American actress and comedian Chloe Fineman has harbored a deep-seated passion for interior design since her early childhood, an affinity that traces directly back to her formative years in California. Long before she became a household name and a standout cast member on Saturday Night Live, her appreciation for aesthetics was sparked by her family’s decision to hire an interior decorator to transform their California home. That decorator, Steven Shubel, introduced a distinct French flair to the residence, incorporating sophisticated touches such as gleaming gold leaf accents and meticulously styled black-and-white pillows that left an indelible impression on the young Fineman.
Reflecting on those early experiences during a recent conversation, Fineman recalled spending a significant amount of time with Shubel while growing up. She noted that her parents regularly took her and her siblings antiquing, instilling in them an enduring appreciation for visual harmony and craftsmanship. What began as childhood exposure blossomed into a genuine love of beauty that continues to influence her life and living spaces today.
This lifelong fascination with design recently took center stage when Fineman sat down with designer and host Jeremiah Brent for an episode of the Ideas of Order podcast. Part of the California Closets series hosted on the SURROUND Podcast Network, the interview explored the broader intersections of creativity, the pursuit of artistic expression, and the deeply personal meaning of home for someone balancing a high-profile acting career. Throughout their discussion, several prominent themes emerged, including the importance of staying true to one’s roots—which for Fineman means embracing her soulful Bay Area upbringing—and navigating the distinct dual identities that come with bicoastal living between New York City and California. They also delved into the art of designing a personal living space so that it carries the cinematic magic and emotional resonance of a film set.
Film and design have always been inextricably linked in Fineman’s mind. Born into a creative family of painters, her artistic impulses were nurtured and encouraged from every possible angle. Whether she was pretending to be flower fairies in the family’s rose garden, spending her summers immersed in art camp, or engaging in whimsical scarf-dancing, her environment was one of unbridled imagination. Fineman has even jokingly compared her eccentric and artistic family to the unforgettable characters in Wes Anderson’s 2001 film The Royal Tenenbaums. That same sense of theatricality permeated her childhood home, which frequently felt to her like an actual movie set rather than a conventional residential house.
That cinematic perspective naturally followed her into adulthood. Fineman points out that one of the core joys of watching movies and television is the longing to step inside those beautifully crafted fictional worlds and inhabit them. This desire to blur the line between real life and cinema became literal when she invited her boyfriend over to her former apartment in Silver Lake, California, for the first time. Upon walking through the door, he immediately remarked that the space looked precisely like an HBO set designed for a comedy series centered around a young woman’s life.
Yet, despite her love for theatrical, set-like environments, Fineman’s design philosophy is profoundly anchored in a sense of place. As an actor who splits her time between the East and West Coasts, her design sensibilities constantly fluctuate between New York City and California, reflecting the distinct facets of her personality that correspond to each location.
New York City, in all its chaotic energy, represents something magnetic, bold, and demanding. During her conversation with Brent, Fineman shared a profound observation about the city that she heard from actor Colman Domingo when he hosted Saturday Night Live earlier in the year. Domingo described living in New York as essentially living on a dare, recounting the unspoken challenges of city life with phrases like, "I dare you to have rats" and "I dare you to wait in line for 45 minutes." According to this perspective, one truly has to love the grit and rhythm of the city to endure it, and Fineman admitted that she fell in love with New York instantly upon arrival.
In stark contrast to the relentless pace of Manhattan, California offers a slow-moving, serene atmosphere that speaks to her deepest roots. Fineman proudly identifies as a California girl at heart, meaning her current approach to design remains bicoastal by necessity and desire. By blending these two distinct geographical influences, she manages to create a living aesthetic where fanciful imagination meets laid-back comfort, resulting in a look that she describes as effortlessly chic.
The complete conversation between Chloe Fineman and Jeremiah Brent is available for listeners on the Ideas of Order podcast feed through the SURROUND Podcast Network. The episode covers even more ground, including their shared appreciation for iconic cinematic set designs—such as the picturesque Victorian house featured in the 1998 film Practical Magic—as well as deeper insights into Fineman’s distinctive comedic craft and her ongoing creative process.
Ideas of Order, the California Closets podcast, is produced by Rob Schulte at SANDOW DESIGN GROUP as part of the SURROUND Podcast Network. Additional programs from the network can be explored by visiting surroundpodcasts.com.
