This Family-Run Design Destination Inspires with a Mix of Vintage and Contemporary Treasures

“Show me something different”—it’s a common refrain from clients who look to their designers to conjure one-of-a-kind interiors filled with exciting treasures unlike anything on display at the homes of their friends and neighbors. To fulfill these homeowners’ dreams, top designers will shop the flea markets of Paris or anxiously await an auction to find that unique piece to make a room really sing.

However, tucked on the fifth floor of the New York Design Center at 200 Lex is Cosulich Interiors & Antiques, a family-run business filled with exquisite furnishings and exciting contemporary pieces found on buying trips throughout Europe, as well as eye-catching bespoke designs that nod to the past while appearing decidedly modern.

Originally founded by Franco Cosulich in 1982, the company expanded a few years later when his wife, Fabienne, joined while the couple was living in England. “His father, who was working for the Cosulich Cruise Ship Company, lived in New York for several years,” Fabienne recalls. “My husband had heard all these fabulous stories from his father, so his dream was to open his own store in New York as well.” Relocating to the United States—first to Chicago in 2003, and then Manhattan three years later—the Cosuliches’s daughter, Sara, joined the family business, managing the now-closed location on New York’s Upper East Side, while Fabienne helmed the flagship in the New York Design Center.

“My father was a product designer in Milan and Paris in the ’60s and ’70s, so I have a lot of knowledge of 20th-century design,” says Fabienne, whose earlier career involved translating patents into various languages, acquiring insight into technique that she now funnels into creating handcrafted pieces on display in the showroom at 200 Lex. “When I first joined my husband, he was the antiques dealer, but I was the expert in mid-20th-century design. Then, after we opened the second location inside the New York Design Center, we decided to develop our collection with a customizable line. Now, we cover three areas of home decor: antique, vintage design, and custom-made items.”

Among the most popular customizable pieces are a seven-drawer dresser with various hues of Italian glass and sculptural brass pulls, a complementary Mondrian-esque sideboard with piercing legs, as well as a multicolor sputnik-style Italian brass and Murano glass chandelier. The proprietors have rendered all of them in neutral palettes for both residential and hospitality clients, while the pieces on display are made in rich shades of turquoise blues, grass greens, as well as opalescent disks of plum, gold, and cream. “Our client are the designers, and they like to mix,” explains Fabienne. “More and more they’re using antiques, which are making a slight comeback. There was no interest in antiques until COVID; but now, we see that they are coming back and most of all, designers love the mixture.”