Children’s Furniture Line Oeuf Moves into New Brooklyn Quarters, Passive Retrofit Edition

If you’ve found yourself infatuated with a crib or toddler bed in the last 20 years, chances are they were designed by Oeuf. The Brooklyn-based lifestyle brand is the brainchild of Sophie Demenge and Michael Ryan, a couple who have been making things together since meeting in 1998 on a city sidewalk at 2 am outside a furniture fair party. Sophie, who grew up in Paris, was at the time about to graduate with a degree in industrial design from Pratt Institute, and Michael had a Brooklyn metal fabricating business and design studio.

They began by creating sculptural, one-of-a-kind furniture and ceramics for late, great galleries such as Moss. When their first child, Mae, was on the way 23 years ago, they took a look at the available cribs–”cheaply made, bulky, and ugly,” says Sophie—and responded by building what they envisioned. One crib led to many and when they included some of these among their one-offs at ICFF, their cribs landed on the front page of  the New York Times Home section. Unable to keep up with the orders—”literally, pregnant women calling”—they found a factory to team up with in Latvia and Oeuf was born. All these years later, the same workshop is still making what is now their complete children’s furniture line, and they also have longstanding crews in South America who produce Oeuf’s accessories.

Michael and Sophie’s story is a rare tale of a small business that not only could, but with integrity and joie de vivre. Oeuf’s motto, “Be good,” stands for all sorts of things, including their commitment to ethical practices: they use only eco-friendly materials sourced near their workshops and treat their artisans well. A few years ago, when Sophie and Michael purchased a seen-better-days building to turn into Oeuf’s new headquarters, they wanted it to be as energy efficient as possible. Architect couple Anshu Bangia and William Agostinho of Bangia Agostinho were tasked with applying Passive House standards to the structure. Join us for a tour of the results and a look at some of Oeuf’s latest.

Photography by Pia Ulin and styling by Hilary Robertson, except where noted, courtesy of Bangia Agostinho.

The enamel gooseneck lights here and on the roof are eBay vintage. For something similar, see Barn Light Electric’s Marathon Gooseneck Light. The door on the left leads to the upstairs floors.

The rice paper lantern is Ikea’s Regolit pendant lamp, currently available in Canada but not in the US (also findable on eBay). The off-white paint color is a custom shade from Ressource, a beloved French brand available in the US.

To apply Passive House strategies to the building, Bangia Agostinho consulted with 475 High Performance Building Supply. “A lot is about sealing the internal envelope,” she explains, which entailed gutting the surfaces and creating a new thermally insulated interior inside the brick shell, “almost like a box within a box,” says Anshu.

The Triangle Leg Table from Hay is surrounded by Moller Model 77 Side Chairs. The Flos Aim Pendant is by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec.The wood-framed, triple-pane windows reduce drafts and heat gain, and Sophie says serve as excellent sound barriers; they’re by Bertrand from Historical Windows of New York. Crystalia Glass provided the glass partitions.

Michael designed and fabricated the steel stair rail, which winds it way up three stories. “It was a long project, many late nights,” reports Sophie. “Michael played with different oxidation baths and each piece went through a process to be blackened just so.”

Here are four more favorite remodels by Bangia Agostinho:

• Remodelista Love Match: An “Old-World Yet Modern” Brownstone Revival for a Stylish Young Couple
• Kitchen of the Week: A Bright Addition with a “Pantry Portal”
• Serenity Now: Creating Calm and Luxe in a Brooklyn Townhouse
• Light and Shadow: Photographer Pia Ulin’s NYC Loft