Coming Soon is the design shop most cities only wish they had. The downtown New York boutique, founded by former art gallerists Fabiana Faria and Helena Barquet, opened in 2013 in an area that’s since become a nexus of cool, thanks to neighbors like Dimes, Project no 8, Mission Chinese, and Fung Tu. The plant-filled shop hosts occasional exhibitions and carries a pitch-perfect mix of vintage finds (we still lament the selling-out of these amazing chairs) and design’s most-wanted giftables (think exclusive CHIAOZZA lump nubbins, Fredericks & Mae tinsel tassels, and Bower cheese boards). And it does so in a space that’s constantly changing but somehow always exactly what you need.
What we didn’t know when we first met Barquet and Faria is that the two have an ad-hoc, not-quite-professional interior design business on the side, which makes sense the minute you step into their store. “One of the best compliments we got when the shop first opened was, ‘It’s like your best friends’ cool apartment,” says Barquet. “And we were like, yeah! We’ll take that!” The two like to think of themselves as stylists more than interior designers, able to source that just-right thing you need for the last room in your home. But for their friend Xavier Guardans, a photographer who lives in a recently renovated, three-floor firehouse in Brooklyn, they went one step further, selecting items from top to bottom from their own store or on scouting trips, everything from a vintage ’70s Italian chair to a doctored-up Chinatown stool to a marble Chen & Kai magazine rack. On the sweatiest day of last summer, we went with our photographer Michael Muller to scope it out.
The Brooklyn home is a work in progress, but Faria and Barquet have been close with its owner for years. “Sometimes when we’re shopping we’ll be like, ‘Who would buy that?’ ‘Xavier would buy that.’ He’s a good barometer. He has really good taste.” The house, like the shop, is a mix of high and low, like this ornate chandelier with a Fredericks & Mae tassel dangling from it.
The table’s permanent vignette includes a Bower serving tray and cheese board — in hard to find blue marble — and vintage jadeite plates — all available in the shop.
In the kitchen, a vintage jadeite pitcher, Areaware’s gradient puzzle, a slingshot made in India, and a pot by Isaac Nichols of Group Partner, with whom the two are collaborating on an edition.
We spent a fair amount of this visit ogling the apartment itself — not just the stuff in it.
Faria and Barquet picked up this blue sculpture at Please Do Not Enter in Los Angeles.
The two bring their love of plant life with them wherever they go. “Our first show was called Fake Spring. We were doing a potluck dinner,” says Faria. “Mission Chinese did a dish. El Rey, Dimes, and Pies ‘n’ Thighs did a dish. Someone was like, ‘What are we going to do for flowers?’ And then we were like, ‘Who’s going to have flowers in the middle of March?’ So we asked Terri and Adam of CHIAOZZA to make a custom piece.”
Vintage knickknacks.
A magazine rack by Chen Chen & Kai Williams. Of working with designers in the contemporary New York scene (the shop just closed an exhibition by The Principals as well), Barquet says: “It’s so refreshing to be surrounded by all of these people who are just into what they’re doing and excited about it. They show you their work and then they’re equally excited to go and look at someone else’s studio. It’s so nice. I feel so happy selling these things to people.”
“The truth is, this is more or less how most of the people that we are around live,” says Barquet of their contemporary-vintage aesthetic. Very few people have just vintage or all new things There’s pieces that travel with you from one life to another. And then there’s the fun things you need to make a house.”
Chen + Kai coasters and milky glass tumblers.
Upstairs in the sun room, the bed is covered with a blanket by Schönstaub.
Faria and Barquet “designed” the plastic stool that sits in the outdoor shower. “It’s like typical Chinatown, but there’s a specific brand that we like a lot,” says Faria. “They always have the nicest colors.” The two spray-painted the feet gold to look like brass feet.
Bedding by Kalen Kaminski of Upstate.
Faria (left) and Barquet say they’ll probably design something for real soon — probably some chic, Italian-inspired lighting — but for now they’re happy with the status quo, and much happier than when they worked in a furniture gallery. “When you’re selling a $300,000 desk, how many people can afford that? It’s not as fun as incorporating all of it in the store. “
“Another Cats Show” may have started as a one-liner, but that doesn’t mean it fails to land the joke. The exhibition, which closed this week at the Los Angeles gallery 356 Mission, included feline-themed pieces from 301 artists and proved that what they say about die-hard cat lovers is pretty much true: They may be crazy, but they also totally mean it. “People assume cats will be funny,” says Ooga Booga founder Wendy Yao, a partner in the space. “It is casual and inclusive, and gives artists a chance to do something not quite as monumental.”
Welcome to Sight Unseen’s second annual gift guide, in which each member of the Sight Unseen team will share the 25 items they’re coveting at the moment. Today's honors go to the newest third member of Sight Unseen: assistant editor Ryland Quillen. Gift guides are great because they not only tell you what cool things to buy for your loved ones but they also give you a sneak peek into the inner workings of the author's brain. For example, Ryland likes: chunks of resin embedded in things, glyphs, figurative animal prints, and long walks on a rocky beach. If you do too, this is the list for you! Happy holidays!
We come here every day to tell you about our favorite things — so for our last round-up of 2015, it seemed only fair that we spread the love! We asked seven of our favorite design insiders to reflect on their best design moments of the past year — an experience they had, an exhibition they saw, a discovery they made, an interior they fell in love with — as well as offer the one thing they're most looking forward to in 2016. Enjoy, and see you back here next Monday!
