New York-based architecture and design firm Keffer Studio has completed Little Luxuries, BEAUTYSPACE’s inaugural brick-and-mortar store. Located one block north of Manhattan’s Union Square, the shop introduces a first-of-its-kind U.S. retail concept dedicated to premium miniature beauty products.
Led by founder Greg Keffer, the design of the 765-square-foot flagship reimagines beauty retail at the scale of the products it sells, treating each miniature item with the same architectural attention typically reserved for its full-size counterparts.
To accommodate a large volume of small-scale packaging without creating sensory overload, the studio favored restraint over density, organizing the single open room into zones for fragrance, skin, and hair. Each is marked by dimensional lettering set directly into the millwork.
The palette for BEAUTYSPACE’s Little Luxuries
A Neapolitan-inspired palette of soft pinks, creams, and warm browns zones the space. A floor-to-ceiling pink velvet curtain softens the room, while original hex tile floor punctuated with a camel area rug grounds it.
At the center of the store, mirrored chrome islands reflect and multiply light, letting individual products stand out rather than disappear into a wall of packaging. Overhead, glass pendants, developed in collaboration with HB Lighting and created in its Brooklyn glassblowing shop, add a handmade touch.
Outside, oversized custom magnifying glasses set into the storefront’s windows enlarge the small-format products for passersby, turning a glance from the sidewalk into an introduction to the Little Luxuries concept.
Leaving a mark on Union Square
The location carries particular resonance for Keffer. His practice draws on more than three decades of hospitality design leadership—including his role in shaping the global repositioning of the W Hotels brand during his time at Rockwell Group—as well as his designs of Union Square Café and Daily Provisions, three projects that have helped define the neighborhood’s identity.
“I started my career designing retail, and returning to it now, after so many years in hospitality, felt like a chance to bring a different lens to it,” says Keffer. “Every choice in the space was in service of one idea: make people want to step inside and start exploring.”
