Home Improvements: Interior Designer Home Tour and Sasha Bikoff Interview

Sasha Bikoff did not plan on a career in interior design. She always thought she’d work as a gallerist, in the art world. But after receiving her interior design project–decorating the apartment at the famed Dakota of her mother–while working at Gagosian Gallery, pursue designing full time and she decided to leave her job.

Today, Bikoff owns a classic interior design firm, also works with the impressive roster of customers, such as restaurateur Ed Schoenfeld. Along-term residential jobs from New York and the Hamptons, Bikoff has made restaurants (like The Mess) and is in the midst of cloth and furniture collaborations, as well as a media project.

Bikoff, that had been born and raised on the Upper East Side in New York, now resides in a prewar Greenwich Village duplex. The Observer was invited by her to her chic vibrant and maximalist apartment; a change. Bikoff told the Observer and showed us her bits in her bedroom that was feminine–she’s particularly fond of things that bring to head 18th century design and Marie Antoinette.

What initially drew you to interior design?

I’ve been an interior designer for five decades now. I was given a great deal of press by my task, and then I began to have a bunch of customers from that point. I am not trained in design, but I loved it. I lived in Paris, also could visit the Marché aux Puces nearly regular. I’d go antiquing, and I would teach myself concerning interior design and design’s history, but I hadn’t ever thought about it as a career–I always thought I wanted to be a gallerist! I am a individual, and I realized design is my real fire and I am likely to do this.

How can you begin your design process with a new customer?

First, we interview each other. I ask so many types of questions, like what can they do in their spare time, what is your fire, where do you want to visit? I try to size up them, and determine that they are as a individual. People will send me inspiration images. You try to get to know someone, and it is almost just like a therapist. My job will be to provide them exactly what they do not understand they want.

Tell us about how you decided on this flat.

When I graduated college, I bought my very first apartment in Tribeca. I believed the place was type of family-oriented and very secluded. It had been therefore it was desolate. So I decided I wanted a outdated style apartment. I can envision myself living within this area! It is just like a combination between the Upper East Side, outdated world class with each of the gorgeous brownstones and the buildings on Fifth, but you’ve got the Caribbean cool, therefore it is the best of the worlds.

What is the very first thing that you did when you moved in?

I painted the flooring downstairs whitened, I painted the walls, and that I did the background detail about the closet. I love to approach a room such as a painting. You’ve got your base, your flooring, like your own paint. You keep building up the distance, as though you would on canvas, where you’re building up the paint along with the brushstroke and adding. Because I am an antiques dealer, I have a bundle of furniture; I make furniture and that I sell furniture. Things are constantly coming in and out from here.

Exactly what towns and places most inspire you?

Paris pushes me the most. I lived there, and now I go there all the time. I feel like the combination between fashion, art and architecture is the most raised. In addition, I feel inspired being outside in nature, about the shore. I spend my summers in the Hamptons and that I browse, and only the atmosphere and the sea. My colour theory and my usage of colour comes from nature. The combo of both of these places is that which inspires me.

How do you define your style aesthetic, especially in your area?

I am attracted to certain periods in design history, although I wouldn’t say I have a style. I love 1960s French space era, I love 1980s Memphis Milano, I love a modest 18th century French cinema. My style is antique and vintage, but with a fresh approach to it. This carpet is really a Chinese deco rug in the 1920s. I dyed every small flower detail within this rug. Initially it was brownish, so I gave it a fresh new light.

These are 18th century porcelain lamps. I bought Damask cloths, also I had been in Israel in the Shuk, and the lampshades were made by me. And my dressing table stool, I used a Hermès scarf, since the daisies match the form of the stool, and now I love it. It is about bringing them to make them look cool for nowadays and taking these older, special treasures that have a uniqueness to them. I am not modern, I am not contemporary, I am not clean lines. I am a direct response to that Fifty Shades of Grey fundamental bitch.

What do you believe is the most tired inside trend at this time?

I would say the whole recovered wood the Edison bulbs, with the whole iron metal base, the thing that is industrial. It has been done so many times. We see it you believe about Brooklyn, you think about this appearance. I am simply tired of it.

What is your favourite bit in your bedroom?

Probably the dressing table. It is an 18th century piece I got at the flea market and it’s these vines on both side with leaves. I place the amethyst crystal knobs on, and then I did the chair with all the Hermès scarf feces. There are a few furniture pieces that I believe are hard to discover, and one is a dressing table. Lots of times, there is not enough storage room to put all your cosmetics, or it is too little or too large. However, this has all you need–the style, the chair, the matching feces, the lighting matters. This was a piece and a difficult find. I believe there is a dressing table such an important bit for a girl, and it is also a throwback. I really like and also when you sit out there and do your makeup, you feel glamorous, like Marilyn Monroe or Marie Antoinette. I believe every woman needs a vanity.

Do you have any big projects or collaborations in these works?

I am working on a TV series! I am working I am doing a carpet collection, I am doing a few magnificent jobs that are residential, and also a cloth collection–so a lot!