“The key to a maximalist space is it has to be edited in a certain way—everything has to feel intentional,” shares Alex Bass, an up-and-coming art-world aficionado and proud, self-proclaimed maximalist. “When things start to get cluttered, I know I need to take it back immediately.” This posed as one of the main challenges for her move earlier this year. It would be the first time sharing a space with her partner, James, and building a home together. “Before everything was unpacked, I was definitely nervous,” adds James. “It looked like an endless amount of stuff.”
Luckily for Alex, curating “stuff” has not just become a hobby, but a career. Over the pandemic, the vintage downtown New York hot spot Treasures of NYC tapped her to design their SoHo showroom after spotting her infectious interior style on Instagram. Since the project occurred simultaneously with her own move, it provided a lot of good sourcing opportunities, as well as experience in creating a shared space.
“I was so rebellious at the time, totally sick of minimalism and cool tones,” Alex shares. And it shows: The first changes made to the apartment were to give it an unmistakable identity. “I wanted to pay homage to the building. It had this deep cherry flooring, which was very ’70s.” To play off of that in a contemporary manner, a textural gold wallpaper delineates the entry corridor. “It’s fun, it’s grounding, and picks up on the warm light and paintings,” she adds. Other early additions were retiling the kitchen and replacing the hardware—quick and inexpensive fixes that immediately made it feel like home.