Collection by Jenny Xie
Habitats
The front parlor is a visitor’s first hint of the mix of furniture Tina Seidenfaden Busck has assembled for her showroom the Apartment. A pouffe from Azucena is matched with an array of vintage pieces: a Beni Ourain rug from Morocco, a mirrored chest of drawers from France, and a Finn Juhl Poet sofa. The next room houses a vintage Tulip table and chairs by Eero Saarinen and a Tube Chandelier by Michael Anastassiades. Photos courtesy the Apartment.
The chromatic Paris apartment of Jean-Christophe Aumas holds a treasure trove of rare vintage furniture, displays from his work, and items curated from his travels. As the artistic director of the creative agency Voici-Voilà, he designs store windows and special events for clients like Louis Vuitton, John Galliano, Lacoste, Céline, and more; and so it’s no wonder that his own 1,023-square-foot apartment is teeming with character. The entire flat is self-designed in a fusion of his professional and personal flavors. Over herringbone wood floors, walls with painted shapes frame hanging artworks; colored cubes, created for a Sol LeWitt–themed Louis Vuitton display, pepper the space; and foraged furnishings ranging from flea market finds to designer pieces outfit the home.
Can you tell us a bit about how you found the storefront and what the space was like pre-renovation? How does the architecture complement the pieces for sale?
The site came on the market (quietly) and we were really taken by the opportunity afforded by the unusual space. There just isn’t anything in the neighborhood that compares. We’ve got a lot of exposure from the street, which brings in natural light and the front room. With the double height ceiling, it's a dramatic backdrop for our products. Prior to our renovation, the front and back were completely disconnected. We took the dividing wall down and opened up the space to bring some of the light and air deeper in the store. And from a programming perspective, we wanted to showcase pieces from the home in the areas that they would be used, so we designed “rooms” with basic functions: kitchen, bath, and living.
Paths of Andalusian tile and intervening plaster walls help to delineate space in the expansive apartment, which is centered around an internal entry courtyard. The armchair, designed by Peter and Alison Smithson, is covered in a Josef Frank textile from Just Scandinavian. The white piece just behind it is a repurposed Austrian stove that’s now used as a storage device.