As an interior decorator in the Bay Area, Mead Quin has worked on projects in enclaves like Pacific Heights, Atherton, and Lake Tahoe. But in 2023, a longstanding client tapped Quin to work on a new kind of project in an unfamiliar locale: the sky.
The multimillion-dollar Gulfstream G550 was smaller than Quin’s typical properties, but decorating it sounded like a worthwhile gig. “They wanted it to feel more like a residential space instead of an airplane and to have a really comfortable, quiet, and cozy travel experience,” she says.
While jets have long reflected the tastes of their owners, a growing crop of home decorators are joining their own version of the mile-high club. Since 2000, the number of private jets has more than doubled globally and today’s clientele expects more of their planes. Among this customer base, aesthetics matter just as much as expediency.
The Gulfstream jet Quin designed.
Coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic, plane owners are flying longer distances in bigger planes. That’s why they’re treating their jets more like pied-à-terres than traditional tin cans.
“We have a very, very upscale luxury customer today, and that customer comes with a different perception,” says Kenn Ricci, the chairman of private aviation service Flexjet. One of the newer concerns, says Ricci: “What’s the interior I’m in?” (Flexjet’s planes have different looks and themes, including art deco, Manhattan, and desert.)
Inside a jet designed by the firm Grade New York.
But plane decorating requires much more engineering than traditional home decor (living room couches on Fifth Avenue aren’t typically tested for fire resistance). Quin worked with Extraord-N-Air, a jet renovation company, to ensure her proposal followed FAA guidelines, including flammability requirements and weight and balance regulations.
Quin’s client’s residence was colorful, but they wanted their plane to have a subtler interior. She turned to an old favorite among the literal jetset: “Loro Piana has a lot of natural materials that are naturally fire retardant,” says Quin, like 100% wool and the brand’s Trevira fabrics. She used the Italian cashmere company’s fabric for a green trim detail on the plane’s lower paneling. Quin says they couldn’t replace the bathroom’s existing hardware, so she used synthetic stone on top of what existed. “We just did a lot of refinishing to make it feel less shiny,” she says.
The bar inside the Gulfstream Quin designed.
Designers are also adding in new elements, many of which were once exclusively for homes. Ricci said some planes now feature ottomans that can be brought out of storage once the plane is in the air. Others have foyers with carbon fiber flooring meant to look like tile. Indeed, clients are willing to go to great lengths to make their planes feel more like home.
One jet owner asked Edward Yedid, co-founder of the design firm Grade New York, to carry over the style of his mostly-monochromatic residence onto his newly-purchased Bombardier 5000. “He wanted the plane to feel like it was an extension of the house,” Yedid said. “Given this was a small space, he really just wanted the black and white feel.”
A Flexjet Gulfstream plane.
Yedid made the jet “as custom as possible,” including a sofa with Rogers & Goffigon fabrics. “We storyboarded it, like we would do with any other project,” he says. Yedid and architect Thomas Hickey worked in materials like suedes and leathers, as well a custom black lacquer for the millwork “to give it a bit of a sexy vibe,” Yedid says.
Some design decisions in the sky are influenced by passenger habits. While residents take their shoes off inside homes, passengers tend to leave them on inside planes. So Yedid and Hickey went with a dark custom carpet running through the center of the plane.
Details of the jet designed by Grade New York.
Yedid says leisure isn’t the only goal for all plane owners—many crave a flying office. “Right after a meeting on site, we would hop on his plane and the next thing you know we’re at his conference table going over the next project,” says Yedid. “Something that we don’t do in people’s houses is build a conference room. But they want to be able to have the ability to work, to conduct business [on planes].”
Despite plane owners’ protests, one living room item can’t easily make the trip on board. “People go crazy all the time because a TV on an aircraft is $40,000 and they go, I can buy it online for $700,” says Ricci. “Well, it has to do with the glass being correct for atmosphere, that it won’t break on impact.”
The multimillion-dollar Gulfstream G550 Quin designed.
Andrew Zucker works at a production company in New York City. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Financial Times, and Air Mail, among other publications.
