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THE NEW YORK TIMESHOME &GARDEN2008project:holiday shopping

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OFF THE WALL Stefan Boublil, ofthe New York design firm theApartment, with Dots coat hangers,by Muuto; $225 for five from Matter,(212) 343-2600, mattermatters.com.

A Little Bit of Joy

IT’S supposed to be a joyous activity, but let’s face it: shopping for holiday gifts can create asense of unease and even dread when ideas are hard to come by and last-minute panic setsin.

Stefan Boublil, a founder of the SoHo-based design firm theApartment, has no such trouble. The Apartment, which Mr.Boublil began with his wife, Gina Alvarez, as a store in 2000 andturned into a creative agency dealing with everything frombranding to interior design, is known for projects that offer anelement of surprise. Its most recent venture, Meet — a clublikespace in SoHo outfitted with charred armchairs, garden gnomeside tables and black-and-fuchsia wallpaper — is no late-nightparty spot, but rather a meeting space that companies can rent.

Borrowing a phrase from Socrates, Mr. Boublil called hisapproach to design “the considered life.” When designing aninterior, he said, he tries to tailor everything — from the

furniture to the toiletries — to the personality of his client. But when it comes to shoppingfor gifts, he seeks out objects that say something about both the recipient and himself.

“I always try to get something that can’t be ignored, but that’s useful,” he said. “The partthat can’t be ignored is for me, and the part that’s useful is for them.”

At the Future Perfect, a quirky shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, he liked the Little Josephcandleholder, a vaguely creepy porcelain doll’s head that holds a candle and appears togrow hair as the candle melts.

Another place with items that appealed to him was Spring, a design shop and gallery inDumbo, Brooklyn, filled with oddities like ceramic wall vases shaped like guns and whitearmchairs with splashes of red embroidery resembling blood. There, a more adult type ofcandle — Jimmyjane’s Ember massage candle — grabbed his attention. Available in scentslike habanero-and-grapefruit and ginger-and-date, it comes in a rectangular ceramic potwith a spout that allows melted soy wax to be poured for a sensual rubdown.

Mr. Boublil also recommended several Web sites, including sweet-meats.com, a SanFrancisco-based company specializing in funky plush objects shaped like steaks, hams andpork chops. Although they are intended to be children’s playthings, they also delight adultsand could even double as unconventional throw pillows.

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A more striking option would be to cover the entire wall

with floor-to-ceiling curtains made of a light-filtering

material, even if you only have a few small windows. It is a solution that Stefan Boublil, the founder of the

Apartment, a New York-based design firm, used in

the renovation of a home in Chelsea. “We wanted people

just to notice the light”filtering through the gauzy curtains, Mr. Boublil said,

rather than focusing on the individual windows. “We’re great fans of making a single sweeping gesture.” He used

custom sheers from Distinctive Windows, but he

pointed out that do-it-yourselfers can find similar

fabric at Joe’s Fabric Warehouse in Manhattan.

THE NEW YORK TIMESHOUSE & HOME2005project:commentary

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Developers, too, are embracing the idea of friendliness. A six-building condo development in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, for instance, which will have its first open house on May 6, has been named HELLO and given a name-tag sticker as its branding image.

It already has YouTube, Flickr and cheeky MySpace Web pages for its buildings, with one MySpace page claiming: “The poker tables alone will make friends and enemies, but everyone can all get along by watching ‘Badlands’on the big screen.”

The amenities, like rooftop cabanas, a barbecue area, wine cellar, library, children’s playroom and pool, are spread throughout the six buildings, in part to motivate residents to fraternize.

“We’re extremely social creatures, and I think people in New York really suffer from an inability to really interact with people,” said Susan Meiklejohn, an associate professor of urban planning at Hunter College. “And that’s what these developers are realizing.”

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