Elemente Magazine - design: DEEPLY MADLY LIVING

DEEPLY MADLY LIVING 07/22/08

Words :: Lana Bortolot // Images :: Eric Laignel

It takes only about 15 seconds in the apartment of Garry Jensen and Elena Bertinetto?Jensen to understand that doing business with them is, in fact, no ordinary business. Their loft in Manhattan’s Garment District is everything you’d expect from a New Yorker: sleek, modern and sophisticated. Then again, it’s quite a bit of what you wouldn’t: jolts of bright color, and cheeky fusions of textures, shapes and contrasts. And it’s 100 percent of what you might expect from Deeply Madly Living, the couple’s online home décor boutique that specializes in “cool living for the wild at heart.”
Objects in both home and showroom reflect the Jensens’ eclectic design philosophy, “providing people with items that are unusual or original … that will spice up their décor,” says Elena, who herself spices up her wardrobe with chunky silver pieces that look more like museum artifacts than jewelry.
Spice, a word that frequently punctuates Garry’s conversation, may be the driving aesthetic behind the store, but color and contrast are the organizing principles of their loft. Trained as a fresco artist in her native Italy, Elena is fearless about using hues unheard of in New York apartments, most of which trend toward monochrome interiors. While some walls are a subdued dark charcoal (a design coup pulled off only if you are blessed with 23 windows), others wear a shock of color: electric plum, fuchsia and vivid aqua.
Elsewhere in the loft are signs of a “fusionista” at work (or play). Purple velvet upholstery rescues a pair of Chesterfield chairs from their inherent sobriety. A lime and pink Warhol portrait of the Queen of Denmark—a nod to Garry’s heritage—hangs above framed family photos and an intricate metalwork cross. The crystal chandelier from Coco Chanel’s Paris apartment tinkles seductively above a white parsons dining table, custom-designed and inlaid with an 18th-century marble Roman altar piece that requires four men to lift. Bright aqua modernist chairs line either side of the table, a visual surprise that makes you do a double-take until you realize, “wow, that’s cool.”
“This is what our main characteristic is—we don’t choose just one style or color. We like to work with accents and things that we find interesting, which make us smile or get the imagination going,” says Elena.
The Jensens seem to be a magnet for such things, finding them in tucked-away places, “dodgy markets” and at odd hours. They enjoy a running competition over who gets the best goods at the best price, and Garry clearly enjoys showing off his flea-market bargains with all the glee of a treasure-hunter striking gold. To wit: the coffee table, a glass-topped oval whose patina wrought-iron base was formerly a bed canopy holder, purchased for 250 pounds. Throughout the apartment, the most unusual items often are the least expensive, and the fusion of cultures and styles—say, a collection of antique European silver set off by the gleaming stainless-steel kitchen—gives the apartment its elegance as well as its eccentricity.
“We like things that make a statement and raise eyebrows,” Garry said. “We’re not afraid to be witty and irreverent, and just different.”

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