A Home Inside a Former Blacksmith Shop

Pairing a collector's passion with minimalist restraint, Jesse James and Gus Anagnopoulos forged a surprisingly modern home from a 19th-century blacksmith shop in upstate New York.

Spare Moments

"We look for the lost and forgotten everywhere," says Jesse James. The designer—of interiors, products, logos—and his partner, poet Kostas "Gus" Anagnopoulos, have a habit of falling for artifacts others might pass by: scratchy Bessie Smith 78s, soapstone bed warmers, ham-radio postcards. "What we love about old things," explains Anagnopoulos, "is the mystery, the experiences, the people they've lived with."

In this photo: A flea-market find, this charcoal portrait is visible through the large front window. "He guards the place," says James, who inherited the two Hitchcock chairs from his grandmother.

Living-Dining Room

Thirteen years ago, when the pair were still in their 20s and living in a 400-square-foot Brooklyn apartment, they eschewed the activities popular among their peers. Instead of partying in the city, James and Anagnopoulos spent weekends tooling along country roads upstate, fantasizing about a haven where, as James puts it, "we could read, write, and draw. We wanted to turn the world off in short visits, like taking a long nap and having a sweet dream for days."

In this photo: The living-dining area is furnished with a far-flung mix: Indonesian rush-back loungers, tin sconces from Mexico, and a Persian kilim rug. The farm table and its attendant cane-seat chairs, however, are locally sourced antiques.

Kitchen

They found it in New York's remote Schoharie County, a sturdy rural outpost ruled by the seasons and the rhythms of agricultural life. Hard by Panther Creek, in the hamlet of West Fulton, stood a run-down 19th-century blacksmith shop for sale. "A very romantic thing!" says Anagnopoulos. The vacant structure had morphed from smithy to gas station, with an upstairs apartment where the most recent owners had raised five children.

In this photo: "Our mothers warned us about defrosting," jokes James of the kitchen's 1950s refrigerator, "but we love the look." A midcentury stove, an antique butcher block, and a salvaged cast-iron sink magnify the room's farmhouse charm.

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