“For awhile,” Misha Kahn says with a laugh, “our home was the number one answer on Google for maximalism, but I don’t see it that way at all.” Instead, the 30-something star designer explains, “Like most people, I like spaces that feel lived in, with objects that are meaningful and gathered over time. It’s just what happened naturally.”

Kahn’s Brooklyn apartment—which he shares with his partner, Interview magazine Editor-in-Chief Nick Haramis—is decked out in a riotous combination of colors and objects. It’s an exuberant, surprising mashup of powerful pieces; works by Kahn, by friends, by creative luminaries past and present.

In the dining-slash-living room—Kahn’s favorite space—a Gaetano Pesce table with a Denmark-shaped top is paired with rainbow-colored Katie Stout chairs. Nearby, a furry sofa and Pirarucu fish-scale chest by the Campana Brothers mix with Kahn’s own designs, including a bright yellow resin mirror and a creature-like, navy, woven standing lamp; an Ettore Sottsass chandelier hangs above. Elsewhere, the couple has hung artworks by Kara Walker and Tadanori Yokoo. The kitchen, meanwhile, is its own eye-popping universe; a cacophony of color and pattern that includes, in part, space-themed curtains, polychromatic tiles and cabinet covers, as well as a bold yellow wallpaper by Voutsa.

The unexpected is, in fact, key to Kahn’s creative signature. The Minnesota-born RISD grad is known for boundary pushing, adapting and reinventing techniques across a range of media—from metalwork, glass, and textile to ceramics, cement, and more. The resulting objects often feel irreverent, almost childlike, exuberant. (And they’re highly acclaimed: the young designer has already exhibited at the likes of Friedman Benda Gallery, the Dallas Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Museum of Arts and Design Biennial, among other esteemed stages.)

As design icon John Maeda has put it: “Misha creates works for a parallel wonderland, where traditional perception of material and structure is pushed to the edges of the room to make space for one big party.”

Or, as Kahn himself describes his approach: “Total f*cking chaos.” ◆

This story is taken from the Miami Design District Magazine (Spring 2021), available in the Miami Design District