Monika Zietkowska: When Furniture Starts With Architecture

For Monika Zietkowska, designing her first furniture collection has never been about ornament or flash — it’s about how an object fits, the feel of a surface, and the kind of careful detail that makes something truly belong in a room.

You get a sense that she’s speaking a language where architects and designers are in a deep conversation. Zietkowska, who grew up in Poland and now works in New York, has spent years behind the scenes of luxury residential design. She knows the gap between the first sketch and the finished space — the hundreds of decisions, the iterations, the back-and-forth between the vision in your head and the realities of building something that lasts. Custom millwork, technical drawings, design visualizations — it’s been her second nature for a while. Now, bringing all of that to her debut independent collection, she shifts the spotlight onto a handful of quiet, sculptural pieces.

Photo: Evan Felts

Photo: Evan Felts

Photo: Evan Felts

Photo: Evan Felts

Photo: Evan Felts

Photo: Evan Felts

This small collection — crafted in partnership with Vella Interiors in New York — spans just four made-to-order items: two nightstands, a side table, and a coffee table. There’s no obvious shout for attention here. The design language feels direct but understated, shaped by geometry, gentle curves, texture, and an eye for proportion. Nods to architecture reveal themselves if you stay with the pieces for a bit, rather than jumping out at you.

That sense of restraint is what guides Zietkowska’s hand.

She trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, earning a master’s in interior design before heading to New York in 2014. That jump meant trading one design culture for another; moving from European ideas of proportion and architectural space to the reality of New York’s residential construction industry, where visions demand translation into actual rooms, with all the practicalities and constraints that entails.

Her collection wears those experiences. Take the Edge & Flow Coffee Table, for example—two interlocking shapes, set up as precise geometry interrupted by softened edges. Or the Fluted Side Nightstand, which echoes the rhythm of classical architectural fluting, letting changes in light and shadow carve depth into its surface. The Rib Side Nightstand leans sculptural, with a vertical element that becomes structure and showpiece at once. The Tray Side Table, meanwhile, pulls back even more: clean form, subtle recesses, and a quiet play of materials.

The overall feeling isn’t about staking out some signature look. Instead, she seems more interested in how the pieces talk to their surroundings—and to each other.

Part of that comes from her upbringing and training. Zietkowska prefers contrast over allegiance to a style, values time-honored materials without falling into nostalgia, and steers clear of the kind of “contemporary” that simply means generic minimalism.

Materials add to that tactile appeal. The collection pairs oak, Calacatta Viola marble, brass, and leather — selected for texture as much as for looks, and for how each element changes the whole. Every piece is made to order, with dimensions, finishes, and materials tailored to the client’s needs.

That customization isn’t just a feature — it’s almost inevitable, given Zietkowska’s deep roots in residential work. She never approaches furniture as stand-alone objects. They’re part of a bigger picture, designed to settle organically into the life of a room.

In a way, this collection just extends the work she already does. In 2023, she launched Monika Zietkowska Design LLC to focus on custom interiors and furniture for individual clients. The new pieces are the first set carrying her name alone, each one open to adaptation, ready to take its place wherever it lands.

Her partnership with Vella Interiors shapes this collection just as much as her own vision. The firm brings top-notch craftsmanship and a knack for translating design into reality, working closely with Zietkowska from first sketches to final builds. For someone who knows the ins and outs of technical documentation and fabrication, this wasn’t just about handing off blueprints — it was a collaboration all the way.

You can see the architecture in the finished furniture. Each piece comes alive at its joints and transitions, not just at the edges or in surface details that get tacked on later. Those moments — the way a leg meets a tabletop, the shift between materials — are baked into the design from the beginning.

This approach feels deeply rooted in the mix of influences that shaped her: the formal discipline of European schools and the gritty, detail-driven ethos of New York construction.

In the end, Zietkowska doesn’t look like she’s chasing trends or novelty. Instead, her work circles back to a question that sticks: What makes a piece of furniture truly feel at home?

For her, the answer starts with proportion, moves through the hands that make it, and finds its place somewhere inside the room.

Visit Monika Zietkowska Home to learn more.

Ty Wenzel

Co-Publisher & Contributor

Ty Wenzel, a recent breast cancer survivor, started her career as a fashion coordinator for Bloomingdale’s followed by fashion editor for Cosmopolitan Magazine. She was also a writer for countless publications, including having published a memoir (St. Martin's Press) and written features for The New York Times. She is an award-winning writer and designer who covers lifestyle, real estate, architecture and interiors for James Lane Post. She previously worked as a writer and marketing director for The Independent. She has won multiple PCLI and NYPA awards for journalism, social media and design, including best website design and best magazine for James Lane Post, which she co-founded in 2020. Wenzel is also the founder of the Hamptons social media agency, TWM Luxury Solutions.