent over on Gardenista.)
Today Nick writes in from “NYC/the Hudson Valley/the Berkshires/all over” with the “inspired” showroom he’s still thinking about, how music becomes the soundtrack to his work, and an atmospheric Netflix rec. Read on:
Photography by James John Jetel.
Above: A glimpse of a renovation in Red Hook, parts of which were previously a boys’ boarding school.
You’re invited to dinner. What’s your go-to gift?
Typically flowers. Ideally they dry well so your host can keep them long after the party is over.
What’s your desert island design/art/architecture-related book?
Either Feel Free by Zadie Smith or Funny Weather by Olivia Laing. I’m a big essay person, and clearly I have a penchant for the perspective of a British thinker.
What podcast or playlist do you put on when you need inspiration?
Typically a playlist that I’ve created. I spent a portion of my early twenties at Fader magazine, so music is a huge part of my process and very important to me. I love walking around museums, gardens, or historic homes with my headphones in listening to a good soundtrack, because I’m curious how different genres and sounds can impact the emotional experience of a place. One time I spent six hours walking Versailles with Sampha on repeat. It was heaven.
What’s a film or TV show whose aesthetic has stuck with you?
Dark on Netflix. It’s a fairly esoteric but beautiful German series about time travel, which speaks to what I’m trying to do in the projects that I create: disorient and intrigue the viewer so you don’t really know exactly where you are in time and space.
Which Instagram account do you go to for design inspiration?
I’m (rather unsuccessfully) trying to spend less time on Instagram these days, since I’m not so sure it’s helping cultivate new ideas. But I do really love a good design Substack. ForScale is a personal favorite. And in our design projects we build project libraries of vintage books and magazines as jumping-off points.
Above: Living room–in Oakland—by Nick.
What has been your best house upgrade?
My garden. It’s nowhere near done, not that a garden is ever done, but it’s a source of constant joy and experimentation.
A simple or budget-friendly design move you wish you’d known sooner?
The importance of good hardware: that means cabinet knobs, light switches, door knobs, etc. These are tactile pieces that you interact with on a daily basis in a way that becomes almost subconscious, and as such I think they have a massive impact on the way you experience a space over time.
My favorite sheets are…
Anything from Layla in Brooklyn. Alayne’s store is perfect.
Above: A 19th century farmhouse—Stuyvesant—redone.
My favorite paint color for the bedroom is…
It really depends on who’s sleeping in it.
My unpopular design opinion is…
That good taste doesn’t exist, at least not in the kind of capitalist, concrete way that we’re told it does by society. Ultimately it’s all about context.
Your design pet peeve?
When people match the exact same hue across several spaces to tie it together. An example: They’ll paint a bedroom teal, have throw pillows in the living room that are the same shade, and add a color-matched teal backsplash in the open-plan kitchen. This makes compositions really flat, unoriginal, and sterile. You get so much more nuance and dynamism when you mix in variations of the same hue, and it will still feel cohesive in a way that doesn’t beat you over the head.
My go-to kitchen utensil is…
My fish spatula. It works for everything.
Three words that describe my design style:
A little unexpected.
First design love?
My three southern grandmothers. Andy taught me about simplicity on the cattle farm, Nana taught me how to mix high and low, and Mema is at least part of the reason why I still appreciate a good dose of kitsch. All three had fabulous hair.
What item from your closet do you have on repeat?
I own the same vintage Lee jacket in six different colors because I love it that much. Thank God for Ebay.
Above: Portrait of Nick.
Favorite design shop to visit (online or in person)?
Not quite a shop, but a few weeks ago I visited Tiwa Select’s showroom for the first time in well over a year. The roster of artists he works with are so inspired.
I don’t leave the house without…
A measuring tape, pen, and good notebook.
Thanks so much, Nick! Follow his work at @studionickspain and studionickspain.com.
