Designer Profiles: Alyssa Spyridon

Alyssa Spyridon was destined to work in interiors. Her designer mother was a passionate antique collector and contributed four antique rugs when Alyssa bought her East Nashville home. A visitor bought one of them, and she “became obsessed” when searching for a replacement. She started posting her finds on social media, and the interest that sparked made her realize that she had tapped into a market. In 2016, she founded Relic Home, sourcing vintage and antique rugs internationally — most imported from North Africa and the Middle East — and has since built strong relationships with rug dealers and pickers worldwide.

Alyssa’s expertise and reputation grew, and she now has a nationwide roster of clients. Relic Home’s rugs have appeared in Lonny, InStyle, Cherry Bombe and Architectural Digest. She now has her own rug designs manufactured in India, has produced limited-edition projects with her creative friends and launched a line of blankets and bamboo plates this year.

Alyssa believes strongly in investing in quality, hand-knotted wool rugs, adding, “Fine rugs are works of art that hide dirt and live underneath our feet. Does it get better than that?” Alyssa filled us in on her creative upbringing, her successes and Relic Creative, her other business that creates wildly inventive pop-up bars.

CAREER PATH

My career unfolded really organically with both Relic Home and Relic Creative. I don’t have a degree in design, but I grew up with a mother who was a self-taught interior designer and contractor. We lived in many renovated historic homes. When I was in elementary school, she owned a Southeast Asian import furniture store, and while I was in middle school, she owned a contemporary/modern store. I grew up working in her shops. I was always intentional about my own spaces, but I never intended to work in the world of interiors. I guess the writing was on the wall — haha! — but I couldn’t see it for a long time. Relic Home was established in January 2016. What started as a quick search to replace a rug turned into an obsessive hobby, which then turned into a full-time gig.

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

The first pop-up that I was hired to work on (and what Relic Creative was born out of) was a Christmas pop-up at Hidden Bar at Noelle Nashville in 2018. I enlisted the help of my friend Emily Davis to fabricate a faux taxidermy polar bear for that. That project created a lot of opportunities for us to grow and take on more creative installations and experiences. We specialize in designing and installing semipermanent themed sets for bar spaces, mostly working with hotels.

JOB PERKS

We are fortunate to have creative and well-known clients. Because of this, we’ve had our work and our products featured in many beautiful magazines by way of our cool client base, including Architectural Digest, this year. That one was exciting!

JOB CHALLENGES

With Relic Home, I’d have to say retail production. Producing and designing our own line of products (rugs, blankets and bamboo plates) has been quite the challenge. We’ve experienced a few curveballs, but it’s been very awesome and rewarding. With Relic Creative, the most challenging thing is that the installations are semipermanent. They typically stay up anywhere from three weeks to three-plus months, so they have to be durable and long-lasting, yet they can’t create a lot of damage to the existing space. That part is always tricky.

BIGGEST INFLUENCE

Traveling. It shifts your perspective and exposes you to so much.

SHOP LOCAL

GasLamp Antiques and GasLamp Too for local finds. Ebb and Iv Vintage on Instagram; she’s local and has the best pieces. Otherwise, Relic Home! I love to source unique items for myself, my shop and my clients.

BEST ADVICE

Start with your own space. Follow your intuition! And don’t be afraid to do something you’ve never done before.

GET INSPIRED

My daughter, Goldy, and my friends. Spending time with my creative community is really inspiring. At any given point, I’m in a room with friends [who] are musicians, photographers, chefs, ceramicists, painters, stylists, designers, etc. The list is long! I feel so lucky to spend my time with such cool, loving and supportive people.

PROUD MOMENT

With Relic Home, I think it’d have to be our newest rug collection, which we just launched called Scenic. With Relic Creative, I’d have to say our Home Alone-themed pop-up bar last Christmas. We re-created the house from Home Alone at Hidden Bar. It was so nostalgic for our team and for all of the people [who] got to experience it. Also, the Versace Mansion-themed Halloween pop-up last year at L27. That was incredibly fun. We got to really stretch and flex our creative muscles on those projects.

IN ANOTHER LIFE

Running an animal sanctuary or owning and running a tiny hotel and event space on the water somewhere.

IN THE WORKS

As usual, we plan to have our annual holiday market at our Relic Home space. We also have several fun hotel projects for the holiday season with Relic Creative. Stay tuned, Nashville!