“I like to keep things simple,” says emerging designer and artist Matt Byrd, who took the New York gallery world by storm last spring with a solo show featuring his puzzle-like carved stone lamps, stools, and vessels. “At the end of the day, I consider myself a stonemason who became a sculptor. My line of work is primitive and old. I think that transfers over into my home.”

Byrd’s Raleigh, North Carolina home hosts a slew of quirky items he found, was given as gifts, or made himself, like a woodpecker toothpick holder and ceramic wiener dog ashtray. “I love designer pieces, too.” A Milo Baughman chair is one of his prized possessions.

“Gathering at my place are usually casual,” Byrd says. “For Friendsgsivging, I get to share food and a few drinks with people close to me without much hassle. After a few years of the pandemic, it feels amazing to finally get together again and celebrate the thing ts that I, and many people, took for granted.”

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