Designed life

ANNA ALBURY • coolstuff.nyc & Crosby Street Studios

WORK • Tuesday Routine

ANNA ALBURY • rug designer/interior stylist • coolstuff.nyc & Crosby Street Studios
Neighborhood you work in: Kips Bay
Neighborhood you live in: Park Slope

It’s Tuesday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
I work as a rug designer at a small custom luxury rug company in the New York Design Center. With a hybrid work schedule, I’m both WFH and in-office throughout the week. On a Tuesday, I might be heading into the office for a 9-5 day of designing.

What’s on the agenda for today?
A combination of knocking out designs for custom rug orders, meeting with interior designer clients in the showroom looking to match colors for custom rugs from room schemes, and developing new ideas for capsule collections of our own. I love the variety of my day-to-day and how each project differs from the last. A client might choose one of our existing designs and just want the rug resized and recolored to the intended space’s needs, or come to us with a totally custom idea that might start with a hand-painted sketch by me, and then scanned in to manipulate digitally before sending off to our mill for sampling. It’s a process!

Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
This week the restaurants on the docket are Pasta Night in Prospect Heights, KABIN in Soho, La Cantine's Sunsets in Bushwick, and Public Records in Gowanus.

How about a little leisure or culture this week?
As the people behind the newsletter coolstuff.nyc, my husband Garrett and I are always heading to events, new restaurants, gallery openings, etc. after our day jobs. Last Tuesday, we headed to a brand activation, a gallery opening at Salon 21 in SoHo, and a Substack event on the Upper East Side. This Tuesday, we’re popping into an event at the John Derian store in the East Village after work. Next Tuesday, we’re having dinner at the new-ish Mexican spot in Ridgewood, Hellbender.

What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love?
When upgrading my bedding this season, I didn’t hold back and decided to go full-on cozy mode for winter. This included lots of items from Sijo.

What NYC store or service do you love to recommend?
I like to stay local to the neighborhood and support the small businesses I love in Park Slope. That includes laundry at San Toy Laundry, wine from Shawn Fine Wine, coffee from Un Posto Italiano, clothing from Kiwi, home goods from Slope Home, plants from Blok Haus, and a cheeky pint from Park Slope Ale House.