Why "Tea Time"
The name comes from something small: a habit of pausing mid-afternoon, mid-project, to look at a room again with fresh eyes over a cup of tea. It's become shorthand for how the studio works — slower, more deliberate, willing to sit with a material choice for a few days before committing to it.
We'd rather get a wallcovering or a stone slab right the first time than re-select it six weeks into installation. That habit of pausing has saved more than one project from a decision made too quickly.
About Matty
Matty Arlo Carder founded Tea Time Interior Design in 2017, after nearly a decade split between London and New York working on residential and boutique hospitality projects. He trained at the Bellwood School of Interior Design in London before moving to New York, where he spent six years with a residential firm known for its work on prewar apartment renovations across the Upper East Side and Brooklyn Heights.
His own studio grew out of a simple frustration: too many projects treated material selection as a last-minute decision rather than the thing a room is actually built around. He has a particular interest in wallcovering and textile-driven spaces, and still keeps a swatch library that takes up more closet space than his actual wardrobe.
Matty lives in northern New Jersey with his husband and two dogs Jack and Mason. The studio's name comes from a habit he picked up from his grandmother — a proper afternoon tea break, taken mid-project, to look at a room again with fresh eyes.