“. . . I think our language . . . has evolved from very reductive geometry to things that start to feel a little softer, and more sinuous, and are more complex curves, and are not just about straight lines.” Gabriel Hendifar and Jeremy Anderson are the creators of the seductive New York–based design studio Apparatus and are dear friends of mine. “Apparatus” is a word that speaks for itself in the design community—they never follow a trend, but rather build their own fantastical and unapologetic narrative, forecasting and even defining what’s next in design, texture, culture, and even shapes. They offer a reminder that design can be a talisman to transport and transform.

When I first walked through the door, I was immersed in their fantasy world of tactile decadence—saturated in color, every square inch is flooded with texture, sultry curves, and perfectly odd and unexpected objects. With its abundance of circles and spheres that playfully please the eye, I immediately coined the space “the House of Shapes.” Most of all, the home is lush and highly personal.

When Gabriel and Jeremy first saw the apartment, though, it was an industrial loft with beams and pipes looming overhead. The couple yearned for distinct spaces within the apartment but didn’t want to structurally erase its identity as a loft. So, using two columns as guideposts, Gabriel and Jeremy devised a modular system of freestanding wood dividers that don’t quite touch the ceiling to delineate areas and defined moments. It wasn’t, however, until a chance sighting of a 1960s Danish pastoral scenic mural at an antiques store in Hudson, New York, that the contours of the wall formed.

As a departure from their last apartment, which was neutral, textural, and tonal, Gabriel and Jeremy wanted to embrace their version of color: sophisticated and rich, but also dialed back and aged. The mural hit all of those notes. They knew they needed it, and the solution to make it fit was the catalyst that informed the direction of the home. To accommodate the mural, they decided to curve the divider, which created a dining nook and offered a soft transition into the living room. The figures of the mural provide a dynamic, unexpected exchange with the more modern forms set against it, like the spherical, oddly anthropomorphic pottery Jeremy makes and the sculptural, elemental marble table designed by Gabriel. Brass accents glisten in contrast to the earthy tones that mingle in the mural, like the yolk hay bales and milk chocolate cows. “It became the thing that either drove the contrast or the harmoniousness of colors in the space,” says Gabriel.

“Living in a loft, with a view of the Empire State Building, with lots of shiny brass and lacquer things, and cows. And then a pasture. Why not?”

The living room is dense in shapes, which contrast in materiality and revelatory color combinations. Soft circular forms and angular shapes meet, like the amorphous, foot-like coffee table designed specifically for the space, and the bright, multifaceted aqua artwork by Robert Moreland. Circle-pierced Prouvé-inspired panel shutters flank each window, which they added for visual cohesion. “It’s the idea of having a consistent perspective,” remarks Gabriel. “I’m attracted to systems for living.”

Elsewhere, offbeat objects punctuate formality and rigor, like a pair of “bartenders”: male and female wood liquor cabinets that stand like two Egyptian sculptures on copper plinths from a hunting lodge in Maine. A wooden carved ram that Gabriel purchased as a twentysomething in LA sits atop an art deco armoire. These objects hold sway over the couple and enrich the home with elements of personal histories and predilections.

The bedroom serves as a repository for long-fantasized-over influences. Gabriel replicated a leather coverlet after seeing one designed by Ward Bennett for the Agnellis’ bedroom in Rome. Inspired by a show they had seen at the Prada Foundation, the walls are swathed in a sultry, wine-hued velvet, which turns the space into a decadent jewel box. ZAK+FOX velvet was made into panels and fitted to the walls by Jeremy himself. “It was a total DIY project,” he recalls. A deeply intimate object—a diminutive oil painting of Jeremy’s ear—hangs above the bed and masterfully beckons you into the space with its wily use of scale.

This triumphantly unexpected, imaginative, and dynamic home is a hybrid of Gabriel and Jeremy’s tastes. None of it makes any sense, and yet the cohesive thread is woven into a masterful tapestry like only the finest weaver can do—it is all SO damn genius. Gabriel may have said it best: “You have an idea of where you think you’re going to go, and then you find something.”

“It’s about the mix, and it’s being idiosyncratic, and having enough tension to keep you on your toes.”