See inside the controlled chaos of an interior designer's Washington Heights apartment
The living room. Photo: Annie Schlechter For 14 years, Ross Alexander lived in a 200-square-foot studio apartment on the Upper West Side. Last October, the interior designer felt it was finally time to be able to walk more than two feet to cross the room , so he found a larger apartment, a rental in a prewar building in Washington Heights. “It’s so much more fun to bounce ideas off someone,” says Alexander , so he turned to his good friend Brock Forsblom, also a designer, for help.
Working pro to pro, the designers could banter about all the geeky details, as when Forsblom asked Alexander, “Shouldn’t we do a tiny little shantung flange to dress the cord twist, or would a tiny welt pipe be better?” And every morning, Alexander would be greeted by a flurry of text messages with links to various items Forsblom had found at online auctions. The two designers enjoyed the process so much, Alexander says, “we’ve joked about sending it all back to auction and starting over.
In the living room, seen above, the 1920s Chinese rug was purchased at auction. “It was the first thing we bought,” says Brock Forsblom. The Roman shades and scrim sheers are done in coordinating Carolina Herrera prints. “The view doesn’t exactly exist,” he says, “so we wanted a window that would feel open and airy even when it was closed.” The sofa and chairs were both found at auctions; the sofa was covered in Voutsa’s Poppy fabric and the armchairs in yellow wool from Ralph Lauren.
The Living Room: “The purple armchair, like so many things in this apartment, was originally white,” Forsblom says. He reupholstered it in purple velvet and added the custom-colored cord-twist fringe and acid-green silk shantung flange, because it’s all in the details. The side table is a Housing Works find that Alexander painted green; the top photograph of artist Louise Nevelson, taken by Diana MacKown, was found at auction from the estate of fashion designer Arnold Scaasi.
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