When one of designer Darren Henault’s twin daughters first saw his new store, TENT, she told her dad, “Looks like our house, only everything’s for sale.”

Lucky girls. If TENT’s interior looks like their home in Millbrook, New York, I’d like to live there, too. Instead, best to spend some time in the shop that, like any home, is a “collection of experiences,” according to Henault  Every piece — from the Japanese handcrafted ladles and the Mexican gourd-shaped pottery to the furniture clad in luxury fabrics you won’t find in any other retail store — reflects Henault’s aesthetic. It’s all about texture, comfort, shapes and layers. Above all, he says, it’s the feel of an object. Everything in TENT has that Henault touch — literally.

“My dad was in the textile industry, and he always touched new stuff,” Henault says, as he moves from one item to the next, pointing out the luxe, sensuous qualities of the fabric swatches, rugs, pottery, the fused glass drinkware and the concave teak serving hands. 

What does it feel like? is the determining factor in Henault’s store as well as his design practice. His sensibility is one that’s kept him among the top echelon of New York interior designers for 30 years. When New York shut down a year ago, he and his husband and their teenage twins settled into their Millbrook home, and never really left. In June, he learned of a space — a former auto repair shop — for sale on Amenia’s Main Street and envisioned a place of his own. Why not, he thought, take his design knowledge and love of acquiring objets and put them in a store?

He hired a merchandising director who’d been at J.Crew and Draper James (Reese Witherspoons’s store) and told her he wanted to open by Christmas. It seemed like an impossible feat — it’s normally, at minimum, a year-long process — but they got it done: the store opened Dec. 18.  Henault worked with vendors he knows from all over the world, and sought out others whose work he admired. Some are local artisans, but Henault is adamant that it’s more about the talent and beauty of a piece, not where it’s from. Every item has a story, and he’s happy to tell you about its provenance. 

All of the furniture is his own design  The sofas are down filled and upholstered in fabrics from iconic European mills. He is the exclusive dealer for Holland & Sherry, Rogers & Goffigon,and Bennison Fabrics, all high-end textile makers. 

Kudos must be extended to anybody with the fortitude (and optimism) to open a business in 2020, but TENT is a right place/right time enterprise. Hudson Valley real estate is hot, and the store is benefiting from that heat in traffic and sales.

“People are moving up here in droves, and they’re interested in having a real home,” Henault says. “They’re excited there’s more up here, and that they don’t have to get everything in the city and drag it up.”

He estimates that about a third of the people are coming from Brooklyn. Homeowners in the uber-luxury community of Silo Ridge are customers, and Troutbeck is sending people to the store. Litchfield celebrities like Carolyne Roehm and Bunny Williams have also visited TENT. 

Rugs, pillows and tabletop items are selling particularly well. Henault has been collecting rugs for 30 years and has a warehouse full of them. (“You need a rug, I’ll get you a rug,” he promises.) It seems that the design approach — not his — of the last 10 years, where homes resembled sleek hotel rooms, is turning towards his style, where every glance elicits an encounter with light, texture, quality, form and mood. 

Henault would be content to continue living in the area permanently, and has plans to do that when his daughters are finished with school in the city. They, like him, love living in Millbrook. The family rides and goes on foxhunts and they’ve recently joined the local tennis club. 

Why the name TENT? “For centuries, humans have built mobile structures — teepees, yurts, tents — in order to turn any place, any location into a home,” he says. TENT celebrates more than house as sanctuary, but as confirmation of who the resident is.

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Written by
Lisa Green