Scott Schuman and Jenny Walton approached the interior design of their downtown New York apartment much in the same way they approach fashion: a tightly edited mix of vintage and new, sourced from world capitals on nearly every continent. Of course, fashion is a field with which both are intimately familiar. Schuman, the man behind the famed lens of The Sartorialist blog and Instagram account, and Walton, an in-demand fashion illustrator and creative director for The Sartorialist, are both experts in style curation, whether that’s on their social media feeds or their bookshelves.

In fact, it was the latter that actually drew them to their two-bedroom, two-bath apartment located inside the Police Building (so named as it was originally the headquarters for the New York City Police Department until the 1970s). “All I really want to live with, besides Jenny, my kids, and my dog, are books and photographs,” Schuman says. He was sold as soon as he saw the nearly floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that line the living room. Aside from the couple’s massive collection of photography tomes—“We had hundreds of boxes of books when we moved,” Walton says—the shelves are filled with mementos from the duo’s travels to everywhere from Milan to Copenhagen. “I like when we sit and watch TV, and she's watching some reality show and I'm a little bit bored and I look around and think, Oh, yeah, I remember buying that hat in Peru,” Schuman says.

But while their home is filled with artifacts from their peripatetic lifestyle, both prefer a relatively clean aesthetic when it comes to design. The couple opted to forgo window treatments and leave the walls white throughout the apartment, which serves to highlight not only the enviably high ceilings but also their equally enviable art collection. Schuman’s own photographs are featured alongside pieces from Bruce Weber and several Warhol Polaroids, among others. “They’re perfect for inspiration,” Schuman notes. Two gallery walls, in the dining room and master bedroom, feature some of the couple’s favorite works.

The couple, pictured in their living room with their dog, Charlie.

Since Schuman and Walton spend the majority of their time on the road, creating a space that was comforting and familiar was of utmost importance. “When you travel, you learn you can't be too picky; nothing's ever perfect. But this one was pretty close,” Schuman says of their apartment. The couple, who moved in a year ago, did nearly no renovation work beforehand; everything from the flooring to the moldings was in turnkey condition. The airy living room, complete with a skylight, is where the couple opts to spend most of their time, especially since the apartment serves not only as their home but also their office. There is also one particularly retro element in this room they opted to keep: “In the cabinets below the TV, there are all these custom drawers for VHS tapes,” Walton says, laughing. “[I like to imagine] Ghostbusters would be displayed when a lady would come up [to visit a date].”

With such a busy traveling schedule, it’s little wonder that Walton found many of their furniture pieces online (and without the help of a decorator). “I'm part of the generation that thinks that they can find anything on the internet, if they look hard enough,” she says. Walton is especially fond of furniture site 1stdibs—“I will constantly show all of my friends how they have the view-in-room feature”—and found the living room’s Paul László–inspired chair there, as well as the vintage bedside table lamps for the master bedroom. Walton also flexed her creative muscle—she studied fashion design at Parsons—and made the dining room chair cushions herself, out of fabric Schuman brought back from a work trip to India (his upcoming book, out next year, will be a photographic tour of the country).

While their new place is a downgrade in size from their old loft space in Greenwich Village, both are quite content to have a cozier abode. “I mean, I like furniture, but I'd rather buy a suit,” Schuman says with a shrug. “I didn't really like trying to fill that space up. For the first time, I've gotten an apartment that I actually like to stay in. It's really comfortable that way.”