“I like juxtaposing the handwrought and the highly stylized,” says Roderick N. Shade, who has created a signature aesthetic by weaving traditional and exotic pieces into a polished, urbane whole. In his interiors, one might find an ethnic-inspired fabric on an antique French chair or an African stool doubling as an end table. “I’m looking for more integration of global influences,” he says. “Whenever I travel, I run across shapes, finishes and ways of putting things together that are non-Western in origin.” His custom furnishings reflect these discoveries: He recently designed a dining table whose leg shape and angled top were inspired by creations of the Dogon people of Northwest Africa. His fabric line for Decorators Walk also displays a distinctive nontraditional flair.

Shade, a native of San Diego who landed his first interior design client while working as a window dresser in Manhattan, founded his firm in 1993 and has focused on urban areas such as New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Chicago. In 2006 he moved his residence and his five-person practice to Harlem, a neighborhood whose storied past and bright future informed his 2002 book Harlem Style: Designing for the New Urban Aesthetic . “Harlem is a model for what’s going on across the country,” he says. “America is being reurbanized, and there’s a look that goes with it: unusual ethnic finds, industrial materials and cutting-edge designs—all side by side.”

Roderick N. Shade

212-283-5579

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