Drawn to scale: Design guru Dennis Duffy dishes on his new retail venture

Heather Bouzan — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 10:13:00 GMT

DENNIS DUFFY, principal of award-winning interior-design firm Duffy Design Group, has worked on chi-chi celebrity condos (Manny Ramirez at the Ritz), swank restaurants (Rocca), and more. Although Duffy’s services aren’t in the cards for our “cozy” one-bedroom anytime soon, the opening of his furnishings and accessories retail studio, D Scale (520 Harrison Avenue, Boston, 617.426.1055), does give us an opportunity to infuse the designer’s aesthetic into our lives, piece by customizable piece. We chatted with Duffy about the D Scale concept, his SoWa space, and the origins of his impeccable style.

Q: Tell us about the D Scale concept.
A: There’s a core collection of about 40 pieces — upholstery and case goods (you know, tables and cabinets) — we designed and manufacture through our shops here in New England. Then there’s a secondary complementary layer of pieces that I’ve selected from South America and from Europe, and then there’s a third layer of vintage 20th-century pieces. All of this, then, becomes the overall D Scale offering. Our goal is to do two things: one, to present modernism, really not as a particular style, but as a perspective. And to show people that modernism can be soft, it can be interesting, it can be a little bit luxe, and it can be quirky. Modernism is just the relationship of objects to each other and within the space.

Q: What made you decide to get into retail?
A: We’ve always designed pieces for our clients, so it sort of grew out of that. I’ve always wanted to have a place, much like VW Home for Vicente Wolf or Thomas O’Brien’s Aero, that allowed us to present our design concept for Duffy Design Group in a larger format.

Q: How do you choose the pieces for D Scale?
A: I look for a sense of craftsmanship. We have some leather sofas that are coming from Italy. [They] should be here in a couple of weeks, and [they have] just incredible craftsmanship: leather-sewn, the stitching … the design is really, really beautiful. It’s very clean, but it’s also luxurious. So, I look for probably a little bit more artistry, a little bit more of an artisanal character of the pieces that I layer into it. And that’s actually both in the manufactured items as well as the vintage pieces.

Q: Who’s the average D Scale customer?
A: I think they’re professional people who have a fairly strong sense of their design aesthetic. They’re very design-oriented and they have a fairly well-formed design identity. And they’re not looking for someone to dictate to them; they’re just looking for other opportunities to develop their own style.

Q: What attracted you to D Scale’s space in SoWa?
A: I’ve always lived in this area; I’ve been here for 10, 11 years now, and my business has always been here. Our office is two doors away on Harrison Avenue, so we do a lot of work with the developer of this [neighborhood]. We did Rocca, we’ve done some other commercial spaces for the same developer, so when I was looking for a space, he said, ‘Why don’t we develop this two-story space?’ I’m very excited about it. I think it’s a great asset to the neighborhood. It has great street presence, and hopefully we’ll attract other like-minded retail enterprises.

Q: Where else do you shop for housewares in Boston?
A: Lekker. Sometimes Koo de Kir. We do a lot of shopping in New York, as well, because that’s where I’m from, so I still keep pretty close ties there.

Q: Where do you see D Scale going next?
A: I’d like to develop D Scale and do something that is potentially expandable to other markets — East Coast markets not too far away that I can still control. But maybe New York and DC. That’s really my ultimate goal for D Scale, but I’m going to spend at least a year, two years perfecting this model first. It has a lot of room for growth. @

Get : Venue:D Scale

Drawn to scale: Design guru Dennis Duffy dishes on his new retail venture