A visual diary by Design Editor Wendy Goodman.
The Living Room “The BoConcept sofa we have had forever. Vincent bought it at an auction, and it has lived many lives,” says Kiki Goti, referring to her partner, Vincent Staropoli. Goti designed the wall lights. The chair in the foreground is from her OO+II series: “My first metal piece.” The chairs at the table’s end are Josef Hoffmann for Thonet; the rest are 1960s vintage.
Photo: Annie Schlechter
When Kiki Goti and Vincent Staropoli moved into their 1,000-square-foot rental in Clinton Hill three years ago, they didn’t anticipate they would also end up working there. Goti taught design at Pratt Institute and Parsons New School and maintained a studio in Bushwick, where she made lights, objects, and custom home furnishings. Staropoli, a French director and editor of short films and commercials at the time, would sometimes conduct business from her studio.
After a year in their loft, Goti realized she enjoyed working from home instead of commuting. “Bushwick is far,” she says. “Plus I was outsourcing a lot of things and I didn’t need a big hard-core space for production.” When Goti gave up the studio, she and Staropoli decided to go into business designing interiors. She had studied architecture in Greece, where she was born and raised, and he had renovated and furnished apartments for himself and friends in Paris. They call themselves the House Special Studio.
Their first joint effort was the loft, and they reorganized it to double as a co-working area. The dining table moved over to the living room and was replaced by his-and-hers desks. That’s where she assembles pieces and he caters to their growing design commissions; filmwork has taken a back seat, though Goti still teaches. To their surprise, they have found they rarely disagree about aesthetic choices, but Goti acknowledges some of their ideas can be “crazy.”
She is an unapologetic color maximalist. Initially, the kitchen was painted a vivid blue and the dining area opposite had floor-to-ceiling yellow-striped walls. Goti knew she’d gone too far after they painted the living room green.
“My idea was to do something that aligned with all our plants,” she says. But the result was too intense. “The walls are so tall, and the color was hideous. I thought, Oh my God, I am going to die. Vincent, poor guy, primed it again, and I didn’t see it for the rest of the day.” They settled on a single wraparound yellow border.
“We focused on the bottom part because in the winter the sun usually comes in only up to half of the wall,” Goti says. “That worked. It brings this warmth to the space.”
The Kitchen Goti designed the metal cabinet hardware. The fish is from a street market in Colombia.
Photo: Annie Schlechter
The Workspace Goti made the glass Graces vessels on the left side of the desk. Her Strobilus vessel is in the middle. The sconces are from Goti’s Bells & Whistles collection. The chairs are from Big Reuse in Brooklyn.
Photo: Annie Schlechter
The Bedroom The Neo-Vanity standing mirror, by Goti, is from 2023.
Photo: Annie Schlechter
The Dining Table “During the pandemic years, we would take long rides and find remote antique stores,” Goti says. In one shop, they found the old board game hanging above the Ikea bookshelf, which Staropoli customized with legs.
Photo: Annie Schlechter
The Entryway Goti’s U+II mirror, from 2022, is the first piece she ever made using upcycled foam pieces. “My experiments with bent aluminum ended up as wall-mounted vases,” she says. The lamp was found during a Pittsburgh road trip, as was the desk chair.
Photo: Annie Schlechter
Goti and Staropoli
Photo: Annie Schlechter
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If you prefer to read in print, you can also find this article in the February 23, 2026, issue of
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If you prefer to read in print, you can also find this article in the February 23, 2026, issue of
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