It's an alarmingly warm day for December and I am heading to Matthew Marks gallery to catch up with Poonam while Brice Marden's paintings are still up. Poonam Khanna is a very talented architect and interior designer (her work has been featured in publications such as Vogue Living and Architectural Digest among others) and I'm so looking forward to hearing about what is currently in the works.

"I typically have around half a dozen projects that I'm working on at a time. Today, I'm sourcing some hardware for the new Loeffler Randall offices & showroom which will open early next year. This is my favorite part of the process- hunting around for things, discovering, being with other people who are makers and finders, and figuring out how we're going to solve how a detail works for instance- all the geeky nuts and bolts of design so to speak.

"Jessie Randall, the creative director of Loeffler Randall, has a very clear vision for what she wants. The brand is already so established that it made the design process almost effortless- they gave me a brand book describing who they are + their philosophy. After spending some time looking through that, I made a mood board- just one sheet of paper with images and ideas of what I thought they might like in terms of how their brand would translate spatially. Fortunately, it was in sync with Jessie's vision. So in this case, we had a general concept, materials palette and some very specific ideas about what we wanted to do in just a meeting or two- it didn't take very long."

We make our way down to Chinatown, the home of many specialized hardware shops and some of the most colorful vendors you'll meet in NYC.

"I don't like to source hardware online, I need to see things, hold them, understand finish & scale and how they might go together. Its much more fun to do this in person, I could spend hours playing with hardware but unfortunately, many of my go-to hardware stores have closed or left town, so finding the right pieces in person is becoming more and more difficult."

We spend a little time trying different stores, in search of the parts Poonam is looking for to solve a millwork detail. After a few trials and errors we arrive at a specialized plumbing supply on Centre St. It's busy but Poonam assembles a few parts she's interested in experimenting with and we head out and up the road to The Future Perfect.

"I enjoy working with fashion brands- the first showroom I designed, in 2012, was Findings here in NYC. The clients, Deirdre Roffoni & Tony Graham, were amazing to work with, so great that we are working together again on their residence in LA!"

Poonam lays out some of her materials palette for the Loeffler Randall showroom at TFP "You can see there's a mix of feminine and masculine elements with neutrals and blush tones combined with harder edged details."