Atlantic Avenue Adventure

The PDC and D&D are great but designers who never venture outside the showrooms are poor designers. Some designers go to Paris, I go to Brooklyn. One of my favorite places to search for my clients is Atlantic Avenue. There you will find stores with some of the most wonderfully eclectic vintage and antique furniture and home decorations. These items will not be found in the D&D or the PDC. Most of these dealers travel all over the country to small auctions in rural locations collecting interesting knick-knacks, art and furniture. What brought me to my Paris in Brooklyn this week was the need for a map case to hold my client’s sheet music. I found one I love at, IN DAY OF OLD, LTD, a beautiful shop I frequent. If you are looking for a great piece of mahogany furniture or a vintage oak file cabinet, this is the place. They have wonderful stuff, their prices are reasonable (it’s still New York) and the couple that runs it couldn’t be nicer.

A store I really love is FOUNDRY. If it is cool, unique or just oddly beautiful then most likely Soharb, the owner has it. In his inventory are the cool models of guts and hearts that graced your junior high school science room to vintage maps and lighting. I like adding one or two of his pieces to a traditional room. The contrast is great. With 2 locations within blocks from each other, you are bound find that poster of the anatomy of chicken you always dreamed about.


And where else could you find an anatomically correct Valentine’s Day gift?

I am sucker for a good robot.

If you like the look of FOUNDRY then you will love DARR. Think of DARR as the older more quiet sister of FOUNDRY. Their inventory is modern but with obvious colonial influence. Beautiful antique mirrors in rustic frames scatter the walls offset by large animal heads. FDR would be proud.



After speaking with the charming man at DARR he mad me aware that the owner had started a menswear store across the street. Being sucker for clothes I made my way over to HOLLANDER & LEXER (I am told by the shopkeeper that there were never a Hollander or a Lexer.). The love the design of the store itself as much as the inventory. It’s is full of thoughtful details, including a repurposed post office desk that holds shoes. They sell a number of American designers and a little Paul Smith. I am in love.