Think Fabricate, a The Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary design firm, had the opportunity to work with an underground comics artist and collector to design and build a variety of bespoke furniture pieces for his Brooklyn Heights apartment.
In order to house the artist’s massive collection of curiosities, figurines, and vintage toys, Think Fabricate created custom storage solutions – wall-mounted glass display cases to show off his collection, sliding-door credenzas for practical storage, and bookcases – to address all of the client’s needs. The living room also features the Penthouse TV Quilt, a standard piece from one of Think Fabricate’s furniture lines; it hides the TV and has a built-in, colour-coded organization function.
Following, Susan Doban and Jason Gorsline of Think Fabricate outline their approach.
INSPIRATION
Although this was the first time we designed custom pieces for a collector, many of our product lines have developed out of our personal interest in collections. For instance, the Not Your Mother’s line was inspired by my antique plate collection; we began exploring china cabinets and used the decorative motif from the plates in several of the pieces we designed! And the earliest version of Shift Corner was devised to house a family cook book collection, yet break it up into an interesting arrangement through the play of volumes. Many of our pieces offer such opportunities for display—even the very top of the TV Quilt!
DESIGN CHALLENGES
One of the challenges for the primary display was to create a piece with character and a clear Think Fabricate aesthetic—in terms of color palette, materials, and scale—without taking away from the collection. We created a hierarchy of organization: the larger cases, inset with smaller grey boxes for highlighting prize pieces in the client’s collection, to the organization and display of the collection itself.
SPECIAL FEATURES
We used recessed low voltage LED strip lights in the collection display in the master bedroom in order to provide a consistent light source while keeping the heat as low as possible inside the glass-enclosed display. We also added some isolated light grey lacquered boxes within the display to create vignettes where the client could highlight certain pieces.
MATERIALS
Some of the pieces feature a beautiful silver-green laminate by Abet Laminati that the client fell in love with and selected after seeing it used on a couple of pieces in our office. The wood is consistently walnut, but we used both plain sliced as well as quarter-sawn veneer in different pieces.
PIECES DESIGNED FOR THE APARTMENT
• Penthouse TV Quilt
• Large wall-mounted credenza with floating shelves
• Small wall-mounted credenza for reading nook
• Wall-mounted credenza in bedroom
• Corner wall-mounted glass-enclosed display case for part of the toy collection
• Large walnut and glass-enclosed cabinet with internal illumination for the bulk of the toy collection
• Floor stand bookcase with drawer
• Wall-mounted bookcase in bedroom
For more information, visit Think Fabricate