Robert Stilin likes to follow his intuition. Especially when shopping, which is an activity he does all the time. “I don’t buy by names, but if something is a [Jacques] Adnet, I know that,” says the New York-based interior designer whose clients include the Carters – known to most as Beyoncé and Jay-Z. “It’s very difficult for me to go to an art fair or an antique shop or a design fair, and not buy something.”
He’s sitting in his new gallery on the sixth floor of a beaux-arts office building near Madison Square Park in Manhattan, surrounded by his finds. A ceramic plate by Boris Kassianoff here, an interpretation of a club chair by Jean-Michel Frank there. Towards the windows hangs a large-scale photograph by Frank Thiel of the foundation of a Berlin building. “I’ve owned it for almost 25 years,” says Stilin. “It used to be hanging in my dining room in East Hampton.”
Guillerme and Chambron c1970 oak “Etudient” desk, $14,800, and Falkenbergs Belysning c1950 leather and brass floor lamp, $6,800 © Evan Felts
It’s very difficult for me to go to an art fair or an antique shop and not buy something
Robert Stilin
