Houzz Tours
Houzz Tour: Texture Softens a Sleek White Condo
Wire-brushed herringbone floors and 2-toned kitchen cabinets are among the highlights of this stylish Manhattan condo
For the kitchen cabinets, Miller mixed not only colors but also styles: Deeper base cabinets and a full-depth pantry boast Shaker-style doors lacquered in blue, while the more shallow uppers are a modern, glossy white. Miller often uses two-tone cabinetry in his projects, typically specifying a darker color for the base and a lighter color for the uppers because he feels a kitchen can easily start to look “heavy” if the whole mass of cabinetry is painted one color. He also added a ton of recessed lighting: “In kitchens and bathrooms, it’s extremely important to have a lot of lighting for tasks,” he says.
Bar stools: CB2
Bar stools: CB2
In the entry, Miller installed a tray ceiling to hide the ductwork that runs into the kitchen, but it also serves as a design feature that helps to articulate the progression of spaces. Miller prefers to drop the ceilings in what he calls the “secondary spaces” such as bedrooms, bathrooms and corridors, while keeping the ceilings in the primary living spaces as high as possible. In this case, the dropped ceiling defines the entry before you enter the living area, which reads as a comparatively bigger, brighter space with a noticeably higher ceiling.
The herringbone floors are a custom wire-brushed oak with a charcoal stain and some cerusing. “The flooring was one of the most important aspects of this project,” says Miller. “Anyone who walks in here falls in love with the floors.”
Find wire-brushed wood floors
The herringbone floors are a custom wire-brushed oak with a charcoal stain and some cerusing. “The flooring was one of the most important aspects of this project,” says Miller. “Anyone who walks in here falls in love with the floors.”
Find wire-brushed wood floors
The living room is where the family hosts guests for cocktails and conversation. The crisp white walls are something of a signature for Miller, who likes to keep the public spaces bright and white and offset them with colorful furniture or artwork. The white amplifies the brightness of the room, especially against the dark floors.
Chairs and coffee table: West Elm
Chairs and coffee table: West Elm
In the dining area, vintage 1960s Danish rosewood chairs pull up to a contemporary table in a pleasing mix of old and new. Beneath the window is a custom bench that hides pull-out drawers and a slim radiator with storage cabinets on either side. Atop the storage cabinets are treasures from the homeowners’ own collection, including a working gramophone that can be connected to an iPhone.
Chandelier: Restoration Hardware
Chandelier: Restoration Hardware
The family room is where the family watches TV and relaxes together. Because this room opens to the kitchen, Miller wanted to keep the palette and materials the same: The wall unit behind the TV is painted in the same blue satin lacquer as the kitchen cabinets, and the marble-like Caesarstone base mirrors the kitchen countertops. Miller chose to float it on the wall to avoid placing a heavy piece of furniture next to the large sectional.
On the window wall, the two bumped-out columns were already there, probably hiding utility lines to other apartments, with a radiator in the center. Miller bridged the two columns with a custom cabinet which, just like in the dining room, hides the radiator behind the two middle doors and offers more storage off to the sides.
Coffee table: West Elm; Pouf: Muuto Furniture
On the window wall, the two bumped-out columns were already there, probably hiding utility lines to other apartments, with a radiator in the center. Miller bridged the two columns with a custom cabinet which, just like in the dining room, hides the radiator behind the two middle doors and offers more storage off to the sides.
Coffee table: West Elm; Pouf: Muuto Furniture
The couple’s twin boys each got themed bedrooms that reflect their personalities. One brother chose an animal theme, with heaps of dinosaurs and stuffed animals. The wallpaper features black-and-white drawings of animals.
Bed: Room and Board
Bed: Room and Board
The other boy’s room took on a loose “robot in the city” theme, with nods to city life in the wallpaper and robot toys mixing with his and his brother’s stuffed animals and dinosaurs on the shelves. His bunk bed accommodates a full-size mattress up top and a twin-size below, which is one of the Miller’s favorite models for kids rooms because of how functional it is.
Bed: Room and Board; Bean bag: Lujo Living
Bed: Room and Board; Bean bag: Lujo Living
The master bedroom shares its color palette with the rest of the home: Herringbone floors and traditional nightstands contrast the low-slung bed and lamps that feel clean and modern. Roman shades pick up on the ceiling fixture and look softer and more luxurious than the more functional roller shades used in other rooms. The blues in the rug and artwork pull in the blue of the kitchen cabinets. “We were playing with different tones and creating a theme that goes through the space,” Miller says.
Miller created a lot of interest and richness in the master bathroom by choosing tiles in varying materials, sizes, shapes and even subtle hues for the walls and ceilings. On the floors are large 24-by-24-inch porcelain tiles that give way to square marble tiles on the window wall. Behind the custom medicine cabinet mirrors is a blue porcelain tile in multiple hues.
Miller mounted the Waterworks faucets on the wall not only because they look great there but also because doing so allowed him to reduce the depth of the vanity to maximize the space between it and the shower.
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Miller mounted the Waterworks faucets on the wall not only because they look great there but also because doing so allowed him to reduce the depth of the vanity to maximize the space between it and the shower.
Browse more homes by style: Apartments | Barn Homes | Colorful Homes | Contemporary Homes | Eclectic Homes | Farmhouses | Floating Homes | Guesthouses | Homes Around the World | Lofts | Midcentury Homes | Modern Homes | Ranch Homes | Small Homes | Townhouses | Traditional Homes | Transitional Homes | Vacation Homes
House at a Glance
Who lives here: A young family with two kids
Location: New York City
Size: 2,500 square feet (232.3 square meters)
Architect: Matthew Miller of StudioLab
A young couple with two twin boys found a condo in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village that was in need of an overhaul to create the open, contemporary space they wanted. They put the renovation in the hands of architect Matthew Miller, who starts each project by tallying up his client’s wish list and developing the layout, which he then renders in 3D to give clients a clear visual of their new floor plan before developing drawings and selecting materials.
Most of Miller’s projects involve gut renovations and reallocating space in New York’s prewar apartments, many of which share certain limitations. Unlike a single-family home, rooms can’t simply be added on and walls bumped out at will; designers must work within a fixed box, maximizing space and navigating around elements of infrastructure that hide behind the walls and serve other units.
For this family apartment, Miller merged separate living and dining rooms into one great room with zones for TV watching, formal entertaining and dining. He also opened up the formerly enclosed kitchen. The home’s infrastructure got a major upgrade, too: The renovation boosted electrical capacity, replaced window air conditioning units with central air and added abundant new lighting. The need for new systems demanded careful attention to the ceilings: Soffits that hide the new ducts and wiring had to look intentional and natural.