The recent changing of the guard at NBC's Late Night, which saw SNL alum Seth Meyers taking over for Jimmy Fallon, also came with big changes for the show's backstage spaces at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Though shabby linoleum and drop ceilings worked for the Fallon folks, a conversation between Meyers and his sister-in-law and longtime friend, Ariel Ashe, of the Manhattan design firm Ashe + Leandro, led to a full-scale revision of the dressing rooms, greenroom, and kitchen. "I myself do not have a smart visual sense," the comedian tells Architectural Digest, "but I am smart enough to turn to people who do." Ashe, who got her start in the business interning for SNL's set department, was someone with a proven track record of "rescuing me from bad decisions." Decor-wise, rescuing Seth meant making the place "feel modern but with throwback touches."
Said throwbacks include custom-made Dunbar-style sofas and vintage Harvey Probber chairs, midcentury allusions that lend the spaces a little gravity without making them feel overdressed. As Ashe's creative partner, architect Reinaldo Leandro puts it, the duo aimed for "comfortable but special." The latter is managed with distinct wall treatments in each space, bespoke tables and mirrors, and a few Meyers-specific touches, including abstract paintings by his mother-in-law, his framed final cue card from Weekend Update, and hilariously enough, a signed photo of Martha Stewart from her early modeling days. The personal gift from the decorating doyenne hangs above Meyers' desk in his dressing room (pictured above, left), as if in approval of what he's done with the place.
↑ One dressing room is lined with Clifton Tattersal plaid wallpaper by Ralph Lauren Home, with Petite Swing Large Shield sconces by Jason Koharik from Lawson Fenning. The Hairpin Leg chair is by West Elm.
↑ The same wall sconces make an appearance in the greenroom, but the real showstoppers are the custom sofas upholstered in Holland & Sherry buffalo-check wool. Hoboken-based woodworker Robert Pluhowski made the bespoke cocktail tables, as well as walnut side tables and laminate-top vanities found in the dressing rooms. The framed animal images are from Von, and the chairs are vintage Harvey Probbers.
↑ To the left, a dressing room done up with cork upholstery Wolf Gordon wall coverings, a Benjamin Hubert cork ceiling lamp, and a sofa covered in a cayenne-colored nylon-wool bouclé from Knoll. On the right, another dressing room hung with abstract paintings by Joanne Ashe, Meyers's mother-in-law, and stocked with another Hairpin Leg chair.
· Tour Seth Meyers's Handsome Late Night Backstage Spaces [Architectural Digest]
· SNL's Seth Meyers Drops $3.5M On A Modest Village Condo [Curbed NY]
· All TV Time posts [Curbed National]
· All Printed Page posts [Curbed National]
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