Central Park just got a bit hipper thanks to Shanghai transplant, The Backroom.

Launched by the former fashion editor of Número China, Tang ‘TS’ Shuang (along with her husband), this concept shop is a showroom of enviable domestic goodies from near and far, all handpicked by the Shuangs. ‘Our Beijing customers in Shanghai told us there wasn’t anything like this here, so we decided to open a store in Beijing,’ Shuang says at the store, located beside multi-brand shop Dong Liang Studio.

‘For example, in Shanghai people are starting to light candles at home, no one did that before. When China opened up, people talked about the luxury market because the middle class was rising; but now, people are more focused on the home, on living versus the surface.’ Inside, shoppers will find beautiful brass lamps and dishes by British furniture designer, Tom Dixon.

A set of the wafer-thin dishes appear too delicate to eat on, but work beautifully as show pieces. Volcano-scented stones, enclosed in handmade iron jars by French perfumers Mad et Len, diffuse arresting aromas such as paper and earth.

The company’s name plays on Marcel Proust’s madeleine (the French cake invokes sensory memory in Remembrance of Things Past), a point of inspiration for husband-and-wife team Sandra Fuzier and Alexandre Piffaut. It’s a wonderful touch, typical of the quality curation at The Backroom.

Source: timeoutbeijing.com