Retro Inferno

So… it’s original mid-​century/​modern. The prices? High. Customer service? Not great. Store set-​up? Cluttered. Neighborhood? Sketchy. Other than that, it’s an experience worth waiting for. Good for that one special item you’ve been saving years for. Would like to meet their buyers and see their warehouse.

Snap, baby, snap– Retro Inferno!
This store embodies the word, «sharp.» I know not much about furniture «except what I like» and «what I like» generally that falls into the Art Deco/​Victorian with a splash of vintage Chinese (a «splash» because I can’t afford more than an accent piece or two) category. My perfect room looks like it would have been in an EJ Bellocq photograph (sans prostitutes), just to give you an idea.
Of course this is the antithesis of what you’d find in Retro Inferno, but I can still admire… and appreciate.
Sometimes, I enter a home that is the perfect Mid-​Century Modern time capsule and for minutes, perhaps hours, I consider putting out all my furniture at the curb. If I were to ever follow through, I suppose I cold then hit up Retro Inferno and re-​outfit my digs.
Although the price tags here give me pause (keep in mind these are designer pieces in PRISTINE condition, so it’s to be expected and this is not at all a complaint) I was incredibly impressed by the composition of things (on the main floor, which is the showroom. Upstairs there’s plenty more to look at and downstairs seems to be the area that is less artfully placed and more affordable).
The people who run this place are design phenoms, I tell you.
Speaking of disco (sorry, this store really has nothing at all to do with disco), I kept looking around thinking that when Mr. and Mrs. Roper from Three’s Company were newlyweds in their younger days, their house would have looked just like many of the «sets» in Retro Inferno. That is, I presume they had slightly loud. slightly swanky, yet outrageous taste back in their day, only by the time they were on Threes Company, the bamboo inlay dining room table with glass top got put to the curb for a wicker dining room set. It’s just the natural progression of things when you are in your late 50s and down to make whoopee, you know?

There’s retro and then there’s Retro, folks.
Knock-​offs have their place, they do. But if you want the substance, you know, Herman Miller chairs that you might have actually been conceived on. This is the place.
There’s this teak danish desk upstairs that I’d buy in a second if I had a couple thousand laying around in my underwear drawer. The Art Deco pieces… ummm, I don’t need to say anything here, frankly. You know what I mean.
They have a basement full of junk too, but the quality pieces are on the ground floor. But just for the fun of it, do ask to see the basement as it’s open to the public.
The lamps. The Lamps. THE LAMPS!
If nothing else, it’s a museum and it’s free. Grab your favorite squeeze, have a martini lunch, and drop in for a browse before you rush back to the office. You won’t regret it.

This is a really cool store to find all the retro furniture you want to fill your loft. Most pieces are in great shape, and the selection is huge. Their new space is really appropriate, being housed in a 1960s mod building. Don’t forget to look around in the basement where they keep their less well kept furniture (those pieces sell for less!)