Although he had once planned on becoming a composer for films, Armando Aguirre changed his tune after moving to New York City in 2013 and interning with fashion designer Thom Browne. That experience led to a job with Studio Mellone, the firm that designed Browne’s boutiques. In 2023, Aguirre established an eponymous studio, among whose first projects was a prewar apartment on lower Fifth Avenue in Manhattan for a family of three. He orchestrated a sleek living room with multiple seating areas, including one defined by vintage BBPR pear-wood stools from 1stDibs, which can comfortably accommodate up to 10 guests for entertaining. “Most pieces in the room sit next to a juxtaposed partner,” Aguirre says of the harmoniously paired furnishings from around the world and various decades of the 20th century. The sofa, a 1970s Charles Pfister design for Knoll, sits beside a 1950s Edward Wormley side table, upon which rests a 1970s Italian travertine lamp sourced from 1stDibs. Behind the sofa are additional 1stDibs finds: a 1960s Brazilian rosewood cabinet topped by Spanish modernist Gabriel Teixidó’s lamp for Carpyen. Echoing the form of a large-scale Beverly Pepper monoprint, a mid-century Isamu Noguchi paper Akari floor lamp casts a soft light on 1980s armchairs designed by John Hutton and a 1930s Dutch side table. “I especially love the Hutton chairs,” Aguirre says. “Though they’re from the eighties, they look like they could have come from an Art Deco interior of the nineteen thirties. And I was very happy when the clients told me that their newborn son is very fond of them too.”