Kabinett & Kammer: Creating Authentic Interiors

Kabinett & Kammer is equally a celebration and a practical guide to both collecting and showing how lively design can integrate disparate objects from the past into beautifully layered ensembles. Sean Scherer’s interiors feature vintage display cabinets housing discarded collections of whittled songbirds, a plethora of stunning 19th-century maps and school teaching aids, semi-tropical ferns in cast-iron planters, mysterious industrial apparatuses displayed against eye-catching col­ors, and photomurals. The effect is a supercharged nod to American Gothic heightened by Scherer’s sophisticated palette and sense of proportion. His interior language speaks with a calm authority coupled with a zest for life, offering invaluable lessons for composing signature, comfortable interiors.

 Each photograph by leading photographer William Abranowicz is a masterclass on such topics as color and texture, focal points, and room size. Though styles fluctuate and tastes are unique, the principles of design are immutable, and good design is good design.

Authors and Contributors:

Sean Scherer studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art, exhibiting his work extensively throughout North America and Europe. He moved from New York to the Catskills in 2002, opening Kabinett & Kammer shortly after, and is Professor of Art at SUNY Oneonta.

William Abranowicz has been a photographer for more than 40 years. His work is in collections throughout the world and has appeared in nearly every major publication in the United States, Europe and Asia. His recent books include American Originals: Creative Interiors (Vendome) and Natural Elegance: Luxurious Mountain Living (Vendome).

Anderson Cooper is the anchor of the CNN news show Anderson Cooper 360° and a correspondent for the CBS news show 60 Minutes. He is the author of Dispatches from the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival and The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son on Life, Love, and Loss.