Inspired by an eclectic range of periods and sources, from the ancient world to Art Deco, antiques to high design, interior designer Courtney Applebaum — who made waves a few years ago with her mix-and-match, minimal interior for The Row’s first retail store in Los Angeles and as part of the design team for the Palm Heights Grand Cayman — rarely sources contemporary pieces for her interiors. “We really only use vintage. Everything else, we make,” says Applebaum. So, it only made sense for the designer to finally create her first namesake furniture collection: a series of terracotta and raffia sconces, terracotta lamps, and a glass coffee table, with more pieces on the way. “We usually create objects for a specific space, person, or context. For this collection, I wanted to create for the sake of creating.”

The silhouettes are straightforward and simple, but recall everything from antiquities to mid-century French design. The terracotta lamp, for example — with its round base and straight, classic lampshade, all handmade in terracotta — is reminiscent of the Venus of Willendorf, lamps by Alberto and Diego Giacometti, a silver Art Deco tea service. The raffia sconce takes an age-old organic material — the fiber from palm tree leaves, often used for baskets, and textiles — and adds an architectural touch with a slightly rectilinear form and the well-considered aspect of the geometric shape of the light beam.

The heavy-hitter of the collection — literally, weighing in at several hundred pounds and requiring a minimum of four movers to maneuver the piece — is Applebaum’s seeded glass coffee table, made from extremely thick, textured, poured glass. “I’ve seen this kind of glass in antiques for a long time, but it was hard to find people that work with this kind of glass these days,” explains Applebaum. A round tabletop with blocky, rectangular legs, appearing almost like clear cinderblocks or blocks of ice, highlights the material, pure and simple. Describing the collection, Applebaum says, “I didn’t reinvent the wheel. I didn’t redefine anything. I used silhouettes and materials that existed, but I wanted to see them in a different context. I wanted everything to be simple so that they could go anywhere. We’ve used these pieces in a 1930s Spanish home, a mid-century house, an apartment in New York. I can’t imagine a space where they wouldn’t work.” ◆

Photo below courtesy Seventh House Gallery and Austin Leis
Remaining photos courtesy Courtney Applebaum Design