All products featured on Architectural Digest are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Just like a technicolor dream coat you could expect to find in their collection, James Veloria founders Brandon Giordano and Collin Weber’s tiny Chinatown one-bedroom apartment contains multitudes. For those who have shopped at their tiny but brilliant vintage store, this might come as no surprise. There is an overlap between both spaces in that both are playful and vibrant, but there are slight, consciously made differences. “Our apartment is a little bit more soothing than our store,” says Brandon. “The color palette is more muted.”
Within the three small rooms of their apartment, the pair (partners in life and business) find homes for necessities and frivolities alike. The apartment serves each of them in different ways—Collin likes to utilize every part of the apartment for repairs, research, and projects, while Brandon uses the space to dream, relax, and recharge. Somehow, they both find what they need, all while avoiding stepping on each other’s toes.
The living room is the center of the house and serves as a dining room, guest room, and office—all central parts of living if you think about it. In this space, color, pattern, and exciting textures proliferate. Most of the wall decor was repurposed from past creative projects, pop-ups, and campaigns for their store, as were the curtains. “For a Vivienne Westwood pop-up we did with Opening Ceremony we covered these pedestals in toile. Afterward, we repurposed the fabric into curtains,” says Collin. The surrealist interior above their sofa (which frequently doubles as a crash pad for close friends) was painted by artist Andrea Smith for their Prada pop-up with Opening Ceremony. Across from the sofa (which was scored on Apt Deco) and over the ABC Carpet & Home rug (via Craigslist) is a workspace comprised of a vintage desk, folding chair, and a fabric-covered cow-print mirror from favorite design purveyor Odd Eye (also the source of their bedroom dresser).
Mirrors are everywhere in the apartment, reflecting pleasant vignettes and enlarging the space. A grand, rococo-style mirror rests on the tchotchke-covered mantel. Brandon favors a full display of the vases, candlesticks, and objects from all over the country, as it reminds him of the busy home of his grandmother in Ohio. “His grandma’s house is a museum of figurines and tchotchkes. He’s competing with her to see who can have the most,” says Collin. “He’s right,” Brandon adds. “Every time I go to my grandma’s, she’s like, ‘Look at this new Precious Moments Yorkshire Terrier I just got.” Beneath this assemblage, Brandon and Collin enjoy home-cooked meals most nights on a traditional bistro table, flanked by two vintage chairs also from Odd Eye.
Ambiance is created with brilliant tricks throughout the apartment. “I tinted the top of our windows yellow after we visited the Luis Barragán house in Mexico City. (Barragán tinted a lot of his windows.) At certain times of day, the light in here turns golden—it’s incredibly beautiful,” Brandon shares. “I have a very cluttered mind already, so I really do need my space to be comfortable and beautiful.”
Function is very much attached to the reframing of objects in Collin and Brandon’s home. When there is a need, they look first to their own storehouse. “We always have old clothes and old fabric lying around. We try to make use of things we already have before we go out and buy something new,” says Collin. Their duvet cover and pillows came about this way. “If we make it it’s going to be better done than what you can buy anyway,” says Brandon. “And it’s more special,” adds Collin. Every corner of their home is a testament to their inventiveness as individuals and their shared commitment to joyful nostalgia in the everyday.
