THE BIO ON Deborah Needleman’s Instagram page says, “Baskets, flowers, other people’s houses, the occasional dog, things like that”. And for the most part, that’s true, except that recently, she began posting images of her own home, a country house in Garrison, Upstate New York, which was published in Architectural Digest about a week ago, and we couldn’t help but be absorbed with every last detail.
Needleman seems to spend the majority of her time now as an Hudson Valley weaver learning to make brooms, baskets (and even chairs!). Some of these things she taught herself, through old books and Youtube videos. Some of her woven English river rush cachepots, large wastebaskets and bread baskets are even available at select stores in the area. When speaking with one such store, Reed Smythe & Company, Needleman elaborates on the material she uses: “The material is English river rush which is a naturalized sedge grass that grows in marshes and rivers around the British Isles. Mine is sourced from a weaver in Bedfordshire who harvests it every summer. There is a long tradition in Ireland of weaving baskets, bags and mats from rush, which I adore and whose designs inspire mine. Sadly, it has nearly died out. There are only a handful of people left who harvest and weave with rush commercially.”
Before she became a weaver, Needleman was the editor-in-chief of T: The New York Times Style Magazine, a position she held from September 2012 to December 2016. Prior to that, she was editor-in-chief of WSJ, where she created the paper’s weekend lifestyle section. And even before that, you may remember her as the founding editor-in-chief of domino, launched in the spring of 2005. It would close in 2009, much to the shock and sadness of budding décor bloggers everywhere.
Needleman and her husband, Jacob Weisberg (an American political journalist) bought the 18th-century Dutch Colonial house in the Hudson Valley in 1995 and spent over 15 years renovating it with the help of architect Jim Joseph and their friend Dave Merandy, a local carpenter-craftsman. And if you think there’s an English countryside sensibility to the place, you would be right, for Needleman also worked with decorator and longtime friend, Rita Konig, an English interior designer and journalist and the queen of ‘undone’ interiors. Konig also had a role at domino as editor-at-large, which is why you might recognise a little of that domino quirkiness we remember so well: there are skirted tables and Suzanis, Staffordshire dog figurines and Ikat lampshades; seagrass rugs and striped armchairs, bright colours and flea market finds. Altogether, each room is a warm and welcoming mix of things perfectly layered, inviting you to come in, sit down and stay a while.
