Inside an 850-Square-Foot Greenwich Village Home With Glimpses of Its Bohemian Past

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For designer John Bambick and his husband and business partner, Michael Bentley, the inspiration for their space started down the hallway. Their Manhattan apartment building is home to a motley ensemble of residents that could’ve come straight from Central Casting. “The guy across the hall works in stage production, the woman down the hall does screenplays,” says Bambick, rattling an array of artistically inclined neighbors in the Greenwich Village building. “Some of the residents have rent-stabilized apartments and have been there for 30, 40, 50-plus years,” echoes Bentley. “Very real New Yorkers, and, especially, very real Village-ites.”

From left, John Bambick and Michael Bentley in their Manhattan home

The couple, who moved into their rental in 2021, embraced the prewar building’s mulifaceted spirit from the get-go. “The lobby isn’t super pretty. You have some of the character that’s still there [under] 100 layers of paint. There’s 2,000 packages while you’re trying to get to the elevator…,” shares Bambick. “We love how when you enter our space, you’re transported into something that’s thoughtful, but also loose and fun and very comfortable, and not too perfect and not too precious.” With an art curation replete with finds from auction-house favorites and emergent artists alongside personal works, the 850-square-foot apartment reflects the pair’s latest chapter as newly(ish) minted New Yorkers. “Considering that we didn’t move to New York until 2019, to have that glimpse into what the Village used to be became the starting point for how we wanted to decorate it,” says Bambick.

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Bambick juxtaposes an Instagram find—Hikaru Akieda’s untitled canvas portrait painting—with Jonny Niesche’s acrylic, mirror, and voile work called Schein Blossom Kansai Hanam from The Hole. “I think we found [Akieda when] he was an art student,” shares Bambick, who had to wait for school break to end to obtain the work. The credenza is the USM Haller Mid-credenza, the vintage Accolay ceramics were purchased at Paul Bert Serpette, and the vintage chest of drawers is from Hollar & Squall. The table lamp was purchased at auction, the stoneware bowl is by William Marshal, from Freeforms, and the vintage flushmount light is from Amsterdam Modern. Benjamin Moore’s Creamy White is on the wall at right.

In an art filled corner of the living room, the haunting work Face Off, by Chinese painter-sculptor Xue Jiye and obtained from Black Dragon Press, holds court with a 1976 print called Sans Titre by Jean-Pierre Pincemin, 55 Sunrises by Sho Shibuya, and Margaret Maclean’s porcelain anemone. The adjustable desk lamp is from Zara Home. “We really have mixed emerging artists coming out of school with some stuff we found at galleries,” shares Bambick.

In the living room, Farrow & Ball’s Salon Drab clads the walls, creating an impact that’s anything but what the name implies. A RH sofa sits front and center, framed by a glazed ceramic table lamp from the 1950s, and a vintage Karl Springer lucite lamp. The jute rug is by S.R. Home, the brass sconces are from Etsy, and the two custom steel lounge chairs feature Mitchell Denburg fabric, while the custom lounge chair is upholstered in Marci Mohair from Yarn Collective. The Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Barcelona table was purchased at auction. Untitled NRA by Felix Gonzalez-Torres hangs on the wall.

A CB2 Pila Wood Tiered table holds a 1950s Gunnar Nylund for Rörstrand small ovoid bowl with matte white glaze from Freeforms. The volcanic stone Buddha heads were purchased in the 1990s from Borobudur Temple in Indonesia, notes Bambick, who spent part of his childhood living in Jakarta.

The couple’s growing art collection reflects that eclecticism. Some of it references collective legacy; consider Japanese artist Sho Shibuya’s piece 55 Sunrises, a painting on a New York Times cover that, Bentley notes, was a “way of staying engaged with the outside world" during the pandemic. In the dining area, a striking diptych, Seoul, Seoul, Seoul, South and North by Jun Young Kang, expresses the artist’s coming of age in Korea, and was crafted of, among other materials, toothpaste. But personal history abounds too. One piece in particular was special to Bentley, but required a negotiation to get it into the living room: “It’s creepy, it’s haunting, it’s a little terrifying looking,” he laughs, explaining Face Off by Chinese artist Xue Jiye, who historically had not sold work outside of China. “I’m a huge horror film fan. It sort of takes me back to my own childhood—my dad and I used to take these trips to a little mountain cabin in Oregon. He’d let me rent whatever R-rated horror movies I wanted to,” he recalls. “So there’s a piece of my formation as a human being” reflected back in the work.

Awake at 3AM, an original work by William Brickel that the pair purchased from art advisor and dealer Samuele Visentin, hangs outside the kitchen. Nickey Kehoe’s khaki plaid rug sits at the left. “Michael’s my client,” laughs Bambick. “I have to find things he likes. I just need to convince him that it’s worth the time and/or money!”

The landlord upgraded the galley kitchen with a dishwasher and new countertops, and removed one key appliance: the microwave. “We kept the kitchen simple,” says the designer. “It’s an easy grab-and-go with our cookbooks—of which we only have two, but there’s not a lot you can cook in that kitchen,” he laughs. The silverware is John Pawson stainless steel flatware from March SF, the cooking knives are from E. Dehillerin in Paris. The Forge de Laguiole by Andrée Putman steak knives, as well as the Max Lamb jug, John Julian dinnerware, Blackwood and Silver Churn salt and pepper mills were all also sourced from March SF. The artwork is Slab 17 by Benjamin Pearey.

In the dining room, Seoul, Seoul, Seoul, South and North, a diptych by Jun Young Kang, purchased from Cindy Rucker Gallery, crafted of toothpaste and mixed media, rules the roost. The table is the Aqua Virgo dining table from CB2, skirted by Jean aluminum chairs from Industry West. The tubular floor lamp is from Shop by Marie-Christine. At right, Lady With A Bowl Of Fruit by Shawn Huckins, purchased from K Contemporary, hangs above B-18-03 by Hiroyuki Hamada, sourced from LongHouse Reserve. The assortment of ceramics is from Freeforms, and the collection of books is from Dashwood and other art and design shops.

Other pieces reflect the pair’s shared history. Take the vintage tabernacle in the bedroom, discovered at antiques mecca Paul Bert Serpette in Paris. “That really meant something to us both, because we were both raised Catholic and went to Catholic schools,” shares Bambick. “There’s the ironic aspect of two gay men who grew up Catholic and aren’t Catholic anymore, but reclaiming something fabulous and putting it in our apartment in New York City.”

A Moment Was All We Had, a photograph by Lucas Mumaghan, hovers above the Jenni Kayne Cove bed, atop it a vintage textile bed pillow from Nickey Kehoe. Farrow & Ball’s Bancha is on the walls. An untitled mixed-media work by Lucilla Caporilli Ferro hangs beside the window.

In another corner of the bedroom, a modular aluminum shelving unit from Modern Shelving shares space with 1930s Bauhaus tubular steel nightstands, sourced from 1stDibs. It holds a Darth Vader pigment print by Jefferson Hayman, a blue ceramic vase from RW Guild, and a white ceramic vase discovered at Paul Bert Serpette.

A wire sculpture Bambick crafted while in art school at the University of Washington sits atop a vintage side table discovered at a roadside antique store in Oregon. At right, David Ruth’s abstract watercolor painting, Design for Light, is hung.

The apartment building predates the Empire State Building but boasts “perfectly framed” views of it from the north side. “One of our favorite parts of the apartment is the view out of our bedroom window,” shares Bambick. A work-from-home setup features a vintage desk with Prouve legs from Amsterdam Modern, Jean aluminum chairs from Industry West, and a vintage midcentury lamp from Objet LA/NY.