Gone are hundreds of feet of decorative crown moulding, as is a stone fireplace mantel in the living room. A recent gut renovation to this West Village, Manhattan, apartment also removed the dining room walls and floor-to-ceiling built-in shelves (along with the tower of knick-knacks required to fill them).
What’s left is a decluttered, loft-like space styled with owner Shawn Henderson’s particular brand of restrained sophistication. Mr. Henderson, a New York-based interior designer who has decorated homes for Will Ferrell, Glenn Close and filmmaker Tate Taylor, is putting the one-bedroom co-op apartment on Greenwich Street up for sale this week, asking $1.6 million.
But even those the designer restored to their knotty natural state by stripping away a layer of orangey lacquer. http://www.aleeshainstitute.com/interior-designing-course.php
Designing his own place offered an opportunity to experiment in a way he can’t with clients, said Mr. Henderson—who purchased the unit three years ago for $1.15 million, according to property records.
“It’s like a little laboratory,” he said.
A wall of floor-to-ceiling closets in the bedroom offered one such test, where he installed an in-unit washer and dryer that needed some form of ventilation. The solution was to build the wall of closets with louvered doors, a scheme he’s now replicating for a client, he said.
The biggest structural change was knocking down a wall between the living and dining rooms.
“I had anticipated putting that back up,” Mr. Henderson said. “But when I came for a site inspection, I saw how wide open that was.”
He also carved up what used to be an awkwardly placed den between the kitchen and bedroom into a powder room for guests, a small office and a sizeable walk-in closet.
The final result is an airy open-floor plan suited to entertaining in the front two-thirds of the apartment and an amenity-rich bedroom suite at the back, which can be hidden away via a sliding pocket door.
He chose a mixture of textures to break up the otherwise clean white walls, including painted exposed brick, grey oak cabinets and honed marble countertops, according to information from the listing agent, Michael J. Franco of Compass Real Estate.
There are also exposed wood ceiling beams and a strictly decorative fireplace in the living room. The master bathroom also features marble finishes and unlacquered brass taps.
Mr. Henderson said he’s selling as part of a move to the Gramercy Park area. He’s found a new apartment with a large outdoor space where he intends to hone a “secret” obsession with landscaping.
“It’s such a gratifying thing,” he said. “You can work on it for a few hours and have a finished product, unlike designing a couch and having to wait 12 weeks.”
