Downsizing is not always the easiest of tasks, especially when it means leaving beloved furnishings behind. But for a Westchester couple, that wasn’t really an issue. When it was time to leave their suburban home for a city dwelling on the Upper East Side, they called on designer Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz, founder of BNOdesign. “I did their Westchester house, and we created a lot of custom pieces,” the designer recalls.
Once they found their new digs, Noriega-Ortiz convinced them to keep many of the original furnishings. It turns out, repurposing existing pieces is a big part of the designer’s ethos, and it worked especially well for this project. “In the end, we used almost 80 percent of the pieces we did for the original house.” Besides the environmental impact, the recycling program had another benefit. “The house had an instant feeling of being their home because it’s all their stuff.”
The 4,000-square-foot apartment started with three bedrooms, but for a couple who loves to entertain, a layout that included a separate dining room was preferable. With some architectural changes, the third bedroom was transformed into a dining room, with some additional space allotted for a new powder room. “They only needed one guest room because the kids are grown and have their own homes. However, a dining room was really a requirement for her.” The apartment, filled with their very eclectic art and vintage furniture collection, has the layered and organic feel of a place that has “always been there,” yet there is nothing staid or boring about it.
In the gallery—which was too large to be a hallway and too small to be a room—the designer created a small seating area perfect for quiet conversation and a cocktail. A daybed is covered in the wife’s favorite orangey red, while a small table from Poltrona Frau is the perfect place to rest a drink. Across from the daybed are a collection of blue monoprints by Terry Winters, called “Notes for Color Coding.” The foyer leads to the living room, which connects to a smaller TV room/sitting area. The two spaces are separated by a grand piano, which isn’t just for show—the husband loves to play. The dining room peeks out from behind a glimmering dichroic glass maille room divider, hand-crafted by Steven Wine and his company ABYU Lighting. The curtain of iridescent glass—inspired by the dresses of Paco Rabanne in the 1960s—hangs on drapery hardware and provides a glimpse of the richly-colored room beyond. Noriega-Ortiz explains, “The glass maille allows soft, diffused light from the window, and on either side, we installed draperies, so when she’s setting up the table, she closes the draperies and when she is ready to serve, she opens them.” A nice bit of drama in a small space. Wine, who is Noriega-Ortiz’s husband, also created many of the lampshades throughout, including the turkey feather-covered numbers that glow in the living room.
Taking pride of place in the dining room is an Arts and Crafts style dining table and chairs that date to the 1900s, as well as a chandelier also from the period. The red walls are embellished with gold leaf by stencil artist Ed Roth. Noriega-Ortiz says, “We also put a gold wallcovering by Maya Romanoff on the ceiling just to make the room feel more imperial.” The dining set just barely fit. “When they entertain, they pull the table back against the window and add a round table so that all of their guests can be seated.” Another convenience added for entertaining is a small bar, which the designer built in a foyer closet that wasn’t needed for storage. “She didn’t really have anything to put in that closet, and the bar helps keep people away from the kitchen area. She loved that idea.” And that’s what it is all about for Noriega-Ortiz. “Every time I speak with her, she says, ‘Oh, I love our apartment.’”
Photography by Peter Murdock.
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