This story starts with Pierre Paulin’s 1969 Multimo sofa, a sinuous form with petal-like backrests. “We wanted to secure that piece—period,” says one young collector, explaining how he found his way to New York’s Demisch Danant gallery. At the time, he was in the early stages of furnishing his family’s new Brooklyn home, a landmark 1846 town house by Richard Upjohn, the architect of Trinity Church in Lower Manhattan. Although said shopper had grown up around 18th-century American antiques, he was developing a taste for postwar French design. When he learned that cofounder Suzanne Demisch took on the occasional interiors job, a light bulb went off.
Since founding their eponymous gallery in 2005, Demisch and her Paris-based partner, Stéphane Danant, have been introducing American audiences to French titans like Paulin, Joseph-André Motte, Michel Boyer, and Maria Pergay, whom Demisch originally tracked down in Morocco via the yellow pages. Sourcing rare works, the duo has built a cult following curating scholarly exhibitions—always refined, never showy. They have brought that same nuanced approach to private residences for the likes of arts patron Dasha Zhukova Niarchos.
“It all plays as one,” Demisch explains of their multiarmed practice. “When envisioning shows, we picture environments, acting as the clients.” In the case of the Brooklyn project, she continues, “we placed a real client at the center of the curation.”
With scroll moldings, ornate banisters, and 13-foot ceilings, Upjohn’s neo-Gothic architecture served as a canvas. Demisch Danant, collaborating with Cheung Showman Architects, oversaw a historically sensitive renovation, looking at 17th-century Flemish country homes as references. In went a spartan Bulthaup kitchen, ash plank flooring, and sumptuous stones (terra-cotta-colored Rosso Alicante marble in the powder room, pale gray travertine in the primary bath). “We wanted to allow the architecture to do the heavy lifting, adding minimalist furnishings that would not distract the eye,” says the client.
Sparingly appointed, each room nevertheless teems with design history and lore. Across from that four-seater Paulin sofa, a late-1950s Étienne Fermigier cabinet from the estate of Dr. Jean Dalsace (of Maison de Verre fame) is topped with a circa 1969 Nautilus lamp by Pergay. In the dining area, 10 rare Motte chairs surround a Michael Anastassiades table. And in the media room, cushions of vintage Japanese textiles pile upon a built-in daybed. “Historical pieces of design and art are inherently steeped in stories,” explains Demisch of the mix, which includes a diminutive 2018 Sheila Hicks linen work in the stairwell and a 2023 burnt-cork console by Noé Duchaufour-
Lawrance in the entry. “We encourage clients to delve into these narratives, weaving in their personal experiences.”
Living with two children didn’t temper this client’s interest in collecting. In fact, the kids love that Multimo sofa just as much as dad. “They jump on the foam seat, crawl through the back. We already need to get it reupholstered.”
