In a recent Q&A, we sat down with interior designer Zoë Feldman to discuss her personal home project, which features a beautiful rug by Jennifer Manners. Read on to learn more about Zoë's design philosophy and how Jennifer Manners' design helped bring her vision to life.
Your living room clearly holds deep personal meaning. How did you translate that emotional connection into the design?
When I moved into the house, I struggled with arranging the room due to its rectangular shape and multiple doorways. However, after my grandmother passed away, I inherited her furniture, which held significant sentimental value for me as I had grown up with it during visits to her home. Remarkably, everything fit perfectly. This furniture, along with other family heirlooms like the Baker cabinets from my parents’ house, and many art books and objects, filled the space with nostalgia and memories. Very few items were personally collected apart from the odd item from a Paris flea market or antique stores locally, making the room deeply personal due to these cherished pieces passed down through my family.
Could you walk us through the process of integrating the rug design specifically into the larger scheme, touching on mood boards, texture pairings, and colours?
The furniture from my grandmother, along with a marble plinth I purchased, had a cooler, more contemporary, and rectilinear feel. When I saw the Jennifer Manners mohair rug, I immediately knew it was perfect because the room desperately needed warmth. We ensured the pile wasn't too high for this heavily trafficked area, also wanting it to feel clean against the contemporary art and modern furniture. The walls are a cool, barely blue, and I wanted the rug to be a camel colour to create a beautiful tension between warm and cool tones. For us, rugs are essential for grounding spaces, making them feel larger, and adding warmth. While rugs aren't always my first decision, in this case, it was the final touch, and the room didn't feel complete until it was laid. It's my prized possession; it's durable and has held up wonderfully even with a puppy. The warm colour and luxurious mohair texture are perfect, especially since I enjoy sitting on the floor.
Were there any surprising challenges or happy accidents that shifted the direction of the design as it unfolded?
For the rug, no. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was the one. I'm quite decisive, especially when I fall in love with something, and I don't tend to change my mind. We made subtle adjustments to things like the size of the ribbing and the height of the pile to ensure it worked perfectly within our space, but I was committed as soon as we received it.
How did you balance the modernist elements with more old-world details, and how did the rug design itself support that dialogue?
Mohair inherently has a modern quality due to its simplicity and texture, which are key aspects we look for in modern design. However, in a camel tone, it also feels very classic. So, the rug's simplicity is modern, but its colour is more traditional. For example, a grey rug wouldn't have provided the same warmth that the space needed. I wanted the design to align with the bones of the house, which is a hundred-year-old home. The warmer, more traditional colour combined with the modern texture and simple mohair style allows the rug to play in both fields, just like my house does. I plan to have it forever.
