Black Fly Swatter

22.5" L x 5" W

Christophe Pourny grew up in his parents' antique shop in Fayence, in the hills of the Var, and learned the trade in Paris under Pierre Madel, a family relation whose shop was among the oldest on the Rue Jacob. He came to New York in the 1990s, restoring furniture in townhouses and apartments before opening his own studio in Brooklyn. Clients have since included the City of New York, the Holy See's mission to the UN, and designers Bunny Williams and David Kleinberg. In 2014 he published The Furniture Bible, with a foreword by Martha Stewart.

The studio now sits in Industry City, a shop up front and a working restoration bench behind it. With his partner Jason Jobson, Pourny turned the formulas from that bench into a line of tonics, creams and waxes based on old artisan recipes, and carried the same beeswax and natural materials into the rest of the house.