You'll Want to Steal This Napping Nook For Your Own Home
For two years, the family of four had been using a card table as a dining room table-in their historic Gramercy Park three-bedroom. "They sort of realized at that point that they needed professional help," laughs designer Starrett Ringbom, who was contacted by the couple to help, ahem, accelerate their decorating process. "They're people who very much have their own style and taste, a sort of classic preppy style," she explains.
"They knew what they liked, they knew what they were hoping to achieve. They wanted it to be young and fun and modern and cool, not like you’re in your parents’ apartment."
The husband, a native New Yorker, had grown up going to Gino's, a now-shuttered Italian restaurant on the Upper East Side famous for its red-sauce classics, star-studded clientele, and Scalamandré's iconic Zebra print wallpaper splashed onto the dining room walls. He showed up to the first meeting with Starrett toting six foam-core mood boards, one for each of the rooms, with the zebras among his picks.
"When Wes Anderson put that print in The Royal Tenenbaums, it took on a whole new life, so you might think, oh, it's so played out. But it's not, because it's iconic!" Starrett says. "If you love something, and every time you walk in that room it makes you happy, you should have it."
Up went the zebras in a powder room off the kitchen, followed by other classic patterns and textures-think banana leaf wallpaper, grasscloth, a black-and-white checkered floor, and sisal-paired with whimsical vintage accessories. In the dining room, a set of weathered green Tolix chairs and some quirky umbrella sconces Starrett scored on 1stdibs offset a rosewood Harvey Probber table and Lindsey Adelman chandelier.
That sisal, spread wall to wall in the master bedroom, is Stark's swirling Whirl pattern, which Starrett calls a "modern take on a classic design. It's fun, it's cool, but it’s also what you want out of a sisal: warm, neutral, natural."
Due to a prior owner's renovation of the apartment's original 1927 design, there wasn't a need for any construction. (She even kept the light blue paint on the walls in the living room: "We decided there was no reason to change it!") But Starrett did add one thoughtful built-in, a cozy upholstered daybed tucked into a crook of the living room's floor plan. The husband had pictured it being L-shaped, but she knew a rectangular version would work better for napping (his request!), so she taped it out on the floor for him to see.
"Problem-solving is really getting your clients to come along with you and believe in your ideas," she explains. "You have to demonstrate with practical solutions, not just drawings." Building up that trust allowed her to shop for key antiques, like all the seating in the living room, online-without any apprehension from the homeowner.
"Their sofa came from Denmark, and I was kind of like 'all right, we’re getting this! You cannot send it back!'" she recalls. "They were willing to take risks on things, and I really appreciate that so much."
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