Yes, Interior Designers Shop Amazon Too – These Are the 5 Surprisingly Chic Things They’re Buying During Prime Day
Stop overpaying for chic decor. Industry insiders have been shopping Amazon all along, and these are the finds they swear by
If you count yourself among the surprisingly influential members’ club known as Prime, you’re in good company. Some of the chicest interior designers we know are members, too.
Which may come as a surprise. Many of us have a rather idyllic vision of interior designers sourcing every object from obscure ateliers and trade-only showrooms. In reality, they often approach shopping much the same way a fashion person approaches the thrift: with patience, curatorial discernment, and very little regard for provenance, provided it looks expensive in the end.
So save the splurges for where they matter. These are the five things interior designers actually prefer to buy in the Amazon sales, not that you’d ever know it.
5 Things Interior Designers Buy at Amazon
Affordable lighting and chic coffee tables books are on the list of things designers source from Amazon.
1. Wire-Free Wall Sconces
Few decorating moves make a room look more expensive, more legitimate, or more architecturally interesting than a pair of wall sconces. Conversely, few things deplete our remaining patience faster than waiting for the electrician required to install them.
As it turns out, designers are just as uninterested in drywall dust as the rest of us. Rather than waiting weeks for a hardwired fixture, they’re turning to battery-operated sconces that deliver the same bespoke-looking effect in a matter of minutes.
Katie Jackson, interior design director at Jackson Platt Interiors in North Carolina, swears by battery-operated wall sconces to add a custom feel to a room. ‘Easy to install and an instant decorative element to upgrade a space,’ she says. Complete with remote controls and multiple brightness settings, ‘I love them on either side of a great piece of art or flanking a door,’ she continues. Katie is partial to whimsical wavy wicker styles, though Amazon has something for just about every design persuasion.
2. Fashion Books
A person’s coffee table book collection tells you almost everything you need to know about them. Or at the very least, what they’d like you to think. Part object, part personality test, they quickly communicate whether you’re more Ralph Lauren ranch, Alaïa artiste, or Tom Ford noir – often before you’ve had the chance to do it yourself.
‘Fashion design books are one of my favorite Amazon Prime Day finds for the home,’ shares San Francisco-based interior designer Cynthia Lananh. ‘They style beautifully on a curated coffee table vignette, are great conversation starters, and bring a chic visual read to the table,’ she explains.
We may never own a closet full of couture, but a console table full of Dior? That, we can manage.
3. Match Holders
Interior designers aren’t necessarily shopping for more candles on Amazon – they, like the rest of us, are usually swimming in them. What they are buying, however, are little accessories to elevate the ritual. Hence, the match holder: which is not only useful, but markedly more elegant than the slightly dog-eared matchbook currently floating around your junk drawer.
‘A nice place to store matches? Why, yes! I think I will,’ quips Regina DiLauro Fay, founder and creative director at Regina DF Designs, LLC, based in Richmond, Virginia, who points out that a ‘glass cloche is a sculpture that looks beautiful on your mantel and doubles as a fabulous gift!’
So perhaps it’s coffee table decor for you, and perhaps it’s for a lucky post-Prime Day recipient. ‘Housewarming, birthday – it makes everyone feel special,’ she adds, which certainly cannot be said for every sub-$20 purchase these days.
4. John Boos Cutting Boards
A John Boos cutting board is to the kitchen what a stack of fashion books is to the coffee table: technically useful, but also highly communicative. It tells guests you care about cooking, good materials, and probably have a favorite niche of imported olive oil.
‘Biophilic kitchens are having a moment, and the return to wood surfaces is the easiest way to get the look,’ notes interior designer Janine Weeks of Weeks Design, an interior design firm based in Costa Mesa, California, who counts herself among the many design obsessives convinced that 'Boos Block' remains the gold standard – and not solely because it looks good on a countertop.
Founded in 1887, ‘John Boos & Co. is known for their iconic cutting boards,’ she explains. ‘Trust me, you can never have enough. I love to have cutting boards in all sizes available so I can do everything from daily meal prep to serving crowds on holidays to cutting a lime on a small cutting board in the bar.’
Equal parts prep station and kitchen accessory, the cult-favorite American heritage brand has become something of a status symbol among home cooks and designers alike. If you didn’t know, you could shop John Boos’s North American hardwood boards on Amazon (often at a discount), consider this your sign.
5. Tiny Tables
The 'tiny table' trend is, on paper, a little ridiculous. A table designed to hold not much more than a Negroni, candle, or coffee hardly sounds like a necessity. And yet, interior designers can’t seem to stop styling them. For reasons that are difficult to explain and immediately obvious upon seeing one, they simply make a room feel finished.
Lauren Andersen, founder and creative director of SEN Creative, who works alongside some of the industry’s most celebrated interior designers as an architectural and interiors photographer, is a firm believer that there’s no reason to overpay for the look.
‘A small drink table is so useful when entertaining, and this one easily fits into so many decor styles,’ says Lauren, whose favorite happens to be a $50 bronze version. They’re a fabulous companion alongside a reading chair, tucked next to a sofa, or standing in as a bedside table in a small bedroom.
The beauty of a tiny table is that it doesn’t ask for much. Hold a drink, a book, or a lamp, and, for often less than $100, the room instantly reads more editorial.
The lesson here isn’t that interior designers spend more money. It’s that they know where the splurge matters, and, on Amazon, where nobody will ever know the difference.
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