The Living Room “I found the landscape at Stair Galleries upstate,and I got it for nothing,” says Fernando Santangelo. The rug is also from Stair. The sofa, from Kolkata, was found at David Petrovsky Antiques, and the scagliola-top coffee table is from a Parma, Italy, antiques fair. The bureau is from Regan & Smith in Hudson.
Photo: Stephen Kent Johnson
Fernando Santangelo is the only person who could have come across a derelict railroad apartment on the fourth floor of a tenement in the West Village and thought, Eureka!
“You came in through the kitchen, which hadn’t been touched probably ever. It had the old trim, moldings, and a floor that had collapsed, and the ceiling had holes,” Santangelo says. “Of course, that was the room I loved.”
Santangelo, who wanted to be an archaeologist growing up in Montevideo, Uruguay, came to New York in 1981 and studied at the Art Students League and Hunter College. While selling vintage shirts and his own shadow boxes on Astor Place, he met Serge Becker, who was then the art director of the legendary nightclub AREA.
Becker bought a box and brought in Santangelo to design installations at his clubs, which included Fez and MK, with Eric Goode. André Balazs, who worked with Becker on MK and, later, the Mercer, became a client, too, commissioning Santangelo to redo the lobby, penthouse, breakfast room, and front desk of the Chateau Marmont in 1991. Santangelo’s own design studio came in 1995.
A renter for decades, Santangelo bought the railroad apartment on Perry Street two years ago. The place had belonged to a former photography director of this magazine, Jordan Schaps, who started renting the 700-square-foot floor-through for $135 a month in 1975. He eventually bought it and lived there for nearly 50 years.
“It was in the perfect condition for me,” Santangelo says. “Immediately, I knew what I could do with it. It still had enough of the old qualities, which is what I was looking for.”
Santangelo, who travels widely collecting art and antiques, some of which end up in the gallery shop in Chinatown he opened last year, furnished the restored apartment with many of his finds.
The designer fixed up the kitchen, replacing the crumbling floor and ceiling, and installed a vintage stove from eBay. “The owner told me that it had been in her family all these years,” Santangelo says. She included the original $100 invoice from 1939, which was paid in $5 installments. Fittingly, he adds, “the stove is called ‘Prosperity.’ ”
The Mantel The 1880s walnut Eastlake mantel is from eBay; the Dutch-style painted panel above it is from Stair. The painted plaster head of Nefertiti, also found at Stair, can be traced to a Berlin museum shop. The bookshelves and desk replaced a closet that once concealed an entrance.
Photo: Stephen Kent Johnson
The Sitting Area The framed work, titled “Flowers,” is by George de Sulenzyski and dated 1936; Santangelo found it in a shop on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. “It was $1,000. And I was like, I am never going to buy that. And about three years later I saw it on the floor in a flea market for $90,” Santangelo says. The Bauhaus-style chrome chair was found at a London flea market.
Photo: Stephen Kent Johnson
The Hallway The works on paper are by Jack Pierson (top) and Lucas Michael. The 19th-century breakfast table from Kolkata was found at David Petrovsky Antiques. The chair by Michael van Beuren is from Beall & Bell in Greenport.
Photo: Stephen Kent Johnson
The Kitchen The wall cabinet is original to the apartment; thefloor and ceiling are new. Santangelo kept the porcelain cupholder above the sink exactly where he found it.
Photo: Stephen Kent Johnson
The Stove It is Sears and Roebuck, dated 1939.
Photo: Stephen Kent Johnson
The Breakfast Table The chairs by Micheal van Beuren are from Beall & Bell in Greenport. “I love the super sophisticated design using earthy materials,” Santangelo says. “The other thing is they look monastic. I am never going to be a monk, but I am really attracted to the aesthetic.” The 19th century breakfast table, originally from Calcutta, was found at David Petrovsky Antiques.
Photo: Stephen Kent Johnson
The Bedroom The display case is from Regan & Smith in Hudson. The landscape is from a Montevideo flea market. The miniature portrait, likely of German extraction, was found at the Chelsea Flea. The 19th century Japanese wood cut was found at another New York flea market.
Photo: Stephen Kent Johnson
The Studio The area had been the office and bedroom of the former owner, Jordan Schaps, who had an elaborate pulley system to lower and raise the bed over his desk. Santangelo uses the table, found at Regan & Smith in Hudson, for his restoration work as well as for dining.
Photo: Stephen Kent Johnson
The Bathroom Santangelo replaced the small bathtub with a shower, splurging on cipollino rosso marble walls from HK Tile & Marble.
Photo: Stephen Kent Johnson
Fernando Santangelo
Photo: Stephen Kent Johnson
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