{"id":4150,"date":"2026-05-23T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/?p=4150"},"modified":"2026-05-23T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T05:00:00","slug":"inside-a-manhattan-home-built-on-mid-century-furniture-icons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/?p=4150","title":{"rendered":"Inside a Manhattan Home Built on Mid-Century Furniture Icons"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Chris Mitchell, discovering Scandinavian design was a life-changing moment. Since then, the former magazine executive has set out to surround himself with exquisite mid-century pieces.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Kjaerholm<\/div>\n

The magazine executive-turned-design guru has just given me a tour of his newly renovated Upper East Side apartment in Manhattan, the rooms of which are laden with museum-quality furniture and objects, running the gamut from iconic to obscure, that certainly attest to his passion. But, as interiors aficionados might expect, the apartment that Mitchell shares with his wife, the editor Pilar Guzman, is nothing like a chilly museum (not even the grand Metropolitan around the corner) \u2013 not overly fussy, not chock-a-block.<\/p>\n

\"chris
Mitchell\u2019s interiors are \u2018Patina Modern\u2019 in practice \u00a9Chris Wallace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The blonde wood floors and walls, the vintage pieces in sumptuous leathers, the thoughtfully illuminated cases are instead vivid, real-world expressions of \u2018Patina Modern,\u2019 the couple\u2019s blueprint for design (and perhaps life) articulated in their 2022 book of the same name. A vision full of warmth and purpose, put together with the finest ingredients (the very best of Scandinavian modernism, for example), which are then properly used as intended and so allowed to develop the perfect patina of time. \u201cMid-century furniture,\u201d as Mitchell described it in the book, \u201crendered in a limited palette of materials like white oak, aged brass, and bridle leather,\u201d which, as they age, \u201cbecome richer, mellower, burnished.\u201d<\/p>\n

See also: How to Make Collectible Furniture Work In Your Home<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Mitchell, 56, who grew up outside of Chicago, says he gained an interest in design early in life \u2013 \u201cprobably inspired,\u201d he says, \u201cby the worlds Ralph Lauren created.\u201d Mitchell\u2019s father worked in advertising, so there were always magazines lying around the house, and it was an interiors column in Esquire<\/em> that sparked his interest in New York<\/a> apartments. \u201cMy idea of a sophisticated adult home was a loft or a modern high rise in New York,\u201d he says, \u201cfilled with leather and chrome modernist furniture. I\u2019m not even sure I knew who Le Corbusier or Mies van der Rohe were then, but that was the vibe I wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"mid
Mitchell\u2019s newly renovated apartment is a treasure trove of Scandinavian design classics \u00a9Chris Wallace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After studying literature at Berkeley, Mitchell came east, got a masters in publishing at NYU, and worked with Cond\u00e9 Nast for a generation, rising to become the chief business officer for Vanity Fair<\/em>, The New Yorker<\/em> and GQ<\/em>. He describes meeting and moving in with Guzman when they were in their late twenties, along with discovering Scandinavian design at the time, as Damascene moments in his life, lighting his future path forward.<\/p>\n

See also: This Designer Left Jaguar \u2013 and Now Makes Ultra-Luxury Chairs<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

In collecting terms, instead of following trends, Mitchell has allowed his curiosity to lead him further into his passion. \u201cSeeing a Finn Juhl 45 chair for the first time blew my mind,\u201d he says. \u201cThe craftsmanship, the warm-yet- modern combination \u2013 it was simply the most beautiful thing I\u2019d seen. I didn\u2019t know furniture could be that sculptural and chic, yet minimal.\u201d This revelation, in about 1998, led Mitchell into a process of self-education, he says, assisted by some great dealers he met along the way.<\/p>\n

\"mid
\u00a9Chris Wallace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI fell for Hans Wegner Wishbone chairs before they became ubiquitous,\u201d he says, \u201cand Arne Jacobsen Egg chairs with that amazing patina of caramel leather, as well as Kaare Klint\u2019s upholstered sofas, Poul Kjaerholm\u2019s daybeds, and, my all-time favorite, the Borge Mogensen Spanish chair, with its saddle leather sling seat and wide oak armrests. I\u2019ve bought more than 30 of these over the years but lost a lot of them when we sold our houses furnished.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mitchell, Guzman, and their family only recently relocated to the Upper East Side, after a full-scale renovation of the apartment and the sale of the beloved Brooklyn brownstone where their children were raised. But it\u2019s already very much a home, furnished with Mitchell\u2019s favorite pieces, and beginning to mushroom with his latest interests. \u201cWe\u2019ve done a lot of house projects for ourselves in the past 8-10 years,\u201d he says, \u201cso I\u2019ve had occasion to bring in a lot of new pieces. But I\u2019ve also turned to smaller objects that are easier to find space for,\u201d he says, showing me marvels by the Austrian designer Carl Aub\u00f6ck, and spectacular Dansk tableware. \u201cMy favorites,\u201d he says, \u201care the brass vases and decanters by Pierre Forssell for the Swedish company Skultuna. His pieces are all 1970s designs; they have a swingy vibe but are also so well made, which makes them feel permanent and classic.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Chris Mitchell, discovering Scandinavian design was a life-changing moment. Since then, the former magazine executive has set out to surround himself with exquisite mid-century pieces.\u00a0 The magazine executive-turned-design guru has just given me a tour of his newly renovated Upper East Side apartment in Manhattan, the rooms of which are laden with museum-quality furniture […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","beyondwords_generate_audio":"","beyondwords_project_id":"","beyondwords_content_id":"","beyondwords_preview_token":"","beyondwords_player_content":"","beyondwords_player_style":"","beyondwords_language_id":"","beyondwords_title_voice_id":"","beyondwords_body_voice_id":"","beyondwords_summary_voice_id":"","beyondwords_error_message":"","beyondwords_disabled":"","beyondwords_delete_content":"","beyondwords_podcast_id":"","beyondwords_hash":"","publish_post_to_speechkit":"","speechkit_hash":"","speechkit_generate_audio":"","speechkit_project_id":"","speechkit_podcast_id":"","speechkit_error_message":"","speechkit_disabled":"","speechkit_access_key":"","speechkit_error":"","speechkit_info":"","speechkit_response":"","speechkit_retries":"","speechkit_status":"","speechkit_updated_at":"","_speechkit_link":"","_speechkit_text":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}