Where?
A vintage treasure hunter who frequents estate sales, Dani stumbled upon the dream piece while on a sourcing trip in Miami’s Hialeah neighborhood last year. Describing her selection process, she opts for a combination of new and preloved decor to create an eclectic mix for the spaces she’s decorating. “I love vintage furniture—I would rather source secondhand than new.” A self-proclaimed serial shopper, Dani has a hard time resisting a good find, especially if it’s vintage. “You always end up finding crazy knickknacks, decor, furniture, or clothes—it’s really fun,” she says. “It’s honestly kind of a win-win as an interior decorator because I get to shop for other people, which helps me with my shopping addiction.”
When?
After learning from the estate sale’s homeowner that all the furniture had been passed down from her grandmother, Dani had a feeling there would be some great finds to uncover on that fateful day in 2021. She was initially there to scope out a gold and cream-colored postmodern set for a client, but it was love at first sight when the designer came across an identical set in a dusty shade of pink. “It wasn’t planned that I would come home with an entire bedroom set, but we ended up taking it,” she adds. The size of the pieces made transporting it anywhere a difficult feat, but even with no space budgeted for the bedroom set—both in her home and in the U-Haul she had rented for the day, “it was definitely worth it.”
Why?
Given that postmodern design was most popular in Miami during the 1980s, the style had been on Dani’s radar in passing, but seeing a set like this IRL is what really sparked her crush. “It was the first time I had ever seen one in person, and I became obsessed with postmodern design,” she gushes. Along with the bedroom set, Dani snagged a few other pieces from the sale, like her glossy console table that was kept in storage until the right time—which finally came when she and Bello decided to move in together in 2021.
Dani’s ethos for decorating her own space was maintaining a curated mindset. “I wanted to take it slow and find pieces I really liked,” she explains. “I don’t want to move out and throw everything away, I want it to be an investment for my future.” While this has meant buying items she wasn’t entirely sure would mesh, particularly with the property’s modern architectural elements, the designer knew if she felt strongly enough about a piece, she could find a way to make it work. Dani vividly remembers her boyfriend’s initial hesitation when she positioned the set in their marble-floored spare bedroom. “Most people would say ‘That doesn’t go, but I wasn’t worried,’” she recalls. “Now it’s one of my favorite rooms in the house.”
