Ariel Ashe is my sister-in-law, and to those who have accused me of marrying my wife only for access to Ashe and Leandro’s design skills—you would have done it, too! Don’t judge me!
The truth is, I knew Ariel first. She had been an intern in the set-design department at Saturday Night Live the year before I started. We became friends, and early on I leaned on her for help appointing my living quarters. This was incredibly kind of her as my apartment back in those days was, to use an architectural term, a “shitbox.”
Still, she would patiently guide me as I made purchases such as “chair” and “table.” Limited not by her already considerable eye for quality but by my meager budget, she still helped pick pieces that stood out in my otherwise unimpressive one-bedroom apartment.
Visitors, upon seeing one of her selections next to the lumpy couch I had purchased at a Crate & Barrel knockoff called “Box & Bucket,” would remark, “Is it safe to assume the mid-century coffee table was left by the previous owner or perhaps even stolen?” I would proudly tell them that everything nice was thanks to the eye of one Ariel Ashe.
“You should marry her,” they would shout. I would explain that it’s awkward to marry your designer, but I had plans on doing the next best thing.
In reality, Ariel also set me up with my wife. And that really speaks to the kind of designer she is. Anyone can pick out a nice lamp or piece of art, but it takes a true visionary to say, “You know what would look great here? A spouse!”
As I graduated from a fourth-floor walk-up to an adult apartment where the radiator didn’t leak, I saw the true powers of not just Ariel but her incredible partner, Reinaldo Leandro. Where Ariel has an incredible eye for detail, Rei has an incomparable structural flair. Plus, I like Rei more because when I complain about my wife to him, he doesn’t run to tell her right away.
The greatest thing about their pairing is you can tell them what you want in the vaguest possible terms, and they have the power to shape it into something specific that is beyond your wildest dreams. It never looks like something you’ve seen before, but it looks like something you will see again, because five years later everyone else is trying to copy them. And they don’t care, because they’ve moved on to new ideas and new inspirations. Ariel and Rei are never complacent, always changing—a step ahead of everyone else.
If you read about designers, you will often see it said that they “crafted” a home. I always found that language to be pretentious. You don’t “craft” a home. You build a home. You decorate a home. Let’s not make things fancier than they have a right to be. And then Ashe and Leandro did a home for us, and, guys, when I walked in, I thought, “This fucking place is crafted.”
When my wife saw it, she cried because it was so beautiful. And then she turned to me and said the sweetest thing: “Try not to touch anything.”
Seth Meyers is the host of the television show Late Night with Seth Meyers and the podcasts Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers and The Lonely Island & Seth Meyers Podcast
