For the past eight years, David Cafiero has been working as an antique dealer, interior designer, and event planner”caterer with his business partner, Thom Lussier, out of two cozy 350-square-foot storefronts in the East Village. This week he opens his spacious new 2,700-square-foot store (36 E. 2nd St., nr. Second Ave.; 212-414-8821), where everything fits under one roof with ease. Cafiero can even house his inventory in the basement. From the mezzanine”where his design studio and catering and event-planning offices are stationed”he can look down to the gallery floor. No matter where you end up inside the grand space, the store still feels intimate. Photo: Matthew Sandager
One of the glorious architectural features of the new space is a wall of double-height iron-mullioned windows that runs the expanse of the 50-foot-tall storefront. Near these front windows are a pair of scrimshawed, bone-covered early-“twentieth-century tusks and a Thai palace mirror. They’re surrounded by various custom lamps designed by Cafiero. A Milo Baughmam dining table holds a glass-and-plaster waterfall coffee table. Photo: Matthew Sandager
A mid-century Chinese opium bed commands a central location downstairs. In front of it is a fifties-era Italian outdoor dining set with custom cushions. A nineteenth-century Persian runner, multiple early-edition monographs, and various oil paintings and maps have been placed along the back wall. Photo: Matthew Sandager
The casement windows on the mezzanine were custom designed to evoke a factory office. The floors have been ebonized, and a vintage iron, an amber glass chandelier, and various works by Thom Lussier and Michael Stuetz grace the space. Photo: Matthew Sandager
From up above, I spotted a custom tufted wingback chair and ottoman, along with various vintage demijohns, casks, and jugs that sit on top of a glass industrial conference table. Photo: Matthew Sandager
A rebuilt Italian sofa from the eighties covered in vintage Florence Knoll fabric invites cocktails and conversation, along with a Madeline Weinrib cotton rug and a custom marble coffee table with a collection of shellacked horseshoe crabs. The main entrance door, made of heart pine and oak, was originally the door of a nineteenth-century Norwegian church hall. Photo: Matthew Sandager
