After growing up in Tennessee and studying business and corporate communications at the University of North Carolina, Amy Zolin came to New York and worked her way up to be a major jet-setting buyer of Gucci, Prada, Chanel and luxury accessories for Saks Fifth Avenue. When a colleague of her financial-services husband admired their apartment and asked her to design a home for him in Southampton, she took on the project that changed her career. Moving to Connecticut in 2000, she started working with builders and developed an interior design business that in 2010 became full-service Clarity Home Interiors, known for creating livable, timeless, thoughtful and deeply personal luxury spaces. In a return to her roots, she’s opening a branch in Charleston, South Carolina, near Kiawah Island, where she has summered with her family.
What prompted your husband’s colleague to hire you? And why did you leave fashion?
I had done my home in New York City. He knew that I knew luxury and details and could manage budgets and money. He could see I had a high taste level and trusted me. I learned that interiors were more personal and lasting. Fashion can change seasonally, but home is part of every day—it’s where you’re sharing life with loved ones.
How did you manage without formally studying design?
I always like to grow and evolve, take what I’ve done and look for a new adventure. I had a business background and experience and am good at making decisions. When you go into a showroom, you’re under pressure, you have to know the customer, audience, budget—you’re making decisions quickly and thoughtfully with the client in mind. I took my luxury know-how and built a company around how people want to live.
How do you describe your company’s style?
Timeless interiors, sophisticated without pretense. Beauty is balanced with livability, so the home feels elevated, but relaxed, hospitable, welcoming. Our teams create both custom homes and renovations—doing all the drawings and details. We never design the same house twice.
Why do you start with listening?
Listening to the client’s wants and needs is super important. Everybody has their own story and memories, rituals, celebrations. Learning about how a family lives together and anything personal they want to share is the most important. My mission is to not only to offer the best design but also to surpass the client expectations.
What led you to open an office in Charleston?
The South is part of my soul—where my soul sings. I’ve always held a special place in my heart for its architecture, craft, pace, lifestyle. I’m able to explore that part of me that has always been with me. Charleston’s gracious lifestyle has always inspired me creatively. It’s a very sophisticated town. Everything is accessible; it’s world class, refined; and it’s continuing to grow. A lot of people are moving from New England to Charleston.
How do you describe Lowcountry style?
Interiors are lighter, softer, more connected to the outdoors. I think of marshland, salt water, reflections that you want to translate into the home with patios, rooms that can open up to bring the inside out. You have to think about how the light comes into the house—sky, sunsets, magnificent pinks and blues. A softness of the palette expresses the slower rhythm of Southern living.
What are common threads between North and South?
The mix of high and low. A thread of the old—loved antiques, your grandmother’s things, a little brown furniture, things you bought traveling—mixed with the new. Outdoor space has become more important to both. But I think knowing how the family is going to live is more important than the region.
What Connecticut traits would you bring to the South?
I have a great appreciation for millwork. Bringing millwork into a home, introducing a cabinet line, is a major focus of understanding how a client wants to live functionally. I would love to bring custom millwork to everybody there.
What Southern mansion would you like to decorate?
There is an old Vanderhorst estate on Kiawah Island. It’s very coastal—there’s history, scale, landscape. I would try to pick all the timeless architectural detailing and add a relaxed sophistication to it incorporating antiques, new millwork, and the soft coastal palette—not flashy but not overly refined. It would be lovely to do something there. But actually, there’s isn’t a place I wouldn’t want to decorate.
