{"id":4240,"date":"2020-08-31T18:12:37","date_gmt":"2020-08-31T18:12:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pagodared.com\/blog\/?p=4240"},"modified":"2023-08-07T15:43:46","modified_gmt":"2023-08-07T15:43:46","slug":"shared-sensibility-maya-romanoff-pagoda-red","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pagodared.com\/blog\/2020\/08\/31\/shared-sensibility-maya-romanoff-pagoda-red\/","title":{"rendered":"A Shared Sensibility: Maya Romanoff & PAGODA RED"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Kindness and generosity,” are the words Joyce Romanoff uses again and again to describe her late husband, Maya. “It was important to him to create a community of people from all walks of life,” she recalls. “The heart of our company is our people.” Today, Maya Romanoff<\/a>\u00a0is the largest manufacturer of handmade wallcoverings in the United States with a workshop that employees dozens of artisans, but it started as an extension of Maya’s artistic experimentation.<\/p>\n

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Fresco wallcovering\u00a0by Maya Romanoff with PAGODA RED meditation stone<\/a> and reclaimed elm table<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the 1960s, Maya traveled throughout Africa and Asia and learned tie-dyeing, which he later translated into tapestries and wallcoverings. Joyce joined the company in 1988 as head of sales and grew it into what it is today \u2014 a brand that’s helped to redefine luxury as the marriage of story, substance and skilled craft.<\/p>\n

With specialty workshops in the United States, Nepal, the Philippines, Indonesia, China, Japan, France and Portugal, the company is keeping local craft traditions alive. “Our workshops have handcraft in their heritage,” Joyce says. As the business grew, so did their relationship and in 1998, Joyce and Maya married. Since Maya’s passing in 2014 after a 20-year struggle with Parkinson’s Disease, she remains CEO of the company and keeper of his legacy.<\/p>\n

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Fresco wallcovering\u00a0by Maya Romanoff with PAGODA RED vinegar jars<\/a> and reclaimed elm table<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Their partnership is a touchstone for the company, and she returned to his earlier designs to re-imagine new releases. Fresco, inspired by Roman ruins, was originally developed by Maya in the late 1980s.<\/p>\n

“It’s made of a gesso that we color and cure,” Joyce explains, “so it’s a very strong product. It’s a thin layer of stone-like material that can wrap columns. It’s so beautiful, Maya used to paint on it as a canvas.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A new take on a classic material, it’s a natural complement to PAGODA RED’s meditation stones<\/a>, glazed ceramic vinegar jars<\/a> and reclaimed elm tables<\/a>. In fact, there is a shared sensibility between Maya Romanoff’s collections and the quiet consideration of Asian design.<\/p>\n