Inside Antoni Porowski’s Sophisticated New York Home

Hey AD, I've been dreaming of saying this

for a really long time.

Welcome to my apartment.

Come on in.

[upbeat music]

I've been here about two years now

and it's definitely been a process.

I've been collecting pieces

since I basically moved in and before that.

My dog, Neon, was a huge factor

in choosing this apartment because it's in proximity

to a park that is littered with squirrels.

If I had to describe the vibe

of my apartment in one sentence, it's mine.

No, I'm obsessed with nostalgia and I love looking back

and kind of looking how far I've come,

how much I've changed, how much I've stayed the same.

And this space really allows me to do that.

Let's get started.

[upbeat music]

So we're gonna start out in the kitchen.

What I love is that the kitchen really is central

to the entire apartment.

This is my happy place and I panic bought these this morning

on my way back from the gym

because I realized I didn't have any fresh fruit

or anything fresh in general

because I haven't been here in a little bit.

So these are my bananas

and I'm glad they made it into the final shot.

The drawers still need a little bit of organizing,

but I'll just kind of walk you through it.

My flatware, I went hard

and I decided to opt for

the [indistinct] collection from [indistinct].

They're very decoy and they weigh about 50,000 pounds each,

so they feel very solid.

I have more kitchen knives than any human will ever need

and one day they will be organized

and put into their sleeve,

so any chef watching this would be cringing right now,

but they're easy access because I'm a lefty.

And then I'm a big beverage guy so I'm all about rituals

and at night when I finally stop drinking caffeine,

I really get into teas.

So I have a big tea collection here.

And then my spice drawer,

is very chaotic and not organized,

but this is very symbolic of my brain.

It makes sense to me, but not anyone else.

I'm obsessed with sumac.

It's kind of floral and citrusy and it's bright red

and it bleeds beautifully if you mix it

with a little bit of oil.

So I have that from Edie's Grocer

in Greenpoint, which is amazing.

And then Zatar, can never get enough.

I like to toast it on a pan with some olive oil,

bring up the heat really nice and high,

and then throw some eggs on there

and get those beautiful crispy edges.

So another really fun, very cool thing about me

is that I'm obsessed with Star Wars.

So my very favorite mug is this one right over here.

It's a storm trooper.

And you can actually fit a lot,

and actually we'll do bone broth in here sometimes too

because it's a perfect size.

Can I show you inside my fridge?

My father is alarmed every time he comes over

because he's like, you have more beverages

than anyone I've ever seen in my life.

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm obsessed with Nando's.

I think it's the best fast food ever in the world.

And I only enjoy Nando's with my face on it.

I also have Nutella as well.

And then my freezer is stocked with

the most shocking amount of frozen steaks,

chicken, chili, soups that I make

because I get lazy sometimes.

So I cook in large portions

and then I kind of freeze everything.

Neon is basically my shadow.

So she's typically right on the ground like a little sphinx

staring at me because she knows that

she tends to get a treat because I can't help myself.

This is her very sensible little Tom Brown piggy bag

that has her poop bag dispenser.

And then I have her little cookie jar.

She's a good girl.

She doesn't really do tricks.

She sits, she lies down and she's always pretty.

Good girl.

Gentle, gentle.

[upbeat music]

Other than the kitchen, the living room

is my number one favorite spot.

This is where I do all of my lounging and relaxing.

This was actually originally a three bedroom

and I had the wall blown out

because I really wanted to have,

my dream was always to have a sectional.

I know they're controversial to send people,

but comfort is number one for me.

My designer Andrew basically built it custom.

So it's modular, it's beautiful.

These are my pride and joy.

If this place was burning down,

I would grab one with each arm.

These are oxblood adine leather chairs

that have that beautiful contrast stitching.

They're insanely comfortable.

I think that they're so beautiful

and they're positioned here on purpose

so that they only get used

when there's more than four or five people here.

And then my second pride and joy

is that little Louise Nevelson piece over there.

I've been a big fan of her work forever

and I get to look at it every day.

So with Queer Eye, we tend to film

in all of these different cities.

So I am away from my home,

so when I come back here, I really wanted to be a place

that's, again, just filled with all of the things

that I love that make me comfortable

because often we stay in different rental homes

or like corporate apartments, which are just that,

they're very corporatey

and they don't have as much soul as I like to have.

And then in the center, this is one of my favorite pieces,

the Mangiarotti table.

I love that it's not perfectly shaped.

The top actually rests on the base

so there are no screws or anything.

It weighs about a million pounds.

And what I love is that it's so solid

you can put your feet up on it.

This is a great little ottoman

when I'm sitting here and I have guests

because I force them to sit in the corner

because that's the most comfy spot

and Neon loves it as well.

I can put my feet up on this.

This is Brett Robinson.

He does really cool contemporary stuff

and that's a Teddy Mohair.

I have this,

I believe it's the metronome lamp from apparatus

and it's wrapped in suede,

which made a lot of sense when I didn't have a dog,

but this piece is really beautiful

and it gives like a nice little soft light.

Behind me, I'm very excited about this.

This is my protective baseball bat,

if anyone ever breaks in.

It's actually by a Vancouver,

an Okanagan artist named Brian Jungen,

which is a Rawlings bat that he kind of carved

to sort of mimic a totem a little bit,

which I think is really cool.

This horse, this is one of artists I really love

named Miguel Ortiz Berrocal.

If you press on the eyeball

and on the balls of the penis, it actually comes apart.

So I saw it at the gallery,

I thought it was astronomically priced.

I'm not gonna say where.

So I went on eBay and I found it

for less than a 10th the price.

They sent it to me in an old briefcase

with newspapers from like the 50s and 60s

with a book on the instructions on how to make it

and a signed drawing of the original,

which I think is really cool.

[mellow music]

As I mentioned,

this was actually originally a third bedroom,

but I didn't need that

and I wanted to have a dining space that is basically books,

and so I have a bunch of Peter Beard books

because I adore him.

This is a really cool piece

by a Philly artist named Roberto Lugo,

and I just thought it was a unique piece.

I'm not too much into pottery, but it really spoke to me

and it reminds me of sort of like those Greco Roman urns

that you see at like fairs.

This is really exciting.

I just got it.

It's a Wolfgang Tillmans piece.

I love an old ripped t-shirt

and I love how carefully it's kind of hanging on the hanger.

It just looks like it's about to fall.

Kind of like my sanity most of the time.

But I'm calm today.

There's no overhead lighting in the apartment,

so I wanted something that kind of gave a nice soft glow

and I love a classic Noguchi pendant.

I love that it's nice soft light, it's not too aggressive.

I don't like things to be too bright.

This massive photograph, which I really adore

is by an artist named Erwin Olaf.

Yes, it's not not a little homoerotic

and a little Tom Ford's a single man,

but at the same time, apparently.

So that's the artist himself.

And apparently this was as his mother was passing away

and he was very aware of the finiteness of life

and he was kind of looking at his own youth.

Some people love this, some people don't love it,

but I think that's the fun thing about art.

Wait until you see the bedroom.

I got this old farm table on first dibs.

I probably paid more for shipping

than I did for the actual table.

But what I love about it is that

you don't have to be precious with it.

It's sort of like very roughly finished.

[upbeat music]

The bedroom is definitely on the tonal side.

I wanted this to be like my peaceful sanctuary.

I say this without irony as you look

and you probably see one of

the more aggressive pieces of art I've ever seen

by Simen Johan,

and it's two lines literally attacking each other,

but I think it's stunning and beautiful

and it makes me think of those awesome Nat Geo photos.

It took a while for my designer to convince me

that Loro Piana curtains were the way to go,

but they're so soft and every once in a while

I'll come in here and touch them.

So I'm a massive fan of George Nakashima.

I decided to have a custom [indistinct],

which I waited so long for,

but I kind of love, I think this is Walnut,

it just has like a beautiful natural handle

and everything is so nice and clean

and the way the wood perfectly fits into it.

And then my bed, I wanted

something that was low to the ground

because I'm always thinking about my dog

and when she gets old,

her hips are gonna give out eventually,

so I wanted to keep it nice and low so she can jump up,

because she's allowed 30 minutes in bed with me

when I'm watching TV,

and then she gets off and she sleeps in her own space

because she's an independent woman,

and then I get to enjoy the bed all by myself.

One of my favorite Canadian artists, Kent Monkman,

I have these awesome like little drawings

that he found in like hieroglyphs

of like different creatures

and kind of did this like evolution into what they became.

So those are really cool because it reminds me

that I'm Canadian because sometimes I forget

because I've been in the US for so long.

So I know this is all about furniture,

but I would just want to give a little shout out.

Not paid, I'm just a big fan.

This computer right here is called Eight Sleep.

It's actually hooked up to the bed,

TMI, my chest sweats at night,

especially when I get the meat sweats,

and so what I do, my room is freezing cold at night,

I keep the windows open in the dead of winter,

I want my nose to hurt,

like I want to worry about my health

when I wake up in the morning,

and the Eight Sleep actually is a mattress cooler.

So when I slip in, it's nice and toasty

and then I set it to cold

and it progressively gets colder, which Neon does not like

and that's typically when she jumps off.

[upbeat music]

Okay, primary bathroom.

This is where I get ready every day.

It's definitely very kind of clean, crisp, hotely vibes.

I didn't want too many things in here.

I didn't want any photography candles every single room.

Neon likes to protect me at all times,

and typically when I'm taking a shower,

she likes to sit down right on this little plush situation

and she curls up like a little pretzel.

She doesn't like to sprawl out.

I also do cold plunges.

I go to the pharmacy downstairs

and I get a whole bunch of bags of ice sometimes.

I'm up to six minutes, which is really impressive,

and apparently it's very good

for this autoimmune thing I have called Hashimoto's.

The only two pieces of art in here are, again,

a nod to one of my favorite things in the world, Star Wars.

So Darth Vader, I actually found in a dumpster

and little Chewy here, I have from season one of Queer Eye

when I went to Target, also known as Target,

and I stocked up on all kinds of like GI Joes

and things that make me really happy,

that make me nostalgic for my youth.

So I have that as a little memory

from when we first started filming.

They weren't friends in real life

but they're friends in my bathroom

and that's all that matters.

[upbeat music]

So the den is basically kind of a multipurpose room

that's used as my office.

It's where I take my therapy sessions.

I do all my Zooms and it's also

a guest room for when guests come.

The rest of the apartment is very light colored.

There's a lot of lime plaster.

I wanted this to just feel dark

and masculine and library-ish,

so it all started with the rug,

which is a really cool Tom Brown rug that I got.

And then I kind of wanted the Mad Men vibe

of a Herman Miller chair.

I love wood furniture and [indistinct] made this awesome.

I think it's like 40s or 50s, wooden desk that's L-shaped.

And what's nice is that it overlooks outside

so I get a lot of natural sunlight that comes in.

Kent Monkman did these handkerchiefs

and then a friend of mine actually pointed out,

I thought these were hands praying because I'm innocent,

but apparently these are butt plugs,

which is really nice when my dad

and his girlfriend come stay here

and they have questions that I don't really want to answer.

Oh, the light saber.

So, yes, I did buy a lightsaber.

It has all kinds of different voices and sounds on it.

I paid way too much for it.

It's not charged right now,

otherwise I would give you a demonstration.

Maybe next time when you come to the farmhouse

that I don't have yet.

So my designer, Andrew, designed this as well.

He knows that I love [indistinct].

And then I have this beautiful Burtynsky photo.

He's a Canadian photographer.

The OG fab five.

Kate McKinnon did it.

Kate McKinnon did it because we played sirens in her podcast

and she sent that to us

and I think Tan has it in his house as well.

Usually I have a blanket laid out here

because Neon knows she's not allowed on the couch.

She has like specific...

Actually, it's this blanket that's here

and she can sit on here and watch me as I do my Zooms

until she gets to Zoomies and then we go to the park.

You can get up today.

There you go.

Isn't she good?

She won't jump up until I give her permission.

She's a sweet girl.

[upbeat music]

Well, AD, thank you so much for coming,

but Neon and I got to go to the park,

so we're gonna ask you to leave.

Thanks so much.