The Pair Behind OFFHOURS & Soft Services Bring City Sensibilities to Their Rural, Upstate Home

David McGillivray and Rebecca Zhou share what’s inside their midcentury modern farmhouse—and store.

Mar 4, 2024 - 17:34

The Pair Behind OFFHOURS & Soft Services Bring City Sensibilities to Their Rural, Upstate Home

David McGillivray and Rebecca Zhou share what’s inside their midcentury modern farmhouse—and store.

When creative director David McGillivray launched the loungewear brand OFFHOURS in 2018 with his wife Rebecca Zhou (who is also co-founder of the skincare brand Soft Services), the couple had already been making personal moves. Just a year prior, they had bought a "very modest mid-century modern house built in 1961" in Livingston Manor, NY, intending to split their time between Brooklyn and the Catskills. "We are on a corner plot that backs up to the woods, so we get the best of both worlds. We get nature, but we also have the community and neighbors as well," says McGillivray. Seven years later, after seeing the area change and wanting to spend more time upstate, they decided to make the move permanent.

Courtesy of David McGillivray and Rebecca Zhou

Besides sanding and refinishing the oak flooring, and updating the kitchen and the bathrooms, not much else of the house was renovated. McGillivray says that the original builders had owned a tile company so there’s lots of unique tiling "scattered throughout the house" and they had wanted to preserve as much of the original tile as possible. In contrast to all the tiling is "a lot of wood tones that wouldn’t naturally be my style, but it just feels calming in the house," McGillivray says of the interior. When it came to decorating and furnishing, the couple wanted to select items that were "very understated, clean, minimal, and satisfying that we can appreciate," he says. "The holy grail in my eyes is objects that you can enjoy, not something necessarily ornamental you put on the shelf." Some of the couple’s favorite home items include kitchen staples like artisanal vinegar and mismatched drinking glasses, a plywood wall clock, and a set of the Offhours robe-comforter hybrids called the Homecoats.

In a full circle moment, McGillivray went through a similar decor (and merchandising) journey with his latest venture: an art and design concept store called Corners. Located on the downtown strip of Livingston Manor, Corners sells ready-to-hang framed artwork, art and coffee table books, stationery, and select sculptural objects. Even though McGillivray already runs Offhours and is a freelance creative director, he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to open a brick-and-mortar, especially because he had always been so enamored with the building itself, which happens to be a mid-century modern-era structure, just like his house.

"I had my eye on this space for years because nothing else on Main Street looks anything like it," he says of the aluminum-framed facade. Plus, he liked the idea of having a low-key store upstate where he’d have more "flexibility in terms of when I open and it’s not as intense as running a shop in the city." With the space eventually secured after presenting his case to the landlord, he then brainstormed, "What store would I walk into and want to buy everything?" He boiled it down to beautifully designed paper goods because "there’s still a romance to printed matter and a sense of charm and longevity."

Below, some of the couple’s unique picks for home.

Tart Vinegar

Mostly ginger vinegar with some citrus vinegar and wild foraged nettle vinegar to create a complex flavor profile with notes of spicy, warm, bitter, and pungent citrus. Fermented for over a year. Refrigerate after opening .

"These are the only vinegars I use now—I’m addicted to them. I throw a splash into almost everything: dressings, soups, sauces, cocktails... even a splash into my can of sparkling water. Chris Crawford, the founder, makes them in small batches at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The Celery is the original (and currently sold out), but I love all the versions Chris experiments with—ginger, mulberry, sour cherry, kelp, just to name a few." —Rebecca

Soft Services Buffing Bar Starter Set

The new essentials for every bathroom: our cult-favorite Buffing Bar microcrystal body exfoliant and custom Soap Home for safekeeping. The drying dish and splash cover set was engineered to allow for maximum air flow, minimal water contact, and a more plastic-free routine.

"The Buffing Bar is one of our bestsellers at Soft Services—one customer perfectly described it as ‘a magic eraser for your body.’ We designed the Soap Home, a ceramic tray and aluminum splash cover set, to extend the life of Buffing Bars and other solid soaps from the eroding elements in a shower." —Rebecca

Offhours Homecoat

A soft and subtle sage, with a light beige trim, and a faded orange pop at the belt. The Homecoat in Michelangelo is a combination of premium cottons – classic super soft French Terry forms the outside, and 'sanded' cotton jersey lines the inside (specially fabricated to give it a velvety soft finish). It’s filled with recycled polyester quilting (a combination of post industrial and post consumer waste, equivalent to 38 recycled plastic bottles). Plus it's machine washable.

"Our Homecoats are unlike anything else; made from five pounds of quilted French terry and sanded cotton jersey. We like to say it’s the closest you can get to wearing your comforter. Honestly, it feels like you never left your bed." —David & Rebecca