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Designer of the Week: Noz Nozawa
San Francisco-based Noz Nozawa is known for her commitment to artful and highly personal interiors. Her spaces are grounded in a commitment to helping her clients access joy and love through the process and have earned her industry accolades. She takes pride in creating a workplace that promotes kindness, pride in the reward of work and a human-first-employee-second culture. Noz holds a Bachelor's Degree in Economics with a minor in Art History from the University of Pennsylvania.
Why do you love interior design?
It’s the work I was put on this planet to do. I love that design in general is problem-solving mixed with aesthetic and form. As a creative practice, interior design requires a specific person or group of people to be necessary. While it’s so fun to mix things up and do a showhouse where I’m not working with a client directly, the work that brings me life is to be needed by a homeowner or their family or the restaurant-goers who will dine in a space.
Describe your style in three words
Narrative, boundary-pushing (sorry that’s 2 words!), and joyful.
Where do you find inspiration?
All over — from oddly-shaped trees and avian plumage to color juxtapositions that my brain reacts uncomfortably to. But most recently, I’ve been loving to page through used books about architecture and interiors. It’s not just the spaces themselves but even the way they were photographed back then — on film, often at twilight.
Tell us about working with Ernesta for your space in the Real Simple Home – what was the vision, and how did the custom-sized rug bring it to life?
My outdoor terrace space had a great apex with stunning views that felt like the ultimate lounging zone. Because the building's architecture is modern and the finishes rather austere, adding rugs was a great way to introduce warmth and texture, while also establishing distinct zones across the 1,500-square-foot space. The custom-sized circular Ernesta rug was perfect – and I was so grateful to the Ernesta team for helping us custom-fit the rug around the fire pit, too.
When choosing an outdoor rug, what factors do you consider?
I always prefer an outdoor rug that feels like it could be just as at-home inside. I also love a sturdy rug with some weight to it, so that it stays down even when it gets windy. And I am delighted with Ernesta’s rug pad selection, which made the rug great for an outdoor space.
How do you make an outdoor space inviting?
To me, this starts with the layout: if it’s obvious for guests that they should come out and find a comfortable seat, that’s already inherently inviting. Then I love to feature soft textures, touches of color, organic shapes to soften architectural rectilinearity, and plenty of live plants.
What was your main goal when designing this space?
To define each of the functional zones (dining, lounge-hosting and private rest and restoration) clearly, while making the total terrace, which is quite large, feel cohesive and like one space aesthetically.
What is your idea of great design?
Great design should be intuitive, but also make you a little uncomfortable. There’s a tension between those two thoughts: on the one hand, intuitive design makes sense, its functional purpose feels clear, and a person interacting with or in that design feels natural. If any of that is not true, I don’t think the design is successful yet. And on the other hand, I believe great design should push us beyond what we understand can work in the present — it should make us a little uncomfortable in terms of how we reckon with past references and history, or how we envision our humanity in the future.
What are you reading or watching right now?
A lot of Reddit! I am in a funny place of just wanting to be an anonymous voyeur to people’s thoughts and interests. But the doomscroll is still real, so I should honestly step away from my phone for a while, ha! I have also begun to address a very long list of significant films I’ve never watched because they were too intense for me when I was younger. Next up: "Fight Club"
If you could design a home for one famous person / couple, who would it be?
Meryl Streep! I’ll do whatever she wants!