When tastemaking New York-based architect and renovation maven Steven Harris and his partner, noteworthy interior designer Lucien Rees Roberts, went looking for a new Manhattan apartment back in 2008, they were still a bit nostalgic about their old studio. Despite it being little more than a single room, the couple appreciated the place they had lived for three decades, because it was well-proportioned, at 24 feet long by 18 feet wide, with 12-foot ceilings and three generous windows. So when they found what they were looking for in a 1,600-square-foot floor-through in a Tribeca loft building that was right across the street from the offices their firms share, Harris and Rees Roberts essentially recreated their old apartment as the living room of their new one. Speaking to Architectural Digest, Harris called the home an attempt at recreating their "greatest hits" from shared client projects, which include the stylish Brooklyn brownstone Francesca Connolly, co-founder of the design blog Remodelista, and one particularly inspiring pied-a-terre in Manhattan's Rockefeller Apartments.
↑ On the left, Harris (standing) and Rees Roberts pose with their yellow Lab, Zoe, in the living room, which is lined with sandblasted white oak paneling in an homage to Art Deco master Jean-Michel Frank, with a painting by Rees Robert's father hung behind them. To the right, the master bedroom—which only has "room for a king-size bed with bedside tables," says Harris, because "anything else is superfluous"—features a Swedish Biedermeier chair covered in needlepoint fabric, a rug by Tai Ping, a Castiglioni-for-Flos light pendant, and a 1963 Le Corbusier print, with the bed topped in a coverlet of Lazarine faux fur.
↑ "When we finished designing this apartment, it immediately felt like the same place we'd lived in for decades," says Harris. To make guests feel at home, the guestroom was outfitted with a stool converted from an Irish Chippendale chair and a wall of artwork featuring several by Rees Roberts. The gallery kitchen, right, is finished with Kinon cast-resin panels and equipped with a Bertazzoni range. One of the white Corian walls is brightened by a 1950s Fernand Léger print.
· Steven Harris and Lucien Rees Roberts Craft Their Dream New York Apartment [Architectural Digest]
· All Lucien Rees Roberts coverage [Curbed National]
· All Steven Harris coverage [Curbed National]
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