Does Your Apartment Have “Blank Slate” Problems?
Never underestimate the power of a niche. This is one lesson you learn upon exploring this coolly elegant Upper East Side residence with interior design and architecture by the firm of Nannette Brown. Take the vestibule, where a semicircular recessed seating area sheathed floor to ceiling in zellige tile offers a striking perch for changing shoes. Or the primary bedroom, where a cashmere-upholstered daybed built into an alcove serves as an inviting spot for lounging. And don’t forget the wood-paneled library, where a snug little wall niche makes the perfect display shelf for a piece of sculpture. Everywhere you look, functional nooks and recesses abound.
“All space is valuable—especially so in New York City, where one never wants to waste an inch,” says Brown. But it wasn’t simply the economics of scarcity that inspired her unique approach to the apartment’s plethora of recessed areas. Located just off Park Avenue, the 4,000-square-foot apartment was “a blank slate,” as she puts it, when she was brought on by the clients. Too blank, in her opinion. “As many of these new luxury buildings tend to be, the apartment was bereft of interior architecture,” she says. “My goal was to un-white-box the apartment.”
The homeowners are a creatively minded couple (he works in fashion; she’s a former DJ) who had moved out of the townhouse where they raised their children, now grown. Ready for the next phase of their lives, they were keen on starting fresh and decided not to bring a speck of their old furniture with them.
As they told Brown, known for her clean, edited, monochromatic interiors, they wanted their new home to feel “light,” “serene,” and “modern.” Their proclivity toward modernity, especially, piqued the designer’s creative instincts. “The apartments in this neighborhood tend to be very traditional, as the architecture is mostly prewar,” Brown says. “I loved that this couple wanted to go a different way.” And so the clients agreed to rip out the pristine walls and fancy developer finishes in order to realize Brown’s vision.
Living Room
In a Manhattan residence designed by Nannette Brown, the living room was divided into multiple distinct gathering areas. The loveseat and chair are part of a set in cerused oak that Brown had reupholstered. The fireplace pavers are by Clé Tile, and the pendant lamp is by In Common With.
Entryway
The landing features a column and door casing of a silver travertine marble, and the plaster wall finish is by Geri Menaged. The tile in the recessed seating nook is by Clé Tile.
Living Room
The walls in the living room, and throughout the home, are finished in plaster by Geri Menaged of Couture Faux Arts. The sofa is custom, the iron table bases have a custom glass top by Lucid Glass Studio, the curtains are of a fabric by Brentano, and the rug is by Patterson Flynn.
Living Room
The 1940s Danish Art Deco wing chair is from JenMod, and the midcentury walnut lamp is by Pascal Boyer with a custom shade by Illumé.
Dining Room
The dining area features a vintage table attributed to Melchiorre Bega and custom-designed chairs. The vintage English floor lamp dates back to the 1930s and was purchased at Illumé.
Kitchen
The walls are covered in ceramic mosaic tiles by Appiani. The roman shades are of a Pindler fabric, and the vintage Swedish sconces are by Aneta.
Study
A guest room was converted into a study for the wife, with a custom sofa in a Castel fabric. The shutter panel insets are in a Dedar fabric.
Library
The custom sofa is in a Pindler fabric, the cocktail table is from Modern Drama, the Swedish wing chair is from PRB Collection, and the rug is by Patterson Flynn. The artwork is by Melvin Edward Nelson.
Primary Bedroom
The oak cabinet is by Guillerme et Chambron. The bed is dressed in Peacock Alley linens and the bedspread is by Cultiver. The oak bedside cabinets are by Henning Kjaernulf from London’s Joseph Berry.
Primary Bedroom
A recessed seating area features cushions in a Donghia fabric. The wallcovering is by Aux Abris, the curtains are of an Osborne & Little fabric and the sheers of a Chivasso fabric.
Guest Room
The wallcovering is by Rose Tarlow, the bed and linens fabric is by Brentano, the curtains are of a Claremont fabric with trim by Pindler, and the rug is by Nordic Knots.
One of the first major elements to go was a vaguely Art Deco metal railing that divided the dining area from the sunken living room. In its place, Brown added an understated wall of brushed white oak, which provides an earthy materiality as well as a more defined separation of the two spaces. The living room needed a focal point, so Brown installed a stone fireplace (electric) with an overmantel of the same knotty white oak on the living room’s formerly blank wall. A pair of floor-to-ceiling plaster doors, lying flush against the fireplace, unfold to reveal a bar and buffet.
In the entry hall, where there had been plain drywall between the dining area and sunken living room, Brown placed a monumental vertical column of honed silver travertine. “I wanted it to look like this stone had been emerging from the ground below,” she says. Its somber shade of gray is echoed by the silvery gray tile lining the vestibule’s seating nook, which Brown created by stealing space from a deep closet in the adjacent powder room.
The designer’s most dramatic transformation involved the north wing of the apartment, which originally housed four bedrooms, including the primary suite. The couple really needed only two—their own and one guest room—so Brown duly removed the two spares as well as a bathroom and, with some sneaky reconfiguring, created a large oak-paneled library and TV room that flows into their bedroom. The entire wing is set off by graceful doors of blackened steel and ribbed glass that Brown says she designed “to look like they had been there forever.”
In all, it took almost nine months of heavy lifting before the apartment was truly ready for the owners to move in. But the couple, who took residence last spring, say it was more than worth the wait. “Everything came together seamlessly,” says the wife. “And we continue to have the pleasure of discovery.”
This story originally appeared in the November 2024 issue of ELLE DECOR. SUBSCRIBE
You Might Also Like
