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Housewarming David Mitchell Brown
Here Comes the Sun
Pops of yellow bring a cheerful mood to Palm Beach designer David Mitchell Brown’s home.
To honor the Floridian setting, the eclectic living room decor includes touches of coral and palm frond prints that echo the foliage outside the windows. WINTER BLUES are a thing of the past in David Mitchell Brown’s Palm Beach apartment. When he and his husband, Rick, moved to the 1940s Art Deco building 10 years ago, it was clearly in need of some TLC. The two originally purchased a two-bedroom on the ground floor, then bought the apartment above them, brought it down to the studs, and created a completely refigured place that Brown says “feels like a home more than an apartment.”
Asked to describe the space in one word, the interior designer calls his home comfortable. In fact, comfort is
Brown used glass banisters for the staircase to enhance his home’s sense of airiness.
a must for every project he works on with his clients. “I don’t care what you do, how beautiful it is, or what level you’re designing at—if it’s not comfortable, it’s not a successful home,” Brown says.
A common thread throughout the apartment—and one that Brown incorporates into his clients’ homes whenever he gets the chance—is pops of vivid color. In his case, yellow. “It helps to bring the sunlight in and make the room feel happy,” he explains. His kitchen includes splashes of curry yellow on the doors and 18thcentury gilded picture frames to warm the otherwise modern space.
Brown’s aesthetic is influenced by California designer Michael Taylor, who emphasized bringing the outside in and using natural light to make his home homier. In his own apartment, Brown also channeled iconic decorator Dorothy Draper, famous for her flamboyant use of color. The result is a delightful mash-up of “California-meetsPalm Beach,” he says.
Clever design elements enhance the sense of airy spaciousness, such as a glass banister for the stairway that lets natural light flood in. To overcome a challenging living room floor plan that made for an off-center sofa with a window that didn’t quite line up behind it, Brown added Roman shades positioned to create the illusion of a centered couch. In another ingenious trompe l’oeil touch, the shades stretch to the ceiling, giving the beholder the impression that the windows behind them, too, are floor-to-ceiling.
Another favorite room of Brown’s is the kitchen. It was originally a small galley kitchen with a tiny back door leading to the garden, but he reconfigured it, centering it in relation to the front door and adding 10 feet of windows across the back of the apartment. Each time Brown walks through his front door, he can gaze all the way to the garden, taking in the bright, beautiful, personalized rooms between that say, “Welcome home. Make yourself comfortable.” —Katey Clifford
