New to the ever-growing Tribeca Design District is Rembaum-Hanau, a design studio and collection that includes furniture, art and objects hand-picked from around the world. Even if you are not in the market, I recommend taking a spin through what was the old Antiqueria Tribeca space on Duane. (That’s a great Tribeca legacy.) It’s beautiful and charming, and in addition to unique and significant pieces, they are building their selection of what I would call impulse buys: special items that you will work hard to rationalize as a purchase for yourself.

Designers Sharon Rembaum and Cécile Hanau first met as disciples of Daniella Ohad, the design historian — the two had taken several classes with her, and eventually they realized they had a shared perspective on the design industry. Sharon, a former broadcast journalist for the BBC, pivoted away from that decades-long career and completed the UCLA Interior Architecture and Design program to pursue a lifelong passion. Cécile, a French native, has an expertise in textiles after an education at the École Camondo in Paris and Parsons; she has spent her working career at the House of Scalamandré, as a creative director for home textiles firms, and as a design consultant in the hospitality industry and for private clients. (Sharon lives here, in Tribeca, and Cécile in Chelsea.)

When they finally got to know each other better in 2021, they connected quickly over a love of vintage furniture and a shared goal to establish a hybrid studio with an added retail component. They both travel to Europe frequently — France, Italy, the UK, sometimes Scandinavia — sourcing one-of-a-kind treasures themselves and through brokers on the other side. They do not feature one particular era or genre — it’s whatever catches their eye.

“We are like the French flea market of Tribeca,” Sharon said. “We don’t want to pigeonhole ourselves. We are very eclectic, and carry everything from the late 19th Century to the 1970s.”

The store opened on Nov. 30, and things have been moving fast — and moving off the floor fast. There was a big shipment coming in the day we spoke.

Cécile lived on Chambers in the ’90s, so she knew she always wanted to come back to Tribeca for her studio. And they love their customers here, many of whom are bi-coastal, as is their practice. They have designed interiors for West Coast beach houses and country estates in Westchester. They love the toggle between the retail store, where folks can wander in and browse and chat, and the focus of their design projects — both with the same aesthetic.

“What we like is the mix, that’s the fun of it for us,” Cécile. “That’s what people hire is for, the layering, to create that story.”

Rembaum-Hanau
129 Duane | West Broadway and Church
646.706.7552
inquiries@rembaumhanau.com