UnderFoot
BY LIBBY CALLAWAY PHOTOS BY ADRIAN MORALES
Alyssa Spyridon offers world-class rug designs to the local market through Relic Home It’s no surprise that Alyssa Spyridon ended up working in interiors. The longtime Nashvillian grew up in Fairhope, Alabama, in a series of historic houses that were always changing. Her designer mother was as passionate about renovation as she was collecting the antiques that she mixed with modern finds to decorate their homes. “My mom’s passion for interiors definitely rubbed off on me,” says Alyssa, who worked at her mother’s Southeast Asia imports store when she was a teenager before trying her own hand at decorating. “I furnished my first college apartment with items I found at resale stores and antique malls. That was my entry into the thrill of the hunt.” Putting her childhood exposure to quality antiques to good use, Alyssa started buying and flipping secondhand décor when she was in her twenties. She put the money she made on sales toward furnishing her own East Nashville homes. This includes Eastwood Manor; the name she gave the historic 1867 clapboard home she’s lived in since 2014 along with her partner Matthew Mosshart and their daughter Goldy. Excited for Alyssa to have her own historic home to decorate, her mom donated four antique rugs to the mix. When a visitor asked to buy the gorgeous rug covering the hardwood floors in her foyer, Alyssa said yes. While searching for a replacement, she fell down what she describes as “the rug rabbit hole.” “I became obsessed. My mind was blown by all of the different styles,” Alyssa says. “I was posting my discoveries on social media, and my friends and followers were interested in what I was finding. I quickly realized that there was a market for this as a business.” 94 | NASHVILLEEDIT.COM
In 2015, she founded Relic Home. Alyssa quickly learned to source vintage and antique rugs internationally, with most imported from Northern Africa and the Middle East. “Buying is how I honed my eye,” she says. “Many mistakes were made along the way, and a lot of rug books were referenced.” Despite any perceived hiccups, Relic Home flourished. Alyssa developed strong relationships with dealers and pickers around the world. As her expertise grew, so did her renown. Today, her stylish clientele extended far beyond Nashville: Relic Home wares, which are sold exclusively on its namesake website, ship to customers coast to coast and overseas. The publishing world also took notice. Relic Home’s rugs have appeared in Lonny, InStyle, Country Living, and Cherry Bombe magazines. In 2019, the brand expanded its offerings, as Alyssa began having her own rug designs produced in India. A passionate collaborator, she also asked creative friends to create their own designs; so far, she’s produced limited edition projects with artist and musician Alison Mosshart and Jessica Cheatham of Salt Ceramics. This year, she has plans to announce additional collaborations with The Callaway and Batsheva. Partnerships with national brands are coming soon. Alyssa believes strongly in quality over quantity. “I feel strongly about the quality of handknotted, wool rugs,” she says. “People should be investing in these over synthetic ones that won’t clean well, won’t get passed down for generations. They will never degrade and get tossed into landfills, either. Fine rugs are works of art that live underneath our feet. Does it get better than that?”
