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Interview by Coleen Rider & Holli Thomas
Photographs by Coleen Rider
Jack Deamer is a man about town, yet sort of an insider secret. On any given day during Sag Harbor's summer season, Deamer's shop, JED (named for his initials), is abuzz with stylish Manhattanites, decorators shopping for clients' summer homes, and friends on their way to the beach, towel in hand, all there for Jack's infectious personality, as well as his finds.
You get the impression that rather than feeling strapped to the store, it's Deamer's home away from home. Try not to miss the part of the interview where Jack tells us what got him started as a decorator. This sort of confidence and sense of adventure shines through in his work.
If you're trying to pin him down, good luck. Deamer possesses that rare combination of exquisite taste and light hearted flair. Everything is thrown together, yet lands in the perfect spot. In keeping with his off-the-cuff, freestyle persona, there is no portfolio, there is no website, yet there are always clients.
CR: How did you get started as a designer?
JD: I'm thinking. I don't know. Gosh, how did I start? I was helping a friend do his condo in West Hollywood, and then I started taking classes.
CR: So it started in LA?
JD: Yes, in LA. I was in television casting, working on the Designing Women show.
CR: No you didn't!
JD: I did.
CR: Designing Women?
JD: Yes. Remember that show?
CR: Of course. Wow, when was that?
JD: God, back in 1990-ish. Right, around there.
CR: You came from Massachusetts to LA?
JD: Correct.
CR: After school?
JD: Yes. A friend of mine had a job in movies; I had to go for the summer. Then I was probably going to go to law school or something like that a year or two later. Then we were working - I was a paralegal at this law firm.
CR: You'd be a great lawyer.
JD: I know, so academic, though. There was one of the partner's brothers who was suing his decorator, and I had to catalog everything, and I thought, "Oooh, this is what I want to do."
CR: Get out of here.
JD: I swear to God, yes. Then I ran into her years later at my upholstery shop. They came in and they said, "Judi Bruskin is here to see you," to the upholsterer. This is like 15 years later. And I said, "Judy Bruskin is here? She's the reason I'm a decorator." So I went out and I met Judy Bruskin for the first time.
CR: And you told her?
JD: Yes I told her.  I said, "You know, you're the reason why I do this. Because I had to catalog all the stuff back from Europe for that lawsuit." She came back with no receipts and said this is all a million dollars. No receipts.
CR: Did she win the case or lose?
JD: She won.
CR: How did she win?
JD: I have no idea. I have no idea.
CR: So you looked at all that stuff and it intrigued you and you thought-
JD: Yeah and I thought, God, this is what I want to do. I flirted with it for a while and then I went into casting. That was fun. But then I thought, no, I don't want to do this, I want to do design stuff. And I had to make that decision because I was offered a promotion. And I thought, no, this isn't the career path I want. So I started taking design classes at Otis Parsons and Santa Monica City in drafting.
CR: So, you had already graduated college on the east coast?
JD: Yes. Art history and English. Which I use every day in my job. References and things like that.
CR: That's the best story yet I've heard about how someone got into design. I love it.
So then your friend was your first client?
JD: Yes. And then a friend of his liked the job I did and asked me to do his house for him. And I did his house for him. He ended up getting it published in Metropolitan Home. It was a good job. He was the head of marketing for Warner Brothers. It was a beautiful house up in Beachwood Canyon. Then he referred me to someone, and then I had a business.
CR: How long were you in LA?
JD: 20 years, total.
CR: Did you want to be an actor?
JD: No. Just casting. It's more fun. I met Dolly Parton.
CR: I love Dolly.
JD: She's so lovely.
CR: How did you meet Dolly Parton?
JD: She was a guest on the show.
CR: Okay, so now we have to talk about your sort of design philosophy; what does everything mean to you? How do you start? You're pretty loose, I would say.
JD: Very. Because, you know, it always depends on their style, the architecture. That's the starting point for stuff. What the architecture is, what the client's style is. And then I kind of meld and elevate. Because you can't kind-of-like force a look on someone - at least, I can't. You have to know their capabilities, you know what I mean? To know what a client's aesthetic is and what they're willing to do. And I will push them.
You know, it' about their lifestyle and who is their family. What is their family made up of - animals, children, and all those factors you have to kind of put in. You don't put lucite and glass with a bunch of kids.
CR: Do you have rules?
JD: What do you mean rules? I mix everything, but there are certain things I don't like.
CR: Like what?
JD: I hate mission.  The Mission Period. I hate it. All that craftsman style. Don't like that. I like clean, more modern. I do like a lot of French. So I always mix French and modern. I think that's very chic. And a little Asian. But then you gotta be careful with Asian, because you don't want it to look too Asian.
CR: Just touches?
JD: Yes.
CR: It's more about color. I know you like color.
JD: I love color, but in my shop I've had to stop over-coloring - people don't want it. They have their ideas of what color is. I could have sold like a beautiful pair of chairs into the store and they were kind of like Paul Smith, kind of like a zig-zaggy, colorful stripe fabric. Could have sold those chairs. They were the perfect scale, they were beautiful. They were slightly petite club chairs. Really good looking. Like perfect. They were down and nicely upholstered. Really comfortable, you sit deep in them. And separate cushion back. All that. I did them in this really fun linen stripe, and no one would buy them. I could have sold them 50 times if it had been in linen. But people didn't want to reupholster them or anything. And I ended up selling them to a lady in Greenwich for her children's playroom.
CR: When people buy, on their own without a decorator, it seems they're always afraid of it matching and working in with everything.
JD: Right. They don't take chances like that. Yes. They have to be really confident. You know, but color, I love color. I like using color.
CR: When you start with a client, do you think, like, in color? I picture you thinking in color.
"I ALWAYS MIX FRENCH AND MODERN. I THINK THAT'S VERY CHIC."
JD: Yes, I guess I do. Or, you know, I've been inspired by what people are wearing. Because then I know what colors they're attracted to. I had a client in LA where I just went through her closet. I just saw what she liked, her colors. You have to look good in your own house, and be comfortable. So that's how we kind of started.
CR: Do you use pink?
JD: I'd do pink in a bedroom, but not in a living room. Well, I have done a pink living room, but it was like a soft, soft, soft pink. I call it Venetian rose.
CR: When you push clients, do you find that they go with you?
JD: Yes. Because I'm the salesman. We're all salespeople.
CR: And usually they're like, "I love it!" after?
JD: Yeah. They get it.
CR: You're not afraid to do that?
JD: No. No. No, no, no, no. Because when you know it's right, you gotta go with it.
"WHEN YOU KNOW IT'S RIGHT, YOU GOTTA GO WITH IT."
CR: What about pattern?
JD: I like pattern. Not a lot of it though because it starts to get looking too traditional and I don't like that. You know, I've never used a chintz and I've always wanted to.
CR: You haven't used a chintz? I'm surprised you haven't.
JD: I've never used a chintz. I've always wanted to use the one from Rose Cummings, the black and pink one. The one with the big gray cabbage roses on a pink ground with black stripes, and it's just like so weird looking, it's great. You know, I want to do a whole room, walls, bed, everything.
CR: I love her leopard linens. All the colorways - pink and brown and green and black.
I've heard you talk about how drapery is very important to you.
JD: Yes.
CR: Do you add trims to drapery, or do you prefer simple?
JD: I don't use trim. The most I've ever used on draperies is tape. Never used a fringe on drapery. No, it's a little -
CR: A little much for you?
JD: A little bit. I mean I'd like to, but, I've never been inspired to do that. I like clean, because if you're gonna tailor it up, it's still gotta be clean. You know, like a leading edge, and on the bottom.  That's where I like my - like a piece of tape. Or I'll band it in a contrasting color. You know, same, like - if you do linen, you do a linen band at the bottom, or on the leading edge. But sometimes trim tends to get too fancy.
CR: That was my next question for you. Because you don't like things too fancy.
JD: No.
CR: Or precious.
JD: Well you gotta live in the place. It's a house. You know? I like stuff around. And you can see, I have lots of stuff. I like stuff around. That undecorated look, slightly. I don't like houses that feel too done. It feels show roomy and show housey. That's not comfortable. That's not how people live. You gotta put your feet up, and if it's too nice to put your feet on, it doesn't work. You gotta feel comfortable to put a glass down or leave a magazine on the floor.
CR: Do you help your clients pick out art?
JD: Yes. I like doing that because I like art. So it's fun. You know, and a lot of them have no clue. It's fun to shop for it. Like I'm looking for art for a client now and he collects glass. Nice, really nice stuff, but there's so much of it. I told him, stop buying glass, it's looking like a gift shop. I found this artist who works in glass, Alyson Shotz . She does these wonderful glass sculptures. She's brilliant. She works in beautiful Lucite and glass, and she did a curtain last year that was in the Guggenheim, like a huge curtain of little palettes. She puts everything together with staples. These glass discs and things. She did these mobiles with little beads on them. So, I've commissioned her to make two of them that will fit over this credenza in his living room. I'm going to backlight them. So it will still be part of his aesthetic, and it's a collectable piece. She's in major museums, yet she's still affordable. It will be a good investment for him. That's fun to do.
"I LIKE STUFF AROUND, THAT UNDECORATED LOOK, SLIGHTLY."
This client, he has beautiful clothes. You know, very tailored, beautiful suits, shoes, and everything. So I kind of went with that. I used all kinds of men's suit fabrics.
CR: Oooh, that's nice.
JD: Like his bedroom is all gray. I used one gray fabric from Holland and Sherry, and I did the bed in it, and matched the color to the walls. Then I did the windows in it, roman shades. There was a Maison Jansen piece that I bought that had grillwork and behind it was red leather. I had the leather taken off and put the gray flannel in it. I did a nice rug, a beautiful gray stripe, gray and green and cream striped rug from Patterson Flynn. I used tortoise chests as the nightstands. Beautiful. With these - and again he collects glass - so I got these gorgeous Murano glass lamps that are a teardrop of solid glass. They weigh 25 pounds each. They're solid, they're French wired, and it's a solid piece of glass. They're incredible.
CR: What color?
JD: They're brown and green. So it pulls up the green from the carpet and the brown from the tortoise. Really good looking. And I did the green silk shades that match the walls and flannel. And did the Pratesi linens with the gray chain stitch. Really his room, that's the best bedroom I've ever done. It's really elegant.
CR: Why isn't it photographed?
JD: It will be.
CR: Okay. So what's next on his house?
JD: We're waiting for his rug. It's taken a year. It's a beautiful Shagreen style rug. It's gorgeous.
CR: What do you mean Shagreen style rug?
JD: It's a Shagreen pattern. It's a big hand woven rug. And it's in panels. You know, it's like-you know how Shagreen is done and laid out in panels on furniture? This rug - it's panels, and it's beautiful.
CR: Is this for his living room?
JD: Yes, his living room. It's 21 by 11. It's huge.
CR: So you like to do a lot of interesting things with carpets?
JD: Yes, I'm designing the entry carpet, too, using the colors from that. I couldn't find a good carpet. And it's an odd shape 'cause I put bookshelves in the entry. So it's not a square. And I was going to try to do an oval carpet, but that would have just seemed so boring. So I came up with this idea to do a grid of color, like different things, so it kind of like has,  like, almost a cubist quality to it.
CR: Do you prefer to use new or antique carpets?
JD: I love antique rugs. I think antique rugs are fabulous. But not a lot of people understand that rugs are expensive, and are willing to do that. And a lot of people don't like used things.
CR: Especially a rug or upholstery.
JD: They call rugs used, I call them antique.
CR: Right.
JD: [LAUGHS] You know what I mean? There are great modern rugs out there. You know, I love Oushaks, I love like really good palace rugs. You can't beat them. When you walk into a room and you see like a big huge rug, and the depth of color and the patina to it. It's great. You can't get that. But that's a hard sell. 'Cause, you know, on large rugs you're looking at 100, $150,000 on up.
CR: What decorators do you like?
JD: Living or dead?
CR: Either.
JD: I think, well, you know who I met? I met Albert Hadley and I think he's brilliant. His rooms are always really, really great. I met him in an elevator. He walked in the elevator at the fine arts building in the city. He was with this lady. He walked in and I just wasn't sure if it was him or not. I said, "Excuse me, are you Mr. Hadley?" and he said, "Yes I am, what's your name?", and I said, "Jack Deamer, and you've been a great inspiration to me for my entire career." He said, "Thank you so much." And then we ran into him again later on. He has a good sense of humor. He's a very nice man. I like him.
Also, Henri Samuel, he was a great, great, great decorator. Unfortunately you don't see a lot of his work.
CR: Why is that?
JD: I think he dealt with the really, really, really elite. And they didn't photograph. Things weren't published. You know, I have one magazine that has his house in it. He did work for Susan Gutfreund. She's a New York Parisian society lady. And her house was in it too. But his house was amazing.
CR: Do you have that magazine here?
JD: It's somewhere. I know it's somewhere. It's either in a box downstairs or it's in my office. I don't know. But it's one of the magazines I kept. When I moved from LA, I had to get rid of that closet full of magazines. I had to throw all of them away. I left them in storage for a year, and I was like, what am I doing keeping all these?
CR: You just have to tear out the ones that you like.
JD: I can't tear magazines up.
CR: Really?
JD: Oh, I hate that. I hate that. It's hard for me to do it too. I don't know why. It's just like ripping a book apart to me. I tag everything. All my magazines have tags on them. You know like Post-Its. So that way it's a reference. I can go right to it and be like, why did I do this? Oh this great room.
CR: So who else do you like?
JD: You know who I like is a friend of mine. I like Wayne Nathan's work. He's with Nathan Egan Interiors out of the city. He does really good stuff. He's a real good mix master as well. He and Carole Egan do beautiful, beautiful work. She's an architect, an Irish architect I think, and he's from the south. He's from Tennessee. He does beautiful work. I like Jeffrey Bihuber. His work is beautiful. Again, great mix. You know, he did a great Long Island house at one point with these great - he did a real great spin on the braided rug. Beautiful. Very simple, modern furnishings and braided rugs. It was great. I loved his first book.
CR: I've never stopped looking at.
JD: You're just like, whoa.
CR: So when you came to Sag Harbor to open your store, this is just from my perspective as your friend, I remember you saying that you were just going to have a store for a year or so to get clients and establish yourself here and then...
JD: Now I like it. Make it nice, people either like it or not, boom. It's much more fulfilling.
CR: Really?
JD: Yes.
CR: So you like the shopping.
JD: It's nice - I love shopping, that's what I like to do. You know, I also like having a client-a job or two going. Just so I can work with my creative juices. But I like shopping and doing my stuff for the store. I really like that. Hunting and gathering. Taking it and making something totally different. You know? So I like having a store. I hope I always have a store.
CR: Five years is a long time.
JD: I know, it's going to be another five, I just signed the lease.
CR: That's a long time.
JD: Yeah. Ten years. I'll have it for 10 years then. It is, isn't it?
CR: It's a long time.
JD: I know. I'm gonna be old.
CR: You're gonna be old, anyway.
JD: Yeah, well.
CR: With or without the store. [LAUGHS]
JD: Right.
CR: You could be an old decorator or an old store owner. [LAUGHS]
JD: I'm gonna die on a ladder.
CR: Oh!
JD: Well, it's okay. Putting up a chandelier, adjusting a drapery panel. We can work 'til we die. You know, we're in a profession like that.
CR: Yes.
JD: You know, you can work part time into your old age and still like have a fulfilling career and life, like Mr. Hadley's still working.
CR: In this profession you can get better as you age.
JD: Yes, like Mario Buatta, he's still working.
CR: I know, and he does fantastic work. Also, Thomas Britt.
JD: Yes, he lives over here in Watermill.
CR: Oh, I love his work.
JD: And he has two houses in Watermill next door to each other.
CR: So have you done any commercial projects?
JD: Just the restaurant in town, and that was just because I wanted to go somewhere nice to eat and the woman who owns it worked for me. She and her husband. And she was, how come you never come to our - how come you never come to Spinnakers? And I said, 'cause it's disgusting in there, I hate the lighting. And she goes, well tell Jerry that. And I said, no you tell Jerry. I'll specify the restaurant for him, for a tab. And I did-and the first time I went to dinner there, I got food poisoning.
CR: [LAUGHS] He's getting you back for something.
JD: Can you believe that? Like I was sick. 104 temperature.
CR: Oh my God.
JD: Like sick as a frickin' dog.
CR: That's terrible.
JD: I know. So I couldn't go there; it's like I essentially did it for free.
CR: Yeah, you can never go back. But you did improve the restaurant.
JD: Yeah, they got a lot of positive response to the look of the place.
CR: What did you change out?
JD: Oh, it was all dark wood and carpeted. I painted it all light gray and hardwood floors, and lacquered the bar black. They were like, you're gonna paint the bar? And I said, yeah just paint it black because it was dark, old dark wood, musty. You know, real, like, it looked like - you know those horrible, horrible restaurants in sea coast towns. Like really bad.
CR: So you prefer to do residential?
JD: Yeah, I like it. It's fun to do like a commercial project every now and again. Because it's like, boom, boom, it's fast. Residential projects take a long time. Because it's layers, it's about layers. I think. That's how I do them. I don't do that installation, like - tada! I can't do that. Even though I know that's a better way to do it. As far as the client, then they can't hem and haw over each individual piece. You give them the whole, boom! And then they can't go, like, huh? But I like doing layers. I think you can be more accurate.
CR: Well, the logistics of putting everything in at once.
JD: It's impossible in Manhattan. Because you know, in the buildings there, like I'm working in that building on 5th Avenue. There's a window of time. It's nine in the morning until quarter of four. For workmen, deliveries, all that kind of thing. I've gotten there at 5:00 with a huge mirror and they're like, no, sorry, can't do that. And I'm like, traffic made me late, or whatever. I called the building ahead of time. I said, listen, I got a mirror coming in. I've gotta get it in there. And they're like, okay bring it on over. And I get there and they're like, mmm, sorry the gate's locked already.
CR: Oh my God, you want to choke someone.
JD: Yes, I can't leave this in my car overnight! Like, I literally had a seven foot mirrored four panel screen in my car that I'd driven in from Connecticut. And they're like, no. I called the client and I said, I can't get this in today. And he goes, what's the matter? So he called up they did it for him. I don't know what he said, or what he had to pass them. But they did it. You know, it's a pain in the neck. Delivery is like - it's not like L.A. where you can like fill up the car or truck and get to the house and just unload it, any time, whatever. It's so much easier to work in L.A. in the suburbs. You can deliver anytime. But in the city, you gotta be like a coordinator.
CR: That's a lot of time involved.
JD: And it's a lot of money. Well, thank you. Anything else?
CR: I'm sure I'll think of something.
JD: Okay good. So let's go to Julia's barn sale now.
CR: Uh-oh.
JED
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27 Washington St
Sag Harbor, NY 11963-4437
(631) 725-6411
1st Dibs Inventory
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