Coming Soon

In an area of downtown NYC where the Lower East Side meets Chinatown, exists a candy-colored diamond in the rough of restaurant supply retailers and otherwise industrial storefronts; furniture/home goods/gift shop, Coming Soon, offers an assortment of high-concept design and whimsical wares that are sure to put a smile on your face (and perhaps a very worthwhile dent in your wallet). 

Coming Soon’s mix of merch is one part MoMa, one part Willy Wonka. From novelty knickknacks to exquisitely designed furniture (a Mies van der Rohe chair begged us to take it home), there are covetable items here for every budget.

         

While a friendly employee informed us that their bathing lady dishes ($40) are among the store’s bestsellers, the even more exposed Group Partner ceramic body pots ($65) play on the same cheeky concept (pun intended). Looking for something just as naughty, but less naked? Get in line (ahem) for Nir Hod’s The Night You Left coasters (4/$100) – but maybe hide them if grandma comes to visit...

Our favorite display at Coming Soon featured sculptural Gaetano Pesce vases, and a sign coaxing customers to - curiously - reach out and touch these seemingly delicate works of art; as it turns out, the witty vases are handmade of flexible resin, while giving the illusion of Murano glass. Exuberant items like these can be found in every corner of Coming Soon - browsing the shelves is an amusing treasure hunt.

While fun totem candles ($18 - 22) and playful oversized matches ($40) will brighten a small corner of your abode for a low price point, funky Entler Studio ceramic table lamps ($975 - $1,375) look as if they might actually come to life with the flip of a switch, and would light up an entire room - literally and figuratively.

After making your selections from the lovingly curated, chic wares at Coming Soon, be sure to make a stop at the nearby Tenement Museum (just a few blocks north on Orchard Street) for a lesson in the historically shabbier side of NYC interiors.