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DAUN CURRY
Designer: Daun Curry
Position: Owner, Daun Curry Studio
Website: www.dauncurry.com
Contact: 212-480-2593
Photos courtesy of Modern Declaration
Since then, Daun Curry has moved on to several successful and wide-ranging residential and commercial projects: from country estates to celebrity lofts to designing jewelry stores. Constantly challenging herself and her creativity, Daun is always fully engaged in every detail of the design, a quality her clients can’t get seem to get enough of. “I love creating personal relationships with my clients,” she tells us, “and of course, just letting my imagination run wild.”
And imagination is something she has been cultivating since childhood. Growing up as a child in Palm Beach with parents who owned a factory that manufactures home accessories and terrariums, Daun started exploring textures, patterns and light as components of art and design. Despite having four other siblings, her parents encouraged Daun to be a free thinker and nurtured her endless curiosity.
Continuing her great adventure, she went to New York City and enrolled in Parsons School of Design where her talent was further honed. Since graduating, her projects have been endless. Apart from designing several other model apartments for top developers, she has worked on the renovation of the Royalton Hotel for the Morgan’s Hotel Group, in the design of the jewelry showroom of Finn, and in designing ultra-luxurious residences of prominent Manhattan families in such historical buildings as the Stanhope and the Carhart Mansion.
Daun Curry’s present projects include a townhouse in the West Village complete with a screening room, wine cellar and organic vegetable garden for a young newly wed, a hip 60’s-vibe loft with fully furnished landscaped wrap terrace for a bachelor in Chelsea, the San Francisco headquarters and New York Soho creative headquarters for Stella & Dot and the headquarters of the New York City Academy for Moroccan oil.
“At the beginning of the project, the architecture of the space and the vibe of the client are incredibly important sources of inspiration to me. As the project moves along, and the design takes shape, inspiration is everywhere. The tailoring of a jacket could inspire an upholstery detail, studying the anatomy of a jellyfish could inspire a lighting fixture and so on, “ explains Daun Curry, founder and creative force behind Modern Declaration, a celebrated boutique design firm located in New York.
We first met Daun years ago at a new construction project where she was commissioned to fully design the interiors of a 5,000 sq. ft. model loft apartment located in the Upper East Side. At the time, the trend was to present neutrally designed model apartments to the public.
The dominant belief was and, in many ways, still remains that because style is subjective, apartments or houses for sale must look neutral so as not to turn off or distract buyers. “Staging” and real estate shows on television all promote this philosophy. And that’s what Daun Curry and the Legacy team set out to disprove.
Armed with a book of clippings and swatches, Daun showed a preliminary glimpse of the scheme she had in mind. We knew the project would be a success. Between her talent and the developer Josh Guberman’s impeccable taste, that was easy to see. Little did we know that the young, sweet, soft spoken designer will soon rewrite the way real estate is sold in New York. It appeared not only were people not distracted by the design, they wanted to buy it, "as is", furniture and all! In one night, six hundred people attended the launch party!
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