“The world is a very fast-moving place, and I would like to slow the process down a tick,” reflects the decorator and shopkeeper, whose idiosyncratic, unpretentious approach has earned him devoted clients on the order of Ryan Murphy, Adam Moss, and Chloë Sevigny. Self-taught, David Cafiero honed his aesthetic studying gardens and country houses in his native Hudson Valley, New York, later working at his family’s lumberyard and on commercial fishing boats before opening up a catering company and eventually an antiques shop in Manhattan’s East Village. At its current location, a former Pontiac dealership, he proudly champions bygone styles (Biedermeier, early American, William and Mary) unfairly overlooked in favor of today’s rapid-fire fads. His residential projects mix such finds to timeless effect, yielding spaces equally fit, as he puts it, “for a cocktail party and a quiet winter afternoon with a book.” ► New York; cafieroselecom
David Cafiero.
