Work|Room Miami gallery

Project Details

Project Description

Set within a light-filled room at Miami Design District’s Moore Building, Jennifer Bunsa and Stephanie Denault, recently launched Work|Room. More than just a showroom, the founders imagined the space a multifaceted endeavor and incubator for local Miami designers and design culture.

“We want to engage Miami designers, artists and makers, and to shift the design current here in Miami toward something warmer and more vibrant,” says Stephanie Denault.
“We’re filling a void for more curated, handmade, natural, new and vintage pieces.”

Conceived as a shoppable office concept space akin to The Apartment in Denmark, Work|Room pairs an artfully curated showroom with a designer workspace, featuring handcrafted furniture, lighting, ceramic goods, accessories and artwork, including exclusives on select pieces. It serves as a resource for interior designers and is open to the public by appointment.

A reaction to the typical homogenous white gloss or beige neutral Miami image, Work|Room counters this, focusing on handcrafted, well-made designs with an emphasis on female designers (including Materia Designs, Aja Blanc, Peg Woodworking, Alice Quaresma, and Marthe Armitage).

The design duo earned their undergraduate degrees together at the University of Florida. After working in interior design in New York City for 10 years (after earning her masters in architecture at Harvard), Bunsa returned to Florida and with Denault, who runs her own boutique design studio, with a mission to convert Miami to a warm and vibrant style.

“Our hope is to introduce a different design language to Miami that reflects the vibrancy, color, and the warm character of the city,” Bunsa says. “Initially it made sense to fill the space with established makers and designers who create things with their hands and focus on pattern and color.”

Though many of the current designers are based overseas or in other parts of the country, Work|Room founders hope to heighten emphasis on local talent, in addition to offering original designs (made with the help of Floridian artisans), starting with a custom table, constructed by Grove & Anchor.

“We value quality and love things that are made by hand, but more importantly, we want all our designers to imbue their works with meaning so that each piece tells a unique story,” Bunsa adds. “In addition to our roster of current designers, we also source vintage furniture for the space because it helps to add some context for the new pieces.”

Beyond introducing a fresh aesthetic to Miami, the team also intends to make Work|Room a hub for the local design industry and aficionados. “We’re targeting people in Miami who can appreciate some of the unique pieces that will rotate through the space,” Bunsa says.

Work|Room is launching a roundtable series in the space to discuss design and engage local designers, craftspeople, and design lovers on a different level.

“We’d like to be an alternative to the ubiquitous white-on-white aesthetic and provide some warmer, modern options that still feel like they belong in Miami,” Bunsa says. “The hope is that those conversations will help us start to build a network of like-minded people dedicated to helping shift the direction a bit.”

Work|Room is located at 4040 NE 2nd Avenue in Suite 407 of Miami Design District’s Moore Building. For inquiries or appointments call 786.615.5596 or visit www.workroommiami.com.