Meet Anderson Somerselle: The Mastermind behind SOMERSELLE + Industry Disruptor

To kick off our partnership with SOMERSELLE, we sat down with industry disruptor and tastemaker Anderson Somerselle to talk about trends and how he is innovating within the interior design space.

What is one of the top trends in 2022 that is going to stand the test of time?

Boucle. People always are going to love texture, and it's just that textural element you can add to any sofa, any chair, any Ottoman. And it's not like a shag carpet, where down the road, you're going to say “God, why did I get that?” As much as people are overdoing it right now, texture never goes out of style.

What else, color-wise, pattern-wise?

Bold prints are here to stay. It helps define people's personalities. I think it helps jazz up a space instead of everybody playing it safe with the neutrals all over. It started on wallpaper in the powder room and now we are bringing it out into the living spaces. Definitely for drapes. Big, bold patterns on drapery. But you've got to do that in the right way so it doesn’t get dated over time.

What trend are you glad to see go away?

Can I reverse the question and say what I am happy to have come back? I'm happy to see that beige is back. I've always been a beige boy. It's a great base and I'm happy that people are embracing that. Welcome back, beige!

What's your best tip for a designer when they're stuck?

Oh. These are good questions. My best tip for an interior designer that is stuck. Try to hone in on the client's personality and navigate through that. Home is personal and that’s the skill set of an interior designer - focus on their client's likes and dislikes and what they gravitate towards. So if you really connect to a client’s personality, I think you can find a way to jump-start your inspiration based on whether they travel, whether they like sports, whether they like bold prints, things like that. So I would say take a beat, and think about your client's personality. 

So you're disrupting the industry right now. What other disruptions do you hope to see in the industry? 

I think what I would love to see disrupted is this hiding of textile designers. So many interior designers are offered opportunities to create collections and they seek out the help of textile designers. And, oftentimes, those textile designers don't get spotlighted.

I would like to see the people actually creating the patterns and actually doing the designs be spotlighted more. Interior Designers often get the full glory, while the textile designers are often kept in the background, and I don't enjoy that part. So I would like to see that disrupted - more spotlight for everyone, right? Room for everybody. Really, truly.

If you are going to invest in one piece for your home, what would you suggest? 

A sofa. Always buy the best sofa you can afford. That is where you're going to spend the majority of your time. I have bought many cheap sofas in my day, and always lived to regret it.The last cheap sofa we had broke in the middle. Which made me feel very self-conscious because I knew I had gained some pandemic weight. But come on, that's nuts! So, trust me, it's worth it to invest in a well-built sofa even though it may take some time to get to you. Yes, it will be a bit pricy up front, but a well-built sofa will stand the test time.

What is your best business-building advice? What did you go back to as you were building your showroom?

Always ask who am I here to serve? Who am I? For me, I always go back to my mission - I am here to serve the interior designer. The interior designer is the sales person of this industry. And my responsibility as a showroom is to be able to provide them with the tools that they need to finish their job, which is selling a vision, selling an idea, selling a color.

In building my business, I'm always focused on how to make the interior designers’ lives easier. That is at the core of SOMERSELLE. Which is one of the reasons we are building a partnership with you.

That leads me to my next question. What other partnerships are in the works?

I'm trying to partner with a lot of workrooms around the country or one in particular so that we can offer up services. Designers don't necessarily like coordinating. We are working on a drapery program where we're helping designers. Designers can pick the fabric, but we take care of all of the coordinating behind it, getting the fabric to where it needs to be, making sure that this is right. Doing things like this, and coordinating on-site measurements, and so forth, so that we can be a resource more than a showroom for interior designers. We've got bedding programs coming. Some great stuff in the works.