Swan House: a NYC home-shopping guide
my humble treasure map
A year ago we moved to NYC and not knowing if we’d be able to make it work, we decided to rent a furnished apartment. It was the perfect baby step to what felt like a huge step of moving across the country. It has been such a special chapter for our family and we knew we weren’t ready for it to be over yet.
We got lucky finding a great new place in a wonderful neighborhood but the task of furnishing a house from scratch has consumed almost all of my thoughts for six weeks.
Brilliant and talented, Mother’s Daughter Design was the creative motor behind the design of my home in Utah and touring some of the exquisite furniture and decor shops of NYC with her was an awakening. If you’re looking for a way to spend a day or two that will reinvigorate your appreciation for human creativity, I humbly suggest you to recreate our Swan House scavenge all across town. Shopping online is fun (and I’ll share more of what we bought online later) but there’s nothing like knowing exactly what you’re going to get and being surprised by things you never would have googled.
Our hit list:
BDDW
5 Crosby Street, New York, NY 10013
QUARTERS
383 Broadway, Floor 2, New York, NY 10013
Roman & Williams Guild
53 Howard Street, New York, NY 10013
Nickey Kehoe
49 East 10th Street, New York, NY 10003
Devol Kitchens
28 Bond St, New York, NY 10012
ANTIK Furnishings & Objects
89 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Paula Rubenstein
195 Chrystie St, New York, NY 10002
Lawson Fenning
417 Lafayette St Floor 5, New York, NY 10003
This was our official itinerary, but we made a few deviations along the way that I’ll share at the bottom. We hit all of these in a single day, but if you’re capable of doing things in moderation, one could easily make a weekend out of it.
Nickey Kehoe
We started with Nickey Kehoe where we bought a bunch of vintage books, hand-painted seashells (planning to frame), and glassware (we decided here to go with a primary colors theme.) Among so many incredible things, we pulled the trigger on these yellow glasses, blue mezcal glasses (more likely to be used for milk) and this green dish detergent that reminded me of what Elphaba’s mom consumed to produce a green offspring. I will not name names but saw famous people here each time I visited. I can’t find this on their website but I also grabbed this $48 fish carafe. They also have jewelry and I bought this leather flower broach from them for my black leather jacket.
We grabbed a jumbo lazy Susan from Coming Soon and some salt and pepper mills. Someone buy this coffee machine so I can stop thinking about it.
Next was BDDW. Everything in this store is designed exclusively by the artist Tyler Hays, so there’s a cohesiveness and distinct POV to the artistry in all the pieces. It was a gallery, an experience, a store, and a complete inspiration. Remember when Nine Orchard was my home away from home? They had these BDDW ceramics in their bathroom that Wyatt was determined to buy and then ultimately too cheap to hit check out. The best way to stalk BDDW is through their weekly auction site. The weekly auction has multiple pieces with no minimum bid, so scoring treasures for less than retail can be done if you’re focused. As soon as I replenish my bank account from furnishing this house, I’m determined to own a decorative ceramic skateboard.
Quarters
It’s hard not to fall to your knees when you walk into Quarters. A real jack of all trades in the community where you can buy furniture, eat dinner, or host an event. This is where we bought the tiger chairs I shared on stories. A few items I still have my eye on are this glass cloche, acid green wine glasses and this vintage book.
RW Guild
RW Guild is right around the corner from BDDW and not the place where you’re going to catch your breath. We didn’t leave with anything but if I could have swung it I would have bought all my stemware there.
Assembly Line
A gorgeous store with exquisite pieces and handmade furniture. It struck a nice balance between a traditional and clean aesthetic and was a nice way to break up a lot of the vintage shopping we were doing.
Lawson-Fenning
Another stop to look at beautiful new furniture.
More shops for your consideration
Nickey Kehoe had a stapled printout of recommendations in the area, which we pivoted the entire day’s strategy around. Here’s are a few more spots we visited via that list. Thank you forever Nickey Kehoe. I’ll put the exact list in the substack chat.
Maison Gerard
Maison Gerard is an antique store oozing with character and completely unique pieces. An example:
Eskandar
I found incredible vintage silverware at eskandar. They also had really great dishes here, cool jewelry and accessories, and these vintage patina chairs that I almost bought for the backyard.
ANTIK
Finally bottoming out at the end of the island we resumed our hunt in Brooklyn. First on the list was Antik. The buyer for this store (I think her name is Jenna) does an immaculate job of curation. A few available favorites that I couldn’t squeeze in my budget were these shell chairs, and an orange perforated tray that I can’t find on their site. Bonus tidbit, I yelled at Wyatt after he didn’t slow down to look in the windows while driving past this store during morning traffic. His offer to let me take the wheel was enough to help me feel good about scheduling a proper visit another time.
Horseman Antiques
Horseman Antiques is a four-story warehouse that I wouldn’t advise saving for your last stop. There’s so much to see and I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to return without wearing a disguise based on the number of questions I asked about the pieces I was interested in.
Humble House
When I got to Humble House I immediately saw these two GIANT panels with sold signs on them in the back. I felt sick. I have this perfect spot for something large like this and was so happy when one became available. Thank you Wyatt for the heavy lifting.
Sterling Place
Ending on the first purchase I made for the house, and the inspiration for everything that followed, the swan table! Be sure to follow their instagram for the best view of their inventory. They have a mix of vintage and new pieces and the owners are lovely people. Highly recommend! P.S. I found a very similar swan table here and here! If you buy her please message me so we can swoon together.
So much more to come on this front but consider this the first bite-sized chunk. Move-in day is Friday. Wish me luck!
xx
CG
Has anyone told you about Housing Works in the city? You will love, 3 locations
Inventory changes almost every day
Love this is so much!! Are your black jns vintage or new ?!