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Somerset House’s Alan Eckstein Fills a Brooklyn Brownstone with Mid-Century Treasures

Living room with mid-20th-century and art deco furniture and contemporary art in Brooklyn brownstone staged by Alan Eckstein of the vintage gallery the Somerset House

Not long ago, a Brooklyn couple getting ready to move to a new house phoned Alan Eckstein, an interior designer and seller of carefully selected modern furniture and lighting. But the husband and wife didn’t ask Eckstein to work on the house they were moving to. Instead, they asked him to stage the house they would soon put on the market. 

After visiting their Cobble Hill brownstone, which had “extraordinary bones,” Eckstein says, and had been nicely renovated by the architect Ole Sondresen, he accepted the commission. He then gathered the pieces he wanted from The Somerset House, the Long Island City emporium he has been filling with mid-century gems since 2020.

Seated portrait of Alan Eckstein founder and designer of the Somerset House vintage gallery
Alan Eckstein — who designs interiors and deals in vintage and antique furnishings through his gallery, the Somerset House — recently staged a Brooklyn brownstone for its appearance on the real estate market. Top: For the brownstone’s living room, Eckstein selected, from left, a Joe Henry Baker painting; a Josef Hoffmann Fledermaus side table; a Pierre Paulin for Artifort ABCD lounge chairs; a French 1950s floor lamp; a 1940s Paolo Buffa mahogany center table; a low free-form Karl Springer table, topping it with a 1970s Roberto Pamio lamp; and an unusual vintage sofa with a scalloped back, over which he hung a diptych by Luke Diiorio. All photos by Clement Pascal

“When you think of staging, you don’t usually think of George NakashiMA and Josef Hoffmann,” Eckstein observes, naming two of the designers whose highly collectible works he selected. His goal was to create an environment in which art and design aficionados could imagine living.

A former fashion designer, Eckstein ran a staging business in the 2010s, building a small furniture collection and using the pieces to dress up high-end apartments for sale in Brooklyn and Manhattan. When the pandemic hit, he figured there wouldn’t be much need for staging, at least for a while.

So, he rented a space in Long Island City, named it the Somerset House for the Long Island street he grew up on and began selling pieces he loved. Soon, he was offering customers his services as an interior designer as well, and now, he says, he divides his time between selling and designing. 

Living room with mid-20th-century and art deco coffee table, arm chair, console and Dogon ladder in Brooklyn brownstone staged by Alan Eckstein of the vintage gallery the Somerset House
Elsewhere in the living room, a 1960s Guillerme et Chambron oak lounge chair pulls up to a Kyoto coffee table by Gianfranco Frattini, Against one wall, a Dogon ladder from Mali becomes a minimalist sculpture, and against another, a 1930s Art Deco–style cabinet by Frits Spanjaard holds a 1960s metal-and-Murano-glass table lamp made by Pamio for the Italian company Leucos.

For the Cobble Hill brownstone, he developed a detailed furniture plan for the first and second floors, keeping in mind that potential buyers had to be able to move through the rooms easily.

The plan incorporated pieces from the Somerset House plus a few he bought, including a pair of ABCD Lounge chairs by Pierre Paulin that had been on his wish list for years. He also commissioned new upholstery and cushions and added paintings by the London-born, Brooklyn-based artist Joe Henry Baker to the mix. Once everything was installed, Eckstein returned day after day to tweak the arrangements.                                                                                                                                      

Primary bedroom with marble fieplace and bent plywood and steel chair  in Brooklyn brownstone staged by Alan Eckstein of the vintage gallery the Somerset House
A 1951 Lukki chair by IImari Tapiovaara sits at the end of a vintage bed in the primary suite, where a mid-century Scandinavian pine bookcase In the manner of Aksel Kjersgaard hangs on one wall and another painting by Baker hangs above the headboard.

His perfectionism seems to have paid off. Ten days after the house went on the market, it sold for above asking. And the buyers purchased several pieces from Eckstein, who had an additional reason to be happy: He had agreed that the furniture could remain in the house for up to six months, but in less than two weeks he had it back, to sell at the Somerset House — and on his 1stDibs storefront. 

Luckily, photographer Clement Pascal captured the rooms Eckstein staged, which are mostly symphonies of browns and beiges against the house’s cream-colored walls. To create variety, Eckstein focused not on shades but on shapes. 

Here, he takes us on a tour.


LIVING ROOM 

Living room with mid-20th-century and art deco coffee table, arm chair, console and daybed and dogon door in Brooklyn brownstone staged by Alan Eckstein of the vintage gallery the Somerset House

One end of the spacious living room — which Eckstein divided into several seating areas — is anchored by a 1930s Art Deco cabinet with a linoleum top and black-lacquered handles, made by designer Frits Spanjaard for a client in the Netherlands.

“It’s an early modern piece that adds history to the room,” explains Eckstein. The console holds another compelling item: a 1960s table lamp made of lacquered metal and Murano glass by Roberto Pamio for the Italian company Leucos. For additional texture, Eckstein selected a glass-topped, gridded-wood Kyoto coffee table by Gianfranco Frattini, 1960s Guillerme et Chambron oak lounge chairs with splayed wooden backs and a thickly woven sisal rug.

Living room with mid-20th-century screen, pair of chairs, floor lamp and bright blue painting in Brooklyn brownstone staged by Alan Eckstein of the vintage gallery the Somerset House

At the other end of the living room, that pair of Paulin ABCD lounge chairs, designed for Artifort, brackets a Fledermaus side table by Hoffmann. To the left is a Tegolo combination screen/coatrack designed by Giovanni Offredi for the Italian firm MC Selvini. (Eckstein finds the piece so compelling he says he doesn’t want to sell it.) 

Behind the chairs is a French 1950s two-arm floor lamp and one of the several paintings in the house by Baker. (All, Eckstein reports, have sold.) The Yves Klein–blue of this canvas “really knocks you out,” says the designer.  “The idea is to throw everything off a little bit, since there’s so much brown in all these rooms. But brown and blue go together so easily.” 

Living room with mid-20th-century daybed and dogon door and coffee table in Brooklyn brownstone staged by Alan Eckstein of the vintage gallery the Somerset House

In the street-facing section of the living room, Eckstein hung a 1970s Italian lamp by Goffredo Reggiani over a chic L03 daybed by the great Pierre Chapo. These pair with another showstopper: a daringly asymmetrical walnut coffee table by Nakashima, which, Eckstein says, “has a presence, a magic to it.” 

A Dogon door serves as an objet d’art, contrasting in its size and weight with a French ceramic mirror so small that Eckstein compares it to Cindy Crawford’s famous beauty mark. 


DINING AREA

Dining area with mid-20th-century chairs, floor lamp and trestle table plus large paper lantern above table in Brooklyn brownstone staged by Alan Eckstein of the vintage gallery the Somerset House

Here, the eye flits among the crisscrossing lines of a circa 1947 Angelo Lelii for Arredoluce Triennale floor lamp and the curves of 1960s scalloped dining chairs attributed to Paolo Buffa, which surround an English oak trestle table topped by a metal coil once used as form of currency in Africa. 

The fireplace and ornate mirror, both original to the house, add more curlicues and create a kind of old-world backdrop against which Eckstein placed contemporary forms. 

The designer says he wanted to make the very high ceiling “part of the story” — to tie it to the rest of the room with what he calls a connectorTo achieve that, he chose a new Akari 120A paper pendant lamp by Isamu Noguchi, which, at 44 inches across, is one of the largest Akaris made. 


BREAKFAST NOOK

Breakfast nook with mid-striped cushions on low banquette in Brooklyn brownstone staged by Alan Eckstein of the vintage gallery the Somerset House

“Stripes are a part of every room I design,” says Eckstein. “It’s a pattern that never gets old. It’s foundational.” And, he notes, stripes break up solids without the fussiness of other patterns.

In this space, striped cushions help blend the low-backed banquette into a strongly vertical composition. A Biedermeier chair provides additional seating. “I always like to add a classical element or two,” says Eckstein. 

As in the dining room, he wanted to tie the ceiling to the action below. In this case, the connector is a 40-inch-high Cocoon lamp by the Swedish designer Hans Bergström. A less conventional accessory — a vintage Swedish dough board — hangs beside the banquette, while a patinated-copper horse sculpture from the middle of last century adorns the bit of wall between the windows.


SUNROOM

Sunroom filled with art and mid-2Oth-century furniture in Brooklyn brownstone staged by Alan Eckstein of the vintage gallery the Somerset House

This area overlooks the backyard, which is why Eckstein chose a Turkish Bergama kilim rug with the rich colors of a garden and covered the vintage Thonet chair in a thick-striped awning fabric from Dedar Milano. These join a circa 1970 tiled French coffee table, a teak tripod side table attributed to Albert Larsson and an adjustable Swedish pine floor lamp from the 1970s. Overlooking it all is an antique tinted-terracotta bust on a red marble base and a painting of cellists by an unknown artist. 


LIBRARY

Library area with striped carpet and French provincial and mid-2Oth-century furniture in Brooklyn brownstone staged by Alan Eckstein of the vintage gallery the Somerset House

Eckstein created this bookshelf-lined space outside the primary suite. A Scandinavian bentwood-and-marble table from the 1970s or ’80 stands between a pair of French provincial armchairs in the manner of Charles Dudouyt. These join a 1950s Ficks Reed outdoor folding chair on the striped kilim rug. By the window is a 1950s lamp by Hans-Agne Jakobssen. “It’s a very layered room,” says the designer. 

Library area with striped carpet and French provincial and mid-2Oth-century furniture in Brooklyn brownstone staged by Alan Eckstein of the vintage gallery the Somerset House

A 1969 Giancarlo Piretti Alky lounge chair, as much sculpture as place to sit, faces a 1970s marble-and-steel coffee table. The three-section opaline floor lamp is a product of the 1960s. 

But Eckstein doesn’t limit himself to the mid-20th century. The walnut William and Mary–style dresser is about 100 years older than the other pieces in the room.


HOME OFFICE

Home office in primary bedroom mid-2Oth-century desk and chair and lamp in Brooklyn brownstone staged by Alan Eckstein of the vintage gallery the Somerset House

The workspace Eckstein created in the primary bedroom is a veritable United Nations. The Netherlands is represented by a 1920s Amsterdam School desk, its modest proportions appropriate to the domestic setting. The cantilevered side chair is by the German designer Mart Stam, who began experimenting with tubular metal in the 1920s. 

On the work surface is a 1930s lamp by the designer  Bernard-Albin Gras for his French firm, Lampe Gras. Behind is a Scandinavian pine bookcase on which a Fang mask from western Africa and a Nyamwezi mask from Tanzania, on the continent’s east coast, are juxtaposed.

What motivates Eckstein to draw from such a wide variety of periods and styles? “If you combine different genres, you give a room a personality that withstands trends. You’re not falling into a rut.” 

And what’s his rule for mixing and matching? There is none. “I don’t think about what will go with what,” Eckstein says. “I figure that if I like something, it will click with other things I like.”

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