Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1539742
A minimalist Montrose apartment becomes this designer's stylish antidote to a high- pressure work life. At age 41, Michael Viviano has streamlined life to a 700-square-foot apartment in Montrose after a personal reset and a demanding new job. As design director at Benjamin Johnston Design, he helps oversee the architecture and interiors of some 40 residential projects, so paring back felt essential. "I only need what I need, which is actually not very much," he says. "If it doesn't fit in three tiny closets in my apartment, then I don't own it anymore." He ditched his storage unit and embraced a minimalist approach — a spare mix of inexpensive big-box finds, DIY one-offs, and collectible vintage classics and antiques. Refined classics and inherited pieces set the tone. In the living area, Brunschwig & Fils silk-velvet tiger-stripe pillows make a glamorous statement atop a masculine brown-leather sectional. A Brno chair in its original magenta mohair — snagged at The Guild Shop — pairs smartly with his vintage George Nelson coffee table. He's owned the antique dresser in his bedroom since high school, taken it with him to college in Virginia, and used it ever since. These, along with an Art Deco sculpture inherited from his grandmother and a Gio Ponti mirror he bought years ago, are nonnegotiables. Inexpensive pieces reflect Viviano's refined instinct for design, such as matchstick blinds from Lowe's and a pair of Four Hands table lamps that could pass for hand-cast plaster you might see at Blackman Cruz. "I'm not trying to make it like a client's house. It's meant to be a little tongue-in-cheek," he says. "I'm living with little pops of magenta and orange … Why not?" Viviano's design acumen shows most clearly in his DIY projects. He and his mother, New Jersey–based interior designer Catherine Viviano, built a dining-room banquette from IKEA bases and upholstered the cushions in shaggy Scottish mohair padded with horsehair. Bedroom projects follow the same quick-hit approach, with a DIY headboard and hacked IKEA nightstands, cleverly decoupaged with plaid wrapping paper. "It was all thrown together in a pretty ad hoc way, a little improvisational," he says. "These are Previous page: Michael Viviano made the dining room's mohair banquette, which is integrated into an IKEA console. Light fixture Charlotte Perriand. The page, from top: In Michael Viviano's dining area, Xavier Schipani triptych, vintage zodiac tumblers, champagne coupes, Spode plates, and Art Nouveau vase. The door to Viviano's apartment is always open to a throng of friends. Opposite page, from top: In the living room, vintage Brno chair from The Guild Shop, and vintage George Nelson coffee table. A leather sectional that's a party in itself. Matchstick blinds are from Lowe's, and the pillows are in Brunschwig & Fils tiger stripe silk velvet.