Filed under: Your Home, Living Room, Projects, Famous Homes, Design, etc, House Tours, Cool Homes, Furniture
Top NY designer Inson Dubois Wood outfits a luxe show house for newlyweds -- affordably.
![]()
Inson Wood in the living room of the newlywed penthouse he furnished from Ikea. Photo: Theo Wargo
To create a fabulous show house a designer needs inspiration.
So when
Bride's magazine approached top New York designer
Inson Dubois Wood to transform a $3.5 million Manhattan eco-luxury penthouse loft into a "Newlywed Nest," he conjured up fictional clients and adopted the theme of "two people coming together to share a common space," as the basic concept.
It's prime time for weddings, after all.
But there was a challenge attached to the project: use
Ikea (the sponsor's) furniture. Yes, Ikea Fans, this one is especially for you -- though it's fascinating to see how Wood used affordable furniture to create the posh pad.
So, we're taking a guided tour of the cool 25 x 14-foot living room to find out how exactly Inson pulled together the main space and which pieces he chose for his newlyweds.
"The overall design is about marrying two unique personalities, two sets of belongings and two distinct points of view," he explains. "The theme of 'his and hers' runs throughout the apartment -- you will see [matching] pairs and dissimilar items." He believes that symmetry creates a sense of organization and interrupting it occasionally produces a whiff of intrigue.
So it follows that the large, rectangular living room has two furniture groupings plus an activity area at each end.
For drama, Wood chose a paint-color palette of whites and grays, plus Ruby Red (2001-10) from
Benjamin Moore (another sponsor). "I wanted to use neutral colors with splashes of red and dramatic art to activate the spaces. I tell clients not to be afraid of using color. You want to love your home."
http://xml.channel.aol.com/xmlpublisher/fetch.v2.xml?option=expand_relative_urls&dataUrlNodes=uiConfig,feedConfig,localizationConfig,entry&id=882100&pid=882099&uts=1274124192
http://www.aolcdn.com/ke/media_gallery/v1/ke_media_gallery_wrapper.swf
Just Married: A Posh Penthouse and Ikea Furniture
The living room sets the color scheme for the entire apartment. At one end, the show-stopping
Klippan Love Seat, slip-covered in poly-cotton
Granan red, puts a splash of color against the backdrop of the accent wall painted in
Nocturnal Gray (2135-30). A slip cover is "something you can change easily if it's too much," says designer Inson Wood. Overhead, the designer chose the
PS Vava Pendant light and to the left of the sofa he placed a white
Kulla Table Lamp on a sleek black-brown
Vejmon side table.
Inson Dubois Wood
A Posh Penthouse and Ikea Furniture
The living room sets the color scheme for the entire apartment. At one end, the show-stopping Klippan Love Seat, slip-covered in poly-cotton Granan red, puts a splash of color against the backdrop of the accent wall painted in Nocturnal Gray (2135-30). A slip cover is "something you can change easily if it's too much," says designer Inson Wood. Overhead, the designer chose the PS Vava Pendant light and to the left of the sofa he placed a white Kulla Table Lamp on a sleek black-brown Vejmon side table.
A Posh Penthouse and Ikea Furniture
Furniture arrangements define how space is used. In the main living area, it's great to have a spot like the high-gloss white Besta Burs desk pushed up against the back of the red love seat. There she can park with a laptop, or he can do a solo eat-and-read on girl's night out -- the black cotton Skruvsta Swivel Chair offers padded comfort. To sharpen the focus on the accent wall, paintings by New York artist Michael Dickey (available through the designer) hang over the white Torsby sideboard and between a pair of handsome mid-century-style Ljusas Uvas lamps.
A Posh Penthouse and Ikea Furniture
House-proud newlyweds naturally want friends around to drool, or approve, or both. The impressive Tylosand sofa -- nearly 11-feet long - qualifies as a wow-getter with ample space for pals to flop down. It also anchors the long leg of the L-shape sofa arrangement that forms the spine of the room. To keep the sofa accessible, Wood cleverly devised twin seating zones -- each centered on a 39-inch round Strind, two-tier coffee table. Look carefully and you discover a figure 8 pathway around and between the tables that leads to a seat at every turn.
A Posh Penthouse and Ikea Furniture
Who wouldn't want a living room with a big flat-screen hanging out in the walnut-tone Besta/Framsta wall storage unit? Answer that and you lose. For perched TV watchers there's a pair of Stockholm Cowhide footstools at the far end of the seating area. Also in view: a second PS Vava Pendant light and a couple of Stockholm Easy Chairs in Figur Gray print. Bright red accent pillows on the dark sofa tie in with the bold, red-print Fialena fabric curtains the designer had made from Ikea fabric. (Currently, the red-and-orange Fredrika fabric has a similar look).
A Posh Penthouse and Ikea Furniture
Lofts usually have open kitchens since everyone seems to want space flow. That makes the counter another place to hang out on the aptly-named Urban bar stools. Slim 365+ Lunta pendants track lights are used overhead and the kitchen features a built-in Liebherr French-door refrigerator. The staircase, visible through the kitchen door, leads to a solarium and block-long terrace. How well the 14-foot wide living room is filled-out by the seating plan is made clear by the exposed strip of floor.
A Posh Penthouse and Ikea Furniture
Two Kajsa striped Scandinavian-style wool rugs were joined up to create a single -- and singular 15'2" x 7'7" -- floor covering with stripes running in the same direction as the oak. Looking across the carpet it's easy to see a clear path to the sofa, another Michael Dickey painting tucked between the curtains, and the welcome flood of natural light. White leaf-print pillows at each end of the sofa are covered by Stockholm Blad Fabric.
A Posh Penthouse and Ikea Furniture
Given the "furnished" quality of the living room, the essentials-only dining room offers a visual change of pace. Still, it seats 8 on white Bernhard leather chairs which ring the extendable Stornas table like a strand of pearls. The brown-black color of the table links up with the living room wall unit a few feet away and bronze Venetian plaster panel behind it. A premium wall treatment, Venetian plaster turns out to be 100% green, the designer says, as it combines natural marble and limestone dusts with crushed mother of pearl.
A Posh Penthouse and Ikea Furniture
When asked to describe the newlyweds, designer Inson Wood told the New York Times: "He's a tri-athlete, type A, finance guy. She's a social worker, maybe she works at the Lower Eastside Girls Club." Such a high-energy couple wouldn't think twice about three flights of stairs -- a major design element in the apartment visible via the (13'6" x 10') dining room. For continuity on all 3 floors, Wood specified November Skies (2128-50), a pale gray Benjamin Moore Aura paint now that the for something blue has come and gone.
A Posh Penthouse and Ikea Furniture
The Bride's Newlywed Nest show house is located in Penthouse 2A at the Village Green condominium, an "eco-luxury" building at 311 East 11th St., in New York City. The 2-bedroom, 2.5 bath triplex has 1,970 square feet of interior space and a 2032 square foot terrace. The show house is open to the public from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through May 22.
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Inson Wood in the living room of the newlywed penthouse he furnished from Ikea. Photo: Theo Wargo