Interior Designer Armando Aguirre’s Nuanced Vision for a Williamsburg Apartment

For two years now, Armando Aguirre has helmed an eponymous interior design studio with expertise in both residential and retail projects, as well as furniture and decor development. This entrepreneurial development follows more than a decade with Studio Mellone. Aguirre has already drawn widespread attention, whether it’s for his acclaimed lighting series or the aesthetic balance of his own West Village apartment. His latest creative canvas: a Williamsburg apartment that marries a preexisting art collection with carefully sourced design pieces.  

The brief provided by the client, a leading events production designer, asked Aguirre to establish a home for him and his two daughters—one that was both comfortable and robust enough to handle the girls’ penchant for impromptu performances. The apartment, inside a new Brooklyn building, was very much a blank page. “The only thing that I had to factor in was his artwork,” Aguirre tells Surface. “He didn’t really have much furniture.”

The centerpiece of the project was one central great room. “You’ve got living and dining all in one space,” Aguirre says. “It actually opens into the kitchen, too. The whole room is wrapped in these beautiful floor-to-ceiling windows.” Aguirre led with a custom plush couch and two CB2 travertine tables side by side. He coupled these pieces with a vintage swiveling Charles Pfister armchair, a Mies van der Rohe Barcelona Stool, and a Nordic Knots area rug.

“In any project of mine, I try to include some sort of mobile seating,” he explains. “If you have a stool or a pair of ottomans, you can move them around to make intelligent use of the space, depending on what your activities are.” Aguirre’s use of lamps couples with the abundant natural light in the space. This includes a vintage Walter von Nessen floor lamp, a Koch & Lowy reading lamp, and the Toio floor lamp by Achille Castiglioni.

Regarding the latter, he explains that it’s “a little bit techy and a little bit futuristic looking, which I thought was a nice counterpoint to all of the vintage wood and warm tones that we have elsewhere in the space.” He adds, “altogether, it’s a nice combination of directions for light.” This is true both literally and metaphorically. 

Aguirre put one former piece belonging to the client in a central spot. “He had this massive burl wood bookcase in his office in his last apartment,” he says. “I just thought it was a nice way to have this perspective conclude—with this wall of books and collectible items.” As for artworks, the client’s collection—which acts as an exclamation point to the design—includes pieces by Mapplethorpe, Nan Goldin, and Andy Warhol. These are interwoven with family photos and watercolors.

For the primary bedroom, the client wanted a sanctuary. Aguirre coated the walls in a soothing blue, which he complemented with warm wood furniture. Counter to that, he made the girls’ room both bright and playful. “They’ve got a lot of love for color and prints,” he explains. “Each of them has a bunk bed and below on one side we have a little desk and on the other side we have a little TV watching area. They each have their own zones.”

Finally, within the home office, Aguirre paired a vintage Italian desk with Danish shelving, and a vintage IKEA Task Lamp. The most eye-catching piece is a vintage Arne Jacobsen desk chair. “I think with this, more than other projects, I’ve had to stick to the brief,” Aguirre says. “This is a home to two young girls, as well as a person with a very busy schedule. He does work from home a lot. The programming requirements were laid out from the start. From there, it was reconciling my instinct for furniture, color, and fabric with these requirements.”

“I’m not a designer who is going to impose my tastes on a client,” he adds. “I put something in front of the client, and I enjoy the dialogue.” Underneath that conversation, though, are the details Aguirre is known for—the ZAK+FOX fabrics, the vases from his own studio, and his eye for vintage pieces that come to life in brand new spaces.