19 minute read
Home Decor
IN A BROOKLYN BROWNSTONE, TWO DESIGNERS KNEW EXACTLY HOW TO BRIDGE HISTORY AND HERITAGE
Photography: Frank Frances Studio
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Stripped-back spaces are a specialty of the New York City studio Ishka Designs. “A home should be able to come to life at its barest,” declares Anishka Clarke, one half of the design duo behind the firm. With her partner in life and work, Niya Bascom, Clarke fashions spaces that support myriad functions with sleek, streamlined forms. The duo’s practice is rigorous and responsible; Clarke and Bascom eschew synthetic materials in favor of natural ones and incorporate their clients’ identities while working to sidestep clichés. This can be a tough ethos to follow, but it’s all done with the goal of “giving more” while using less, says Bascom.
The cool-and-collected scheme was a full-circle effort for Ishka Designs.
In a Brooklyn brownstone completed in 2019, Clarke’s and Bascom’s skill at designing with both efficiency and cultural context in mind were put to the test. The result is an elegantly minimal home with details that speak to the heritage of its stewards. The clients, a couple with Pakistani and Haitian lineage, were aligned on their needs: a largely open-plan home with room for their young family to roam. “It wasn’t a very hectic brief,” says Clarke. “They simply wanted a space that felt like them.” As a starting point, Clarke and Bascom deployed a circular motif in their decorative choices throughout the house. “We love the principle of a circle,” says Bascom. “There’s no beginning, no middle, no end—only constant growth.”
Clarke and Bascom came aboard just as local architecture and design firm Harper Design + Build finished
renovating the historic townhouse, which was built in 1899; Harper was responsible for the interior architecture and preserving original details wherever possible. The house’s latest incarnation features higher ceilings and additional depth on several floors, extending the already roomy five stories into something akin to a self-contained world. “The space takes care of you,” shares the client. “When we go away somewhere we are always excited to come back home.”
Each of the five floors in the house has a distinct purpose. The cellar, a floor below the garden-level basement, holds a gym, a DJ room for the record-loving husband, and a craft area for the whole family to enjoy. In the basement, an office for both husband and wife makes the most of its limited use of pattern and is adorned with a sumptuous Romo wallpaper that mimics the worn silk of an old Persian rug. Guests enter on the parlor level, where an airy living room is divided into two discrete sitting areas centered on round rugs that tee up the circle theme. In one corner, the shape is repeated in more dimensions with a 1970s Metafora Lella and Massimo Vignelli cocktail table, a Flos lamp, and a reissued Mathieu Matégot chair by Copacabana.
“The clients simply wanted a space that felt like them.” Also in the living room is an Erased Heritage rug by Jan Kath, which references the complicated colonial legacies of the homeowners’ countries of origin. “The concept for the project started with the clients, their personalities, and their heritage, which was very important for them,” says Clarke. “They wanted to feel represented in their home.” Accommodating the clients’ desire for texture and depth alongside Ishka’s minimalist, culturally aware approach was a tightrope walk further accomplished by incorporating the work of contemporary artists Ndidi Emefiele, Prince Gyasi, and Shreya Mehta, each piece chosen specifically for the project. In addition to artworks, the duo selected lush floor- and wallcoverings, rich with color and pattern.
The most vibrant moments in the house arrive in spaces for the couple’s first child, who was born after the house was complete: A playroom on the home’s top floor boasts a bookcase that combines the geography of Pakistan and Haiti in an ocean-hued configuration of shapes reminiscent of Memphis Design. In the nursery, hints of mango interplay with graphic silver-andwhite Juju wallpaper. Other subtle nods to the clients’ respective backgrounds appear throughout the house: in the jali (a type of latticed screen) that frames a staircase; in the carvedwood doors joined together to make a headboard in the serene main suite; and in the Moroccan moucharaby-style cocktail table that anchors the den. None of these pieces comes from the clients’ specific countries of origin, though they all privilege non-Western craft and design traditions. Grouped together, they communicate a desire to honestly acknowledge the past while partaking in the rapture of the present. As Bascom puts it: “Forward ever, backward never.”
Home Decor HOW DO YOU BRING DOWNTOWN COOL TO PARK AVENUE?
CALL ALL-STAR DESIGN DUO ASHE LEANDRO
Photography: Stephen Kent Johnson
Park Avenue from East 57th to 96th streets is as much a literary and cultural allusion as it is an address.
With a meticulously landscaped median, the Manhattan boulevard is a two-mile gauntlet of elegant brick apartment buildings in shades from buff to earthen, with liveried doormen and Renaissance
Revival and neo-Gothic exterior ornament. Designed largely between the Gilded Age and the
Great Depression by such architects as Emery Roth and Rosario
Candela, this stretch of rarefied real estate is mostly void of the quaint rowhouses and twee storefronts found on nearby Madison or
Lexington. The writer Gay Talese immortalized it in the 1970s as
“the Park Avenue of poodles and polished brass; it is cab country, tip-town, glassville, a window washer’s paradise.”
As such, strolling the neutral-hued brick canyon of Park Avenue on an early summer afternoon, it is the architectural outlier that beguiles: On a corner in the 90s stands a stark white four-story structure, stucco-over-brick—a cheery cube that cuts through the staid neighborhood like a splash of Aperol. With nearly 40 steel-framed windows in its stocky facade, it seems equal parts fortress and aerie.
At almost 7,000 square feet, it has seen many incarnations and owners since it was erected in the 1880s, while Grover Cleveland was president. It was built as a Victorian-era apartment house, then renovated in 1908 to incorporate three street-level storefronts. By the early 2000s it had been reborn, a bit haphazardly, as a single-family house. But it is the recent reimagining—down to the studs—by Ashe Leandro, the partnership of the Venezuelan-born architect Reinaldo Leandro and the American designer Ariel Ashe, which shows how a modest building can hold its own along the storied boulevard, simultaneously alluding to the past while -celebrating modernity. “We weren’t looking to imitate anything,” Leandro says. “We had so few constraints, and that was really freeing.”
The owners, Adam Miller, a media executive, and his wife, Jennifer, who works in public relations, looked for designers who would be willing to start without preconceptions. With two teenage children, the couple had previously lived downtown in lofts and were eager to bring their minimal sensibility uptown. Several firms either wanted to recreate other sober townhouses they had remodeled nearby or “had absolutely no idea what to do,” Adam says, “basically interviewing us and asking if we had any good ideas.” Only Leandro and Ashe, who are in their early 40s and are known for working with edgy young clients, seemed on their wavelength. “If we had an inspiration, it was John Pawson,” says Leandro, referring to the famed British ultraminimalist. “We wanted to evoke that purity.”
The pair suggested a complete reorientation of the house. They removed the original doors (there are now windows there, symmetrical with the existing ones), creating an elevated entry off the avenue reached by a set of wide poured concrete stairs. The change made the property wide instead of deep, rendering it more like an expansive mansion on a quiet side street than a narrow townhouse on Park Avenue. Inside the entry there is now a huge sweeping circular stair that forms the core of the residence, with oak treads and a simple black matte iron railing. The palette is a mixture of dark gray and ebony with warm wood and white walls. “It’s all about texture when you are so pared down,” says Ashe.
The designers also came up with an innovative solution for the exposed ground-floor corner, which was previously highly visible through its tall windows. There had long been a kitchen in that spot with the shades continually drawn. Leandro and Ashe moved it to a new location and employed an idea they remembered from the Chelsea townhouse of the art dealer Matthew Marks: They removed the old floor of the space to create a double-height basement family room that cannot be glimpsed from the street. Now, during the day, sun floods into the space through windows near the ceiling line, and at night, the room, with a plum-colored sectional, is illuminated by a dangling 20-foot-tall Isamu Noguchi lantern hung from the apex.
The living spaces on the floors above hold a tightly edited selection of furnishings. In the dining room, a travertine table is surrounded by custom-made wooden chairs by Rob Pluhowski. The living room’s curvy green sofa sits across from an original stone mantel that was moved here from elsewhere in the house.
The subtlety of Leandro and Ashe’s approach is perhaps best seen on the top floor, where a glassed-in garden room is flanked by terraces. In this newly redone space, light streams in through curved conservatory windows, and Adam makes his morning coffee at a black-countered wet bar. As night falls, the couple’s children and their friends take over this lofty oasis, with Park Avenue laid out, lights twinkling, below them.
SUSTAINABLE LIVING HAS NEVER LOOKED MORE APPEALING THAN IN THIS AUSTRALIAN HOME
Barefoot luxury is the vibe at The Farm Byron Bay, a family home and inspiring community space
Standing on one of the highest points within the hinterland of Byron Bay in New South Wales, Australia, is The Range, a sprawling 120-acre property that offers sweeping 180-degree views across the hills and beyond to the sea.
For owner Emma Lane and her husband Tom, founders of sustainable community space The Farm Byron Bay, an extensive, decade-long search came to an end when they stumbled upon their now home.
‘Our brief was privacy and a view of the ocean,’ says Emma. At the centre of the land is a stately farmhouse, which acts as the main abode for Emma, Tom and their children – Charlie, George, Matilda and Lulu – as well as Ranger their beloved Hungarian vizsla.
Beyond the property sit two restored farm sheds, known as The Barn and The Cabin, both of which have been reimagined into separate external living spaces and play into the couple’s love of Spanish-style fincas.
‘A finca is a type of country estate or ranch, usually farming-orientated and often with a plantation, and a collection of buildings,’ explains Emma. ‘With the farmhouse, barn and cabin, and 4,500 macadamia trees, it seemed an appropriate theme for The Range.’
The three-bedroom main house, modelled on the farmhouse that once stood in its place, blends the old and new by retaining unique features from the original home.
Emma, who lives by her business’s sustainability ethos, repurposed several features.
‘The shelves in the living area are made from the old roof trusses,’ she says. Then there’s the rustic bath, created from a gigantic wine barrel, that sits outside the main bedroom.
‘There’s a barefoot sophistication that I love to adopt in my lifestyle – relaxed yet curated,’ says Emma. It’s an aesthetic that seeps into every aspect of the property, from the raw timber fittings and custom-designed pieces that were made in collaboration with local makers, right down to the muted, earthy colour palette. This includes leather and linen furniture, as well as beautiful terracotta floor tiles, which disguise the marks and muddy footprints that are inevitable with children and pets.
With such an expansive home, you’d presume choosing a favourite corner would be difficult, but Emma points to the sunken lounge. Designed in collaboration with local interior designer Sarah Ellison and situated at the heart of the property, it is the space her family inhabits the most, along with the outdoor entertaining area.
‘Tom often cooks dinner over the coals of the firepit while we gather around and enjoy the views out to sea,’ says Emma.
CHOOSING THE RIGHT SUSTAINABLE WOOD FINISH
Consumers today are more conscious than ever about the sustainability credentials of the products they buy and use. There is a clear trend for switching to more sustainable and environmentally friendly products. That’s why so many people turn to Osmo when looking for a wood finish, as it’s not only high-quality, durable and easy to maintain, but it is also made from sustainable ingredients.
A Sustainable Solution
The foundation of Osmo wood finishes is based upon purified and refined natural resources which are carefully harvested into natural oils and hard waxes. Osmo products contain natural vegetable oils to help nourish the wood and retain flexibility. Depending on the product, they might include: linseed oil, sunflower oil, soybean oil as well as thistle oil. The interior range of hard wax oil products also contains natural plant waxes carnauba wax and candelilla wax, offering wear resistance and repellency. Furthermore, our extensively cleaned pigments have been approved for use in the food industry.
Choosing the right finish
Osmo’s mission is to preserve the natural beauty and durability of wood with only the highest quality and environmentally friendly products. Products made from wood; from flooring to furniture, are made from organic matter, so will continue to need nourishment to ensure the product stays in the best possible condition, both aesthetically and structurally. Our advice is to make use of a high-quality finish, full of natural ingredients to complement the woods properties. This will ensure that the wood continues to breathe and respond well to environmental conditions, removing any possibility of cracking or and blistering.
FSC© Certification
Osmo supports sustainable forestry and works diligently to ensure that the origin of timbers used can be proven. To help improve, and with our natural resources in mind, Osmo has taken on the high standard of FSC©-certification for certain products. In choosing an Osmo product, you can be reassured that the product is not just good for wood, but good for the environment too. For more information on Osmo and its range of environmentally friendly and sustainable products and finishes, call Osmo UK direct on 01296 481220 or alternatively visit www.osmouk.com.
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Everyone’s been going on about rough luxe over the last few years and it’s not stopping anytime soon. Rough luxe specificities are immediately recognisable, one such example is skilfully scraped wallpaper in the rooms, which is just enough to give it a distressed look and let the walls tell a story. In a nutshell, rough luxe is all about bringing a sort of grunge boheme, shabby chic vibe to your home interior.
1. Rough luxe: a history
Rough luxe first came about in England in 2008. According to some, reknown designer Rabih Hage initiated the trend as he was working on a 4 stars boutique hotel overhaul in Campden, called Rough Luxe (or “poorgeois” for the more cynical among us). Hage might have made Rough Luxe become a thing, but the trend has certainly been about for longer: in the 1990’s, grunge already made a point of mixing luxe and distressed elements. In any case, shabby chic has become the norm for a lot of boutique hotels around the country, from Fife to Dorset.
2. The principles of rough luxe
It’s all about creating a distressed appearance, as if the room hadn’t been redone for a while, but balance is important if you don’t want your home to look gloomy and unwelcoming and there are a few good rules to follow imperatively. Furniture should look retro but not like it’s been taken out of the dumpster. The irony of rough luxe is that despite using reclaimed materials, it can actually be quite hard to master and source the right pieces for your home. Most people that are after this particular vibe for their interior often seek the help of a professional designer which can also make it quite expensive – the home design equivalent of those $ 500 ripped pair of jeans. Nevertheless, with a bit of creativity and the right addresses, it’s a style that’s still achievable. Look out for specialty stores that now sell trompe l’oeil rough luxe patterns and decor: the result is uncanny and some of them even include windows!
4. Don’t just focus on distressing the walls
Rough luxe is mostly known for its scraped wallpaper look, but you could very well choose to highlight a nicely distressed tiled floors by redoing the walls and leaving the tiles in their original condition.
5. Don’t forget furniture
Old leather sofas and wooden furniture with a chippy patina finish will be perfect to finish up the rough luxe look. Look out for them in flea markets, garage sale and second-hand stores in your local area!
THE TREND FOR LUXURY HOME DÉCOR IS ON THE RISE
autosizing feature name JOHNSON TILES HAVE EXTENDED THEIR KERASTAR RANGE
British tile manufacturer, Johnson Tiles, has extended its everpopular Kerastar range to become the go-to tile collection for commercial interiors.
The harmonious range of through-body, unglazed porcelain tiles now includes floor and wall tiles in a variety of bright and vibrant tones, new shapes and sizes. Exclusively designed for the commercial interiors market, the range beautifully combines up to 70% recycled content, commercial endurance and architectural elegance.
Inspired by the limitless beauty of the natural world, the extended collection comprises 43 shades, 11 sizes, 4 finishes, 4 structures and 3 shapes for maximum creativity. Suitable for use both indoors and out, each shade is available in a selection of textured structures that achieve a PTV slip resistance rating of 36+ in both dry and wet areas.
The through-body porcelain tiles are ideal for high-traffic areas including busy retail, hospitality, workplace and healthcare environments. The material and colour run all the way through the tile so scratches, chips and signs of wear are easily blended or hidden.
Kerastar’s existing architectural-friendly neutral colour palette has been bolstered with the addition of cool greys, warm reds and burnt oranges to give designers the creative freedom to establish zones or create patterns across interior schemes. Classic tones such as Clay from the original collection offer the perfect base upon which to build a decor style. And for a pop of colour, the new Sage, Sky and Terracotta shades (to name just a few) reflect the brighter hues found in nature as well as popular colour trends throughout design.
Johnson Tiles’ Senior Designer Amy Pears, says; “Kerastar is the versatile collection that every designer needs and wants. Developed exclusively for high-traffic commercial interiors, the range features tones, shapes and structured finishes that are designed to coexist in harmony together.” “From the forest floor to our expansive oceans, the colour palette takes inspiration from the limitless beauty of the natural world with shades including Fern, Sea and Sky. Combining 43 shades with the bodied porcelain design and complementary fixtures and fittings, the range blends beauty and strength to withstand the heaviest of footfalls with unlimited and coordinated design options.”
As the popularity of geometric shapes continues to surge, a selection of shades within the Kerastar collection are now available in two hexagonal shapes. Small and large format square and rectangular styles are also available, offering premium versatility and choice. For designers, this is the only range they’ll ever need – using the same tiles to unlock the tools to create a different look every time.
Fittings within this range include battiscopa and cove skirtings along with steptreads, making Kerastar the ideal flooring solution for commercial specifications.
Discover the collection and request a free sample now.
For further information please click here.
