British designer Tom Dixon has opened a new store in the SoHo neighbourhood of Manhattan, which features a room with faux-fur walls and a space that resembles a "torture chamber" (+ slideshow).

The store is split over three floors of a former boot-making factory on Howard Street, close to where Dixon's first temporary New York retail space was located last year.

It forms part of a wider expansion into the US market, coinciding with the launch of another shop in Los Angeles last week.

"It's a place that aims to bridge the gap between the professional market and the consumer market," Dixon told journalists during a tour of the building. "It's really important for us to finally have a direct relationship to American customers."

A wide variety of the brand's furniture, homeware and lighting is displayed over the three levels, which each have a different function or theme.

The dark basement, which Dixon joked resembles a torture chamber, is used to show what the lights look like at night.

It also provides a quiet area for interior designers to play with material samples and work on their projects.

The ground floor is predominantly decorated with copper-coloured products, like a set for brewing and serving coffee, and a collection of desk accessories.

"It's a bit of an Aladdin's cave in here," said Dixon. "You can see my obsession with metallics"

At the back, a smaller room has walls lined with black faux fur.

"The furry walls are really an exercise in what could happen if we had more interesting acoustic materials," said Dixon, whose interest in sound follows an exploration into smell that recently spawned a range of home fragrances.

Upstairs, gold becomes the prevalent colour for the products on show. Larger pieces like shelving and tables are dotted across the white space, while a small area with a marble counter also acts as a cafe.

Dixon has the space on lease for a year, after which the building is likely to be torn down.

His other recent interior projects include an explorer-themed restaurant in a London Regency building and a series of co-working spaces in the city.

Photography is by Emily Andrews.