Samuel & Sons Passementerie

Mar 18, 2025

Michael Simon: Mastering the Art of Custom

Michael Simon, the acclaimed New York interior designer noted for his mastery of the decorative arts, knows a thing or two about custom details. Read on as he shares how to create custom moments and why they are so important to his design philosophy, explored through the lens of a breathtaking Fifth Avenue residence.

Samuel & Sons: Tell us how and why you became a designer.
Michael Simon: So my formal education is in music. I was trained to be a composer and I studied in a university and a conservatory, and I always had to have a day job to pay the bills and wrote music in the evening... I always had a great deal of interest in architecture and the decorative arts and by a series of luck happenstances, I was able to parlay the music into design. And my process, interestingly, is the process of a composer, not so much an interior designer, because I’ve never worked for another designer.

A spectacular sitting room abounds with bespoke details, from intricate gimp made to harmonize effortlessly with each ornate accent chair to rich ruby red brush fringe — coming together to create a perfectly curated palette.

Lovely embroidered lumbar pillows are finished with a delicate cord and dainty tassels adorning each corner. Two invitingly plush sofas mirror each other at the center of the room, finished with a custom border skirt that echoes their swirling blush upholstery.

S&S: Why is creating custom elements so integral to your work?
MS: I’m fortunate enough that I have a clientele who is willing to go down the rabbit hole that I go down on each of our projects to create something that is unique to the client. I want to be doing that with partners and collaborators who take the same long view that we take, and that means trials, it means experimentation... I think that one of my most important obligations is to dream on behalf of my clients, to imagine something that they cannot imagine. Because why engage an interior designer if you could do that?

The library is the masculine counterpart to the sitting room, mirroring its tasseled corners and fringed edges.

No detail is missed, and even the sleek edges of two elegant armchairs are tailored with their own custom gimp and cord. Every pillow features a thoughtful finishing touch, from cascading beaded fringe to hand-tied silk tassels in just the right shade of cream.

S&S: One of your tricks is to take a stock item and re-scale or re-color it. Why not just use it as is?
MS: I am often inspired by something that is stock. I am rarely content with the color and with the scale of it because I have a very specific point of view about pallet and scale, and because I’m laser focused on the many, many, many different details that contribute to these projects...it has to change because it’s got to make sense with the scale of the textile. It’s got to make sense with the scale of the frame of a chair, for example. In our collaborations over the years, there are a certain number of things that I bring to the table and there are a certain number of things that Samuel & Sons brings to the table. The Samuel & Sons team is fully capable of realizing the vision that we are going after and they land the plane every time.

The primary bedroom sings with an assortment of flirty details.

The bed is upholstered with a custom made fabric, designed by Michael Simon to reflect the abstract carpet below, so it was only right to create a coordinating trim to finish its edges, adorned with a dancing pattern of individually embroidered French knots that seamlessly dance along the fabric's edge. The bed curtains above reflect this playful motif with strings of beaded stones, chosen to match the room's scheme.

Each swag in the valence is held in place by a twisted cord, accompanied by a coordinating tassel at the bottom and wire flower at the top.

Fringe envelops every edge, from a cheery ocher loop fringe to a subtle silk fan edge.

Bespoke beaded fringe cascades from lavishly gathered window shades, with a stack of crystal accents sandwiching each hand-wrapped bead.

S&S: What three words would you use to describe your perfect trim?
MS: My perfect trim has to have the proper scale, the proper degree of reflectivity, and the proper degree of refinement. Those are the three big things that would matter to me.