A Receiving Warehouse for Interior Designers in New York: Art and Antiques Bought for a Client

For interior designers in New York, Elite Anywhere runs a receiving warehouse in Long Island City, Queens, minutes from Midtown across the Queensboro Bridge and the Queens-Midtown Tunnel — receiving Monday to Friday, 9am to 3pm, by appointment — then delivers, hangs and installs. Art and antiques bought for a client are among the things it handles most carefully: works of art get a condition report and photographs, crates are built in-house when a piece needs one, and on install day the crew hangs the art where the designer wants it.

A good deal of what a New York designer buys for a client is not new furniture from a vendor with a loading dock. It is a painting from a gallery, a pair of antique chairs from a dealer, a mirror from an estate, a clock that has been in someone's family for a century. Those pieces do not come with a carrier, a carton and a tracking number. They come with a history, a price that is hard to replace and, often, no packaging at all. This article is about how a receiving warehouse handles them, from the moment the designer buys to the moment the piece is on the client's wall or in the client's room.

Why art and antiques need their own routine

New furniture is replaceable, at a cost and with a delay. A work of art or an antique usually is not. That changes the whole job. The question is no longer only whether a piece arrived, but whether it arrived in exactly the condition it was bought in, whether anyone can prove that, and whether it is being kept in conditions that will not change it.

It also changes how pieces travel. A gallery may hand over a painting wrapped in a blanket. A dealer may expect the buyer to collect. An auction purchase may need to be picked up within days of the sale. A designer who has bought well can find that the hardest part of the purchase is the forty-eight hours after it.

Collecting the piece

Elite Anywhere can collect art and antiques from a gallery, a dealer, a workroom or a client's other property, rather than waiting for them to be shipped. On every pickup, the crew documents the piece's condition before it travels. That record is the starting point for everything that follows: if a question ever comes up about a mark on a frame or a loose veneer, there is a record of what the piece looked like when it left the seller.

Art is handled by trained art handlers, and pieces travel in climate-controlled vehicles. A canvas is not leaned against a sofa in the back of a box truck. Opening and close inspection at pickup work the same way as at the warehouse: on request, and free.

Crates built in-house

Some pieces need a crate, for the journey to the warehouse, for storage, or for the trip to the client's home. A large canvas, a sculpture, a mirror in an old gilded frame, a fragile piece of furniture with turned legs. Elite Anywhere builds crates in-house, sized to the piece, so the crate is made for what is inside it rather than the piece being made to fit a stock box.

For a designer, that means a piece bought without packaging, or with packaging that is not fit for the next leg, can still be moved and stored properly. It also means the crate can be made with storage in mind when a piece will wait for months while the client's apartment is finished.

When a piece is shipped instead

Not everything is collected. Art and antiques bought from out of town are often shipped to Long Island City by the seller. Those arrivals are handled like any other delivery, with a few additions.

The shipment is checked against the list you sent us, which for this kind of purchase should describe each piece clearly: the artist or maker, the title or a short description, the dimensions, the seller, and the room and wall it is meant for. We ask for the bill of lading, so the record shows what was sent. The outer packaging is photographed and condition-checked as it arrives. Damage to a crate or its wrapping is reported to the studio before anything goes into storage, and the studio makes the call.

About two deliveries in ten arrive unannounced, across all kinds of shipment. An unexpected crate is not turned away; the team calls the carrier and the sender until it knows which client it belongs to. For a work of art, it is worth insisting that the seller puts the client or project name on the label.

The condition report and photographs

For art, Elite Anywhere provides a condition report and photographs. Together they give the designer, the client and, if needed, the seller a shared description of the piece as it was received: the surface, the frame, any existing wear, anything that has changed since it was bought.

That record has several uses. It reassures a client who has paid a great deal for something they have not yet seen in their home. It gives the designer evidence if a piece arrives with damage the seller did not disclose. And it creates a baseline: when the piece is delivered and hung, its condition can be compared with how it arrived.

For antiques that are not art, the default is the same as for any delivery: the packaging is photographed on arrival, and any crate or carton is opened and inspected on request, free of charge. For an antique, asking is almost always worth it. Old pieces arrive with existing wear, and the time to record which scratches were already there is before the piece goes into storage, not after it reaches the client's living room.

Damage, and what happens next

If damage is found, on art or antiques, it is documented, and the claim is filed with the seller or vendor the designer bought from. The designer decides how to proceed with the client: whether to send the piece back, have it restored by a specialist of the designer's choosing, or keep it as it is. Whichever it is, the condition record is what makes the conversation with the seller straightforward.

Storage that does not change the piece

Art and antiques often wait longer than furniture, because they are bought early, sometimes before the room they are meant for exists. At Long Island City they are held in secured, climate-controlled storage, with humidity control and pest control, and with no minimum period. Wood, paint, paper, leather and gilding all respond to swings in temperature and moisture; a steady environment is what keeps a piece the way it was bought. Cover applies to goods while they are in storage.

A designer or client can visit a stored piece, which matters when a work needs to be seen again to settle a frame or a wall color. When nobody can get there, fresh photos of a stored piece are available on request. Every piece is barcoded, and each one's status is visible in the studio's login to Elite Anywhere's warehouse system, where the designer can also follow deliveries still on their way and message the warehousing team. Clients can follow pieces with photo check-ins and live tracking.

Getting it into the building

Art and antiques go into the same co-ops, condominiums and townhouses as everything else, and the building's rules apply. Most managed buildings want a certificate of insurance before a crew can enter, and a freight elevator and loading window reserved. The certificate goes to the building whenever it is requested, and if the client has not already made the freight elevator and loading reservations, Elite Anywhere makes them. A crated piece that will not fit the elevator or the stairs may need hoisting, which is offered; raise it early, because it changes the plan for the day.

A hanging plan for the day

The crew can hang art well only if it knows where each piece goes, and on a New York install the designer is often juggling the client, the building and the other trades at the same time. A short hanging plan, sent ahead, keeps the walls from becoming the bottleneck.

• Which piece, which wall. A marked-up floor plan or elevation, with each work identified the same way it is described on the list.
• Height and grouping. Whether a piece is hung to a center line, aligned with furniture, or part of a group whose spacing matters.
• The wall itself. Plaster, brick, paneling or new drywall, and anything known to be behind it, so the crew comes prepared.
• Lighting. Which chandeliers and sconces are to be hung, and when the electrician will be there to wire them.
• Who decides on the day. If the designer will not be present for every piece, who has the final word on a placement.

With that in hand, the crew can hang the whole room in order, and the designer's time on site goes on judgment rather than measuring.

Install day: hung, placed, and checked again

Art and antiques usually go in on the same day as the rest of the room, so that the designer can place them in relation to everything else. Orders from several sources can travel together on one delivery. The client gets a text about half an hour before the crew arrives.

The route is protected first: blankets and coverings on railings, door frames and the whole path from the elevator to the room. Heavy pieces, a large cabinet, a marble-topped table, a crated sculpture, move on professional equipment. Crates and wrapping come off in the room the piece is going to, not in the corridor.

Then the crew hangs the art. The designer says where; the crew hangs it, levels it and adjusts it until it is right. Mirrors are hung and wall pieces mounted. Antique chandeliers are hung for an electrician to wire. Antique furniture is placed and, where needed, leveled on an old floor. A grandfather clock can be moved as well, and set in its place. The packaging, including the crates, leaves with the crew.

Before the crew goes, the client is asked whether anything has been damaged and how the delivery went. Condition is photographed at delivery, so the record now runs from the seller's door to the client's wall, and the client's sign-off is documented and retained. Everything handled with care.

On a large project with many works to hang, the install can run over more than one day, planned with the designer ahead of time.

The same building serves galleries and collectors

Interior designers buying for clients are one group among several who send art and antiques through Long Island City. Art galleries use it to hold and deliver work for their buyers. Private collectors use it for pieces between homes. Museums, showrooms, furniture manufacturers, procurement offices and hospitality projects use it too, and Elite Anywhere installs for all of them. For a designer, that is a useful signal: the crew hanging a client's painting is the same kind of crew galleries trust with theirs.

Beyond New York

Elite Anywhere staffs ten warehouses of its own, the Queens building among them, and its network counts 34 warehouse locations in total. The company has been operating since 1987, delivers nationwide and completes more than 50,000 deliveries every year. If a client's collection is going to a house in another state, Elite Anywhere handles that move end to end, and the condition record goes along with it.

What to ask before handing over a work of art

Can you collect it, and will you document its condition before it travels? Who will handle it, and in what kind of vehicle? Can you build a crate for it if it needs one? What record do I get when it arrives: photographs of the packaging, a condition report for art? Will you open and inspect an antique when I ask, and is that free? How is it stored, and can my client come and see it? Will the people who received it be the ones who hang it?

A warehouse that answers each of those plainly is one a designer can trust with the pieces that cannot be replaced.

Robert Sabo is Director of Operations at Elite Anywhere, which provides white glove delivery, receiving and installation from ten staffed warehouses, delivering nationwide.