An Artwork-Centric Couple Reworked Their Circa-1980 Miami Residence by Hand

Mahtani and Fuchs’s two-bedroom oasis is a handsome and highly curated collection of the pieces they’ve amassed on trips around the world. Mahtani says with a chuckle, “I’m a cheesy, metaphysical person, and I walk around all day saying how lucky we are to have been to so many places, tasted so many flavors, and met so many people.”

Some of the items they’ve picked up include ceramic jars in the shape of female icons Iris Apfel and Frida Kahlo by Brooklyn-based potter Hazy Mae, a three-dimensional canvas covered in colorful spiky bulbs by Mexican artist Sharon Berebichez, and a large-scale cartoon-like portrait of a cow that the couple bought quite literally on their way to the Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, among other pieces stacked on shelves and hanging on the walls of the apartment.

For Fuchs, though, traveling is a two-fold adventure because he manufactures his wares in India, China, France, and Egypt, among other countries. “We like to walk through every factory and actually meet and get to know the artisans,” he notes. Some of those makers are in Murano, Italy, where they hand-blow Fuchs’s colorful drinking glasses with artistic details—lavender-hued discs that are fused to the glasses’ body, green and yellow diagonal stripes, and a light dusting of 24-karat gold leaf—that give the cups a candy-like look. He also designs funky Murano light fixtures, including the chandelier that comprises strands of black, amber, gray, and white glass baubles dangling above the 12-person rustic farm table in the couple’s dining area.

The gleaming pieces that could almost double as art happen to work masterfully in the couple’s layered, eclectic home. The interiors are a delicate balance of one-of-a-kind decor and things Fuchs did himself, like stripping the floors, painting the bathroom and guest bedroom walls, installing the closets, and replacing the kitchen cabinet doors. 

Mahtani says, “I really believe in creating a framework to highlight Thomas’s work,” some of which, of course, includes his own handiwork. In the primary bathroom, for instance, Fuchs had a plan for the plain white walls, which now wear his serene watercolor-like design. Before applying his pattern to the wall, though, he mapped it out on a piece of paper to make sure he and Mahtani would be happy with it. After they both gave it the green light, Fuchs spent an entire day recreating his art on the walls with a paintbrush and a few acrylics. And, in the guest bedroom, Fuchs painted all but one wall a lacquered green, creating the perfect backdrop for the couple’s incredible and extensive collection of dog paintings, which Fuchs arranged and hung.