How to Use a Cartrdge With Design Space

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Emerging from the challenges of quarantine life, many of us are leaning into our indulgent sides. This proclivity for pleasure can manifest in a variety of forms—think Netflix's steamy hit series "Sex/Life" and the secret tunnel in Cara Delevingne's exuberant Los Angeles pad.

In this spirit, some designers are crafting one-off spaces where their creativity can run wild. Unbound by the rules and constraints of the rest of the house, these spaces—often small—can have a big impact. In some cases, the juxtaposition of an aesthetically indulgent space and the rest of the home's decor brings out the best in both.

AD PRO turned to some of the minds behind the trend to see how they walk the tightrope of statement-making design.

Pink is a power color in the bedroom of Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz's Rockaway apartment. The night tables and bed are Noriega-Ortiz's own design; the Mongolian lambswool bedspread has been custom dyed; the chandelier is by La Murrina.

Photo: Antoine Bootz

The Single-Color Stunner

New York City–based designer Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz let his hair down when designing his own beach apartment in Rockaway, New York. "I'm very fond of monochromatic rooms, so when I'm allowed, I like to go all out. "

Fed up with the tired idea that pink is only for girls' bedrooms, "we decided to do one for two grown men. We had all the pinks match each other to create an even background." The chandelier, he adds, was shipped from Venice, "because nobody buys pink chandeliers in New York." A Mongolian lambswool bed covering had to be custom colored three times to reach the perfect rosy shade.

Only a sliding glass door separates this room from the rest of the home, which is decorated in green Venetian plaster. Against that, the pink bedroom is like a blooming flower.

Jeff Andrews's eye-popping living room for Kaley Cuoco features metallic wallpaper from the designer's collection for Astek, a custom sofa with acid-yellow Pierre Frey upholstery, and crystal LED lighting from Lee Broom.

Photo: Grey Crawford

Natural Separation

Known to push the boundaries, interior decorator Jeff Andrews removed all creative constraints when designing actress Kaley Cuoco's living room. "I pulled the colors for the custom Kyle Bunting hide rug directly from the painting by Ryan McGinness—it's a contemporary, faceted patchwork situation." Metallic wallpaper covers the walls, giving the space a "jewel-box effect…subtly bouncing light around the room."

This kaleidoscopic room is sunken, creating a natural separation from other areas in the home. "The steps down allow it to feel even more like a destination," says Andrews.

A colorful, pattern-studded London kitchen decorated by Patrick Mele. The range and hood are by Wolf.

Photo: Miguel Flores-Vianna

In the home of fashion designer Adam Lippes, Fireclay tiles in graphic dark green and white cover the powder room.

Photo: Stephen Kent Johnson

The Power Room

When David Kelley and his husband Victor Kimble moved from a 1930s Tudor to a brand-new, modern white box in Minneapolis, they had every intention of leaning into quiet and monochromatic interiors—but in the end, the duo could not fend off their natural predilection for color. Working with the custom wallpaper producer Jason O'Malley to create a diva-inspired wall covering for their bathroom, the couple turned the powder room into a "power" room filled with the likenesses of Grace Jones, Blondie, and Madonna, among others.

Wallpaper detail by Jason O'Malley, featuring portraits of Grace Jones, Dolly Parton, Madonna, and other divas. The design adorns a powder room at the home of David Kelley and Victor Kimble.

The project embodies one truism of high-impact design, which is that powder rooms are compelling spaces for daring decisions. Not only are they small, they're often highly visible to guests—meaning they're intimate venues for a big "wow" moment. (O'Malley, who regularly produces bold, illustrated wall coverings, jokes, "I've come to be known as the powder room guy…and I'm good with that.") For Kelley and his husband, theirs feels "like a nightclub," explains the creative producer. "We took the plunge and chose a dark gray that even influenced the choice of adding a black ceiling, black plumbing, and cement counter."

Another O'Malley enthusiast, Linda Dubliner, also indulged in a powder-room project, deploying a bird-with-binoculars wallpaper that "added a whimsical element" and tied in with the home's fabulous view of rolling hills. Next to the rest of the house's bright white decor, this sultry, dark room is like donning sunglasses on a bright summer's day.

A highly detailed, illustrated wallpaper sourced at BHV in Paris wraps designer Arren Williams's powder room.

Photo: Courtesy Arren Williams

And in the city of love, Canadian designer Arren Williams recounts his own amour for bold wall coverings sourced at local shops while traveling. "I was shopping in Paris and accidentally stumbled across this paper at the BHV department store," he says of the graphic black-and-white pattern depicting a psychedelic array of stars and faces. "I fell immediately in love, and bought a few rolls on a whim—my kind of travel souvenir."

"I said, let's go nuts here and make the whole room an artwork," Peter Marino recalls of a powder room he designed for an Upper East Side townhouse in Manhattan. The mural was painted by Eli Sudbrack; the mirrored cabinet is by Gio Ponti; the chandelier is by Verner Panton.

Photo: Saylor H. Durston

Years later, he bought a home in Toronto with a tiny powder room and knew it was the perfect spot for this "gloriously barmy wallpaper," as he describes it. The rest of the house is decorated in a softer style, "still with pattern, but less monochrome and more color. We've always loved an eclectic mix of vintage and new."

A Robert Crowder wallpaper adds drama to a Brooklyn powder room designed by Carrier and Company.

Photo: Sam Frost

Portal Possibilities

Charu Gandhi, designer of the London studio Elicyon, intended to "create a room that was 'other' than the rest of the home, an experience for a visitor." Early on, Gandhi says, the studio turned to the idea of a flora-and-fauna-centered theme, adding that the color pink "was an early inspiration."

The home's decor is serene, primarily cast in an ivory palette. But Gandhi explains that once you open the blond timber door to the guest room, "Boom! You're in the jungle room. That is part of its pleasure. It does not hold back any punches and its impact is immediate and forceful."

Elicyon's design for a guest room features a hanging chair from Bonacina 1889, bedside tables from Nicholas Haslam, and a bed and bench from Urbanmint.

Photo: Patrick Williamson; courtesy Elicyon

The room leans into a colorful tropical theme—complete with a pineapple lamp.

Photo: Patrick Williamson; courtesy Elicyon

All the furniture was curated specifically for the project. Gandhi muses, "In fact, the iterative and playful process of pulling the furniture together is really where the magic came together."

Purvi Padia believes that "residential luxury and style are not concrete ideas but rather creative works of art." After a decade in the beauty and fashion industries, Padia got artistic when she turned to her own home.

Though the palette of the kids' room in Purvia Padia's Tribeca home is subdued, the designer turned to texture and sculptural elements—like toy sheep, sculptural sconces by Kelly Wearstler, and ceramics by Nest Interiors—to make a statement.

Photo: Scott Jones

When designing her Tribeca pad, Padia wanted a room for her children that was more playful and casual than the rest of the home. She explains that it was important that the room feel "youthful and whimsical, but since it lives literally in the middle of the floor plan on the lower level of the duplex, it acts as a passageway as well. So, I needed it to serve as a kids' lounge yet also be chic enough to be a focal point of the home."

The rest of the unit's polished decor transitions in this connecting room's contrasting play on light and dark. The room also boasts an African safari motif. "While we used contrast to create pop and interest, we kept the overall color palette neutral and incorporated a lot of texture, so as you transition through the home to the rest of the spaces, there is the common thread of neutral tones and rich textures," Padia adds.

In her daughter Nile's room in San Miguel de Allende, AD100 designer Michelle Nussbaumer conceived a mural based on a pattern from a 1940s Mexican plate. Rajasthani hangings form a canopy for the Nussbaumer-designed bed.

Photo: Douglas Friedman

Designer Richard Keith Langham gives the exercise room of a Mississippi residence a fanciful attitude with graphic floor and ceiling patterns. The bold carpeting is by Durkan, and the striped fabric that tents the ceiling is by Romo.

Photo: Pieter Estersohn

The High-Impact Home Gym

Richard Comizio's Greenwich, Connecticut, Georgian Colonial is appropriately appointed with tradition and elegance, as seen in the wood-paneled library and the sweeping staircase in the entrance hall. But there's one room that comes on strong: the gym.

A portfolio manager by day and now, it seems, gym designer by night, Comizio designed his home gym with the help of his friend, Naples-born graffiti artist Carlo Manzella. Manzella's message reads "Embrace the Suck," which Comizio defines as having "the mental toughness to see the work through to the end. You continue with the hard-charging attitude of being able to keep moving forward and never, ever give up!"

How to Use a Cartrdge With Design Space

Source: https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/in-these-indulgent-spaces-designers-go-all-out

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