Room of the Day: A Piece of Manhattan Inspires a Brooklyn Apartment
A view of the East River’s Manhattan Bridge offers a starting point for a living room’s color palette and design
From the towering trees of the forest to the solid mountains and the infinite expanse of the ocean, nature influences designers and homeowners. We frame views, choose colors and build homes to honor these anonymous masterpieces. Engineered constructions, though less pristine, can be just as impressive, and for the owners of a Brooklyn apartment, they were just as inspiring.
The Manhattan Bridge spans New York’s East River, passing directly in front of Sheena and Paul Murphy’s apartment in the Dumbo neighborhood on its way into Brooklyn from lower Manhattan. Though the 114-year-old beams and windows of their converted warehouse could fuel an exceptional design on their own, it’s the turn-of-the-century architecture outside their living room window that is at the core of this well-dressed apartment.
The Manhattan Bridge spans New York’s East River, passing directly in front of Sheena and Paul Murphy’s apartment in the Dumbo neighborhood on its way into Brooklyn from lower Manhattan. Though the 114-year-old beams and windows of their converted warehouse could fuel an exceptional design on their own, it’s the turn-of-the-century architecture outside their living room window that is at the core of this well-dressed apartment.
Wall art helps break down the open kitchen, dining and living areas into smaller rooms. The rabbit art here, off-center over the buffet, marks where the bar area ends. “By grouping it with the artwork, it more clearly defines it as its own space,” says Sheena.
Wall art: Parkhaus Berlin; table lamp: vintage; Dumont Buffet: West Elm
Wall art: Parkhaus Berlin; table lamp: vintage; Dumont Buffet: West Elm
Sheena and Paul like to cook and entertain, so they kept the connection between kitchen and living room clear, with these vintage Eames dining chairs and Paul McCobb dining table forming the dining area in between. “It made sense to create a strong flow between all public spaces, while maintaining visual division,” says Sheena.
Dining table: vintage Paul McCobb; dining chairs: vintage Eames
Dining table: vintage Paul McCobb; dining chairs: vintage Eames
A mixture of textures and materials creates a rich, layered space without feeling overdone. The key to this, Sheena says, was using a neutral color palette and a somewhat pared-down material list. The dark walls are balanced by the white ceiling, light-colored rug and relatively light and airy furniture.
Sheena left the window wall white to avoid closing off the room too much. Curtains frame and soften the view without complicating it. She says that painting two parallel walls the same color can have a lengthening and narrowing effect on a room, but hoped that hanging the curtains beyond the windows and decorating the walls with artwork would minimize the tunnel effect here. “It was a little risky, but it worked,” she says.
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Sheena left the window wall white to avoid closing off the room too much. Curtains frame and soften the view without complicating it. She says that painting two parallel walls the same color can have a lengthening and narrowing effect on a room, but hoped that hanging the curtains beyond the windows and decorating the walls with artwork would minimize the tunnel effect here. “It was a little risky, but it worked,” she says.
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Sheena marked a 12-foot by 11-foot space in the open plan for the living area. She incorporated a sofa they already owned with versatile new furnishings that could be used in the future in different spaces, for different purposes and with other new pieces. “We kept furniture, lighting and accessories neutral so pieces could be interchangeable,” she says. She balanced the shapes and weight of the furniture. Since the sofa was pretty solid, she selected a vintage Lucite and glass coffee table to keep the room’s center open. A Windsor chair sits off the floor and has open sides and and an open back.
Patterns, shapes and materials from the bridge also influenced how Sheena filled the room, from the textiles to the light fixtures and furniture. “At a very abstract level, we wanted to create an environment where modernism, history and a variety of cultures and textures came together,” she says. She didn’t focus on each piece, but instead thought about the project as a whole and tried to envision how the pieces would look next to one another, not just on their own.
Wall paint: Newburg Green, Benjamin Moore; floor lamp: Trilight, Organic Modernism; coffee table: vintage; rug: ABC Carpet & Home; Lind Cocktail Ottoman: Room & Board; bench: West Elm; Tork Brass Dripping Mirror: CB2; textiles: Dwell Studio