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Houzz Tour: Family Friendliness for a Manhattan Apartment
A designer creates multifunctional, bright and playful spaces for a couple and their two toddlers
Parents of two toddlers purchased this apartment in Manhattan knowing they would complete a big renovation. This included a full redo of the kitchen and bathrooms and adding new wood flooring throughout the home. They enlisted the help of interior designer Julia Mack, who helped them with the finishes, the layout, the lighting scheme and with buying new furnishings that would work well with some of their existing pieces. The result is a bright, family-friendly home with hardworking, multifunctional spaces.
After: The living room, dining area and kitchen are all in one open space. One of the first things Mack addressed was the lighting. “It’s important to combine different layers of light, including uplights and downlights,” she says. “Recessed lights will turn up the wattage when you’re cleaning or looking for a lost earring. But day to day, you want to keep that light tamed and create a mood with different layers of light.” In the living area, she added various lamps and took out some of the existing overhead recessed lights. The windows have white blackout shades, plus sheers that allow for privacy while letting filtered light into the space.
Storage for books, games and toys was also important. Mack added shelving between the kitchen peninsula and the sofa and a custom bookshelf under the windows. The sofa faces a TV wall that wasn’t photographed, and there’s additional storage beneath the TV.
The new flooring throughout the apartment is clear oak.
Browse sectional sofas in the Houzz Shop
Storage for books, games and toys was also important. Mack added shelving between the kitchen peninsula and the sofa and a custom bookshelf under the windows. The sofa faces a TV wall that wasn’t photographed, and there’s additional storage beneath the TV.
The new flooring throughout the apartment is clear oak.
Browse sectional sofas in the Houzz Shop
Knowing their two toddlers would be hard on furniture, the homeowners wanted to keep their hardworking and durable gray sectional sofa and their Perigold rug. The rug provided a jumping-off point for the color scheme.
Before: The area next to the kitchen was designated for dining.
After: Mack added pendant lights over the peninsula and a flush-mount globe light in the dining area for layers of light. She put all the lighting on dimmers to create different moods. “These light fixtures can add a nice ambient glow to the space,” she says.
Mack designed a custom banquette for the dining area with an eye-catching pattern. “A challenge for urban apartments is to make the spaces multifunctional,” she says. “The living room also serves as a playroom. And this banquette can be used for doing puzzles, playing games or doing homework.”
Browse lighting in the Houzz Shop
Mack designed a custom banquette for the dining area with an eye-catching pattern. “A challenge for urban apartments is to make the spaces multifunctional,” she says. “The living room also serves as a playroom. And this banquette can be used for doing puzzles, playing games or doing homework.”
Browse lighting in the Houzz Shop
The colors of the banquette complement those found in the living room rug. “This Knoll fabric is super industrial and will stand up to kids who may jump all over it,” Mack says. She finished off the space with iconic midcentury modern pieces: a Saarinen Tulip table and Eames Shell chairs. “We wanted this to be an eye-catching, inviting space that would make them feel joyful. At the same time, we didn’t want anything to feel too precious,” she says.
Mack also wanted to create inviting eating spaces to avoid “traveling food.” “Traveling food is a problem. I anchored the areas where food would be served with two spaces — the dining table and the peninsula,” she says. “I talk to clients about keeping meals organized in these spaces and establishing good food habits so that it doesn’t travel over to the sofa.”
Mack also wanted to create inviting eating spaces to avoid “traveling food.” “Traveling food is a problem. I anchored the areas where food would be served with two spaces — the dining table and the peninsula,” she says. “I talk to clients about keeping meals organized in these spaces and establishing good food habits so that it doesn’t travel over to the sofa.”
There’s a designer trick to notice in this photo. Mack deliberately kept key pieces at approximately the same height to unify the space. This helps take attention off the low ceilings by drawing the eye to a low line.
“There is an intentional datum line that runs around the living-dining space at approximately 36 inches high,” Mack says. “If you turn 360 degrees, it begins with the blue lower kitchen counter, then continues on the patterned banquette. It appears on some low storage on the TV wall [not seen in this photo], then it continues to the bookcases at the window wall, the sectional sofa and finally to a low steel open shelving unit that can also double as a buffet. This creates a grounded sense, keeping the focus low and unified.”
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“There is an intentional datum line that runs around the living-dining space at approximately 36 inches high,” Mack says. “If you turn 360 degrees, it begins with the blue lower kitchen counter, then continues on the patterned banquette. It appears on some low storage on the TV wall [not seen in this photo], then it continues to the bookcases at the window wall, the sectional sofa and finally to a low steel open shelving unit that can also double as a buffet. This creates a grounded sense, keeping the focus low and unified.”
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Clear Philippe Starck stools keep the space feeling open and the view of the datum line clear. A panel-front fridge and the oven’s placement on the left side of the space help the kitchen disappear into the background when viewed from the living room.
Find the right counter stools for your home
Find the right counter stools for your home
“I wanted to keep the permanent pieces architecturally simple and not overdecorate in here,” Mack says. This included using slimline Shaker-style cabinet profiles and backsplash tiles composed in a modern grid.
The designer used a two-tone cabinet scheme in the compact kitchen. The blue lower cabinets anchor the space and emphasize the datum line, while the white upper cabinets lighten things up and make the ceiling seem higher. “The upper cabinets appear to recede into the space,” Mack says.
The designer used a two-tone cabinet scheme in the compact kitchen. The blue lower cabinets anchor the space and emphasize the datum line, while the white upper cabinets lighten things up and make the ceiling seem higher. “The upper cabinets appear to recede into the space,” Mack says.
While Mack made the rest of the apartment as kid-friendly as possible, she advocated for the adults to have a more grown-up bedroom. “I wanted them to have something moody and dramatic that would serve as a surprise when they first walked in,” she says. A large-scale bold floral wallpaper on the headboard wall accomplished that. Sumptuous linens play off the colors in the wallpaper.
Mack also used the wallpaper to back the walls of new recessed shelving. “These glass shelves are somewhere between bookshelves and a vitrine,” she says. A vitrine is an elegant freestanding French display cabinet that usually has glass shelves. The glass here creates a lighter look, provides places for display and adds a little sparkle to the bedroom.
Mack scored a vintage dresser that fit perfectly in the space between the shelves. She added a glass top to play off the shelves.
Mack scored a vintage dresser that fit perfectly in the space between the shelves. She added a glass top to play off the shelves.
The couple didn’t need to compromise on bathroom style, because each has their own bathroom. In hers, the wife got to live out her dream of lots of pink and brass. Mack replaced her tub with a walk-in shower and encouraged her to tile all the way up the walls. She also recommended a floating vanity to make the space feel larger. A recessed mirrored medicine cabinet has an outlet, including a USB outlet, inside.
Check out our beginner’s guide to get started on your home project
Check out our beginner’s guide to get started on your home project
In the husband’s bathroom, Mack used a neutral palette, chrome fixtures and cleaner lines on elements like the plumbing fixtures and medicine cabinet. “I did encourage him to use the same vanity and to use a hexagonal tile to create some cohesion between the two bathrooms,” she says.
In the daughter’s bedroom, bunk beds allow for fun sleepovers. Mack had the ceiling painted a glossy purple to match the color scheme.
The wallpaper is full of cute animals, and Mack played off the pattern with a rabbit lamp.
In the son’s bedroom, dragons and castles cover the headboard wall. It doesn’t show in this photo, but he has a glossy blue ceiling.
“You see both the kids’ rooms at the same time off a hallway, so I repeated the concept of painting the ceilings a color,” Mack says. “This gives them a sense of cohesiveness.” The siblings share a bathroom that has a bathtub.
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“You see both the kids’ rooms at the same time off a hallway, so I repeated the concept of painting the ceilings a color,” Mack says. “This gives them a sense of cohesiveness.” The siblings share a bathroom that has a bathtub.
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Tour more homes
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Shop for your home
House at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple with two young kids
Location: New York City
Size: 2,038 square feet (189 square meters); three bedrooms, three bathrooms
Designer: Julia Mack
Before: The apartment was a blank slate. This photo is of the living area viewed from the kitchen area. Mack also needed this space to accommodate a dining area.
The designer first visited the couple at their existing home in Brooklyn. This gave her a good idea of their style, which leaned modern with playful touches. She could also see what they were leaving behind. “They were going from a bright, sunny and dynamic space on the top floor of a building to a ground-floor apartment that had less natural light,” Mack says. “I could see that we’d want to get a good lighting scheme going and incorporate eye-catching color and pattern.”
Mack knew that ensuring a smooth design process from the start was important. “One of the important things I discussed with my clients early on was the importance of compromise,” she says. “His tastes leaned more clean-lined and modern while hers were more traditional.”
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