Our cover star, Athena Calderone, founder of Studio Athena Calderone and lifestyle and media brand EyeSwoon, is a longtime AD favorite. We’ve written up the classical Cobble Hill town house that earned her influencer status and paid due diligence to her 2022 and 2024 collections for Crate & Barrel, which drew national attention to her as an interior designer to watch. Both collections succeeded in evoking the moody Art Deco and Beaux Arts design that’s so distinctly associated with Calderone. This is a style seen more refined than ever in her new Tribeca home, a Gilded Age relic once inhabited by the AD100 hall-of-famer French architect Thierry Despont.
Athena Calderone’s first collection defines itself through organic materials and shapes: white limestone and travertine, friendly fabrics like shearling and rattan, and rounded corners on coffee tables and nightstands. Her 2024 collection, however, bears influences of the Vienna Secession and Art Deco. Burl wood made an entrance, as did alabaster and geometric light fixtures. Brutalist artwork took the place of softer textures, while wine-colored velvet upholstery became an Athena trademark—similar shades of diluted purple appear throughout her new Tribeca home. Her latest AD Visits has us reminiscing on these collections for design pieces with lasting power.
Beyond her Crate & Barrel collections, we’re shopping the rest of her Art Deco–inspired Tribeca home with a dedicated collection.
A chair so nice they made it twice! A bestseller of her 2022 collection, C&B made a larger version of the bouclé armchair. Bun-shaped wood feet are playful, and the mushroom color makes for a sophisticated neutral palette. Athena would pair it with the ottoman, surely, and likely an alabaster table lamp.
A final-sale steal, this three-tiered fabric pendant is just $300 for a piece that reads far beyond that price point. A little tiering goes a long way in any space, giving it dimension, shape, and a top-down design approach.
It’s Mediterranean, coastal, and sculptural all at once. It suits an entryway just as well as a bathroom. It even lessens the intensity of a marble corner plinth (very Athena-coded) with its undulating silhouette and organic shade. It’s also a collection bestseller.
The moodier cousin to the Courbe, the Onirique table lamp in alabaster gestures to Gilded Age interiors, opulent libraries, and museum lobbies. Consider pairing with a stack of hardcover design anthologies, a few playful Cabana magazines, or some dignified paperweights, like this from Abask.
Earning an honorable mention in our best dining chairs, our associate visuals editor Shani Kravetz loves the lush green mohair upholstery on this piece, saying “the soft sage blends seamlessly with my colorful objects yet also works as a subtle pop of color in any space.” A chocolate brown rug makes a good color companion here, as well as a long farmhouse table in a similar wood veneer.
Another bestseller in both of Athena Calderone’s collections, the Honore marries Brutalism and Art Deco for something light-washed but still highly dimensional. A double-door cabinet flanked by single-door compartments opens with camouflaging vertical pulls to roomy, adjustable shelves. Looks best with a few bottles of Chartreuse adorning it.