Double Take

Talk about fabulous real estate karma. That's the only way to describe how Jayne and Joan Michaels found themselves living in the late Franco Albini's former Milan apartment about 20 years ago. "We were sitting in a café lamenting our decrepit pensione, ready to give up our Italian dream and move back to the States, when a man approached, asking if we were models," says Joan, rolling her eyes. "His friend, supposedly a famous architect, was looking for foreigners to rent his mother's penthouse. We thought it was an elaborate pickup line!" The sisters checked it out anyway. Smart move: It turned out that the apartment was owned by Albini's son, Marco, and thus a veritable museum of the maestro's designs. (And only $500 a month!) Living among the blue-chip vintage pieces is what inspired the identical twins to subsequently found their interiors firm, 2Michaels.

Good fortune followed them to New York, where Joan scored a rent-stabilized one-bedroom across from Central Park and Jayne landed what she calls "the cheapest two-bed, two-bath on the Upper West Side." Most Manhattanites would stay put for fear of pressing their luck. But then the opportunity to buy an affordable Midtown apartment with East River views fell in Jayne's lap. The timing couldn't have been better: Joan was going stir-crazy in her parkside splendor, since it doubled as the 2Michaels office. "There were piles everywhere, miserable," she sighs. So Jayne moved east, Joan took over her lease, and the home/office became, simply, the office.

Jayne is still shocked to find herself in the fancy Sutton Place nabe. "I didn't think it would be my style here…I'm pretty casual," she admits. "But it's a jewel of a neighborhood, with a bygone-era feel." The apartment itself, though, was a little too bygone for her taste; the previous occupant had resided there for 40 years without upgrading. "The bones were beautiful, but it needed serious cosmetic improvements."

Jeffrey English and Peter Kincl helped her tweak the 1,100-square-foot floor plan and restore the period charm. Walls were moved, moldings added, and the oak floorboards sanded light beige in the living room, where pocket doors—to close off the adjacent den for overnight guests—and a concrete fireplace surround were added. A sliver of space was also carved out to make a second bathroom—"a deal-breaker for any couple," jokes Jayne, who shares the apartment with her significant other, Todd Pickard.

Plans to rip down the wall separating the living room and the kitchen were scrapped in favor of creating storage for Jayne's ever-expanding collection of Bauhaus tea sets and Italian 1940's china, now stowed in new kitchen cabinets painted pale gray and off-white. They and the grid of pale-chartreuse ceramic tiles were inspired by colors in Le Corbusier and Marcel Breuer works.

The decor interweaves such rectilinear geometries with more fluid curves. "Italian furniture from the '50's is quite sensuous, while American pieces of the same time period are more clean-lined and intellectual," she continues. "I balanced the two." The living room's angular Pierluigi Giordani chairs, for instance, face off against a boxy '30's mohair-covered chaise. Chairs with a coquettish wingback—an Italian '50's design—pull up to an austere Hans Wegner dining table. Near the balcony, an S-shape Mart Stam chair is teamed with an Italian '50's mahogany desk. Expressionist artwork by Eugene Pizzuto and Jonathan Prince reinforce the retro vibe and gestural lines.

Joan, meanwhile, moved in to her 1,200-square-foot aerie with just three pieces: a 1950's Alvin Lustig armchair, a 1964 Brutalist-style table by Harry Balmer, and a Ward Bennett sofa covered in mustard wool. "After living in chaos, I needed to feel like I owned nothing—and that nothing owned me," she says. Of an identical mindset was her better half, Larry Weinberg, an independent curator and private furniture dealer who, prior to collaborating with 2Michaels, ran the notable vintage store Lin/Weinberg. "You get over owning things once you've had a shop," he adds wryly.

Four months later, the couple still had no furniture. "Rather than feeling liberated, we felt like college students," Joan laughs. So the two painted the walls an earth confection of lemon, azure, and gray modeled on Le Corbusier's Polychromie Architecturale. Then they went "shopping" in Weinberg's three storage spaces, packed with museum-quality prototypes and organic-modern pieces. "Before I knew Larry, I'd visit Lin/Weinberg and think, This is so much what I love," says Joan. "I always admired his aesthetic. It's refined but not showy."

They brought home rarities like a 1948 Frank Lloyd Wright chair, a Josef Frank table lamp, and a '60's prototype chair by Maurice Martine. "It was time to live with the mysterious things I wasn't getting to see everyday," Weinberg explains. For every coveted item by a mid-century star, there's a quirky find of less distinguished provenance: American Southwest-meets-Japanese pottery from the '70's, a Bakelite-topped side table, and even a plastic headboard, once a wall partition in a 1960's bank. The mix includes a few contemporary pieces, too, like the living room's salvaged-wood Scrapile table and Sam Samore photograph.

The couple anticipates a high degree of turnover as they fall in and out of love with certain pieces and juxtapositions. Deaccessioned items may wind up at 4 PM, the vintage dealership the two couples run together. One piece that's staying put, though, is Joan's 423 chair by Albini. Shortly after she and Weinberg met, he had its beloved but timeworn seat refinished and reupholstered. "It was the most romantic gift I've ever received," she says. What better argument for mixing business and pleasure?

Photography by Eric Laignel.

PROJECT TEAM DANIEL O'CONNOR ARCHITECTS: ARCHITECT OF RECORD (JAYNE APARTMENT). FMO CONSULTING: STRUCTURAL ENGINEER. KUANG'S USA CO.: GENERAL CONTRACTOR (JAYNE, JOAN APARTMENTS). PRODUCT SOURCES FROM FRONT THROUGH 4PM: TABLE, CHAIRS (JAYNE DINING AREA), POTTERY, FIREPLACE SCREEN, DESK, DESK CHAIR, COFFEE TABLE, CHAISE LONGUE (JAYNE LIVING ROOM), CABINET, TABLE LAMP, TABLE SCULPTURE, TOTEM, SOFA, FLOOR LAMP, COFFEE TABLE, METAL RELIEFS, ORANGE CHAIR, RUG, PENDANT FIXTURE (JOAN LIVING ROOM), SOFA, CHAIR (JAYNE DEN), CONSOLE, JUG, BEDSIDE CABINETS (JAYNE BEDROOM), TABLE, PENDANT FIXTURE, CHAIRS (JOAN KITCHEN), CHAIR, TABLE (ENTRY), SHELVING UNIT, VASE, BOWL, COFFEE TABLE, STRING CHAIR, FLOOR LAMP, SIDE TABLE, TABLE LAMP, PENDANT FIXTURE (JOAN DEN), HEADBOARD, TABLE LAMP (JOAN BEDROOM). TRUEFORM CONCRETE: MANTEL (JAYNE LIVING ROOM). THROUGH MAGEN H GALLERY: VASE (JAYNE LIVING ROOM). BERGAMO FABRICS: SOFA FABRIC (JOAN LIVING ROOM), WINDOW SHADE FABRIC (JOAN DEN). THROUGH WRIGHT: SCONCES (JAYNE LIVING ROOM). CHRISTINE VANDERHURD: RUG. THROUGH BRIAN KISH: THREE-LEG SIDE TABLE. ANGEL THREADS: CUSTOM SHOWER CURTAIN (BATHROOM), PILLOWS (JOAN BEDROOM), WINDOW SHADE (JOAN DEN). DAVID WEEKS STUDIO: CUSTOM SCONCES (JAYNE BEDROOM). FONTANA ARTE: CEILING FIXTURES (KITCHEN). ELECTROLUX: APPLIANCES. HEATH CERAMICS THROUGH ANN SACKS: TILE. ELKAY MANUFACTURING CO.: SINK. CHICAGO FAUCETS: SINK FITTINGS. THROUGH BRIDGES OVER TIME: COFFEE TABLE (JAYNE DEN). THROUGH INGELMARK: RUG. SCRAPILE: SIDE TABLE (JOAN LIVING ROOM). THROUGH ANTIK: RUGS (JOAN KITCHEN, JOAN DEN), MIRROR (JOAN LIVING ROOM). ABC CARPET & HOME: BED LINENS (JOAN BEDROOM). JOHN ROSELLI ANTIQUES & DECORATIONS: SOFA FABRIC (JOAN DEN). THROUGHOUT DONALD KAUFMAN COLOR COLLECTION: PAINT (JAYNE APARTMENT). PRATT & LAMBERT: PAINT (JOAN APARTMENT).