Some interior designers disdain working with clients who have never hired a professional before. Others avoid being hired by friends — even casual ones.
But Kati Curtis is open to both, so when Beth Rumore and Craig Stanley, a couple she knew socially, approached her about helping with the interiors of their three-bedroom penthouse, she took the meeting and, eventually, the job.
The couple (he’s a California native, and works as a financial services consultant; she grew up in Texas, and is in pharmaceutical sales) had been living in a two-bedroom apartment on the Upper West Side, but had their hearts set on living downtown.
What sold them on this apartment, in an FXFOWLE-designed building in Chelsea, was the 1,000 square feet of outdoor space, as well as what Stanley describes as a “traditional layout.”
The floor-to-ceiling windows were also a draw, filling each room with light and creating a sense of openness that, Stanley says, “makes it feel like you’re outdoors even if you’re not.”
But before they could inhabit the place, a bit of work had to be done. The kitchen and master bathroom had seen better days, and there was the teensy issue of color. Or lack of it.
“The apartment was entirely white, with the exception of the floors. It was pretty awful,” recalls Rumore. Stanley is more blunt about it: “It was hideous.” A team was assembled; architect John Reimnitz and garden designer Win Knowlton of Baldwin Hill Gardens joined Curtis.
“I’d heard plenty of stories where people found an architect, and found a designer, but everybody wanted to do their own thing and it’s kind of a drama,” says Stanley, who Curtis would later describe as “an excellent project manager.”
“But we found both at about the same time and asked them to work together, so before we even started we had a nice setup,” Stanley says. After meeting Curtis while doing yoga, Rumore had checked out the designer’s website and observed that “what she did with color was really powerful, and made a statement.”
The couple, who describe themselves as more analytical than creative, gave Curtis free rein. “I basically told her, ‘No pressure, but your design is going to make or break this apartment,’ ” jokes Rumore.
That’s because, while a few rooms were gutted — namely, the kitchen and master bath — the layout of the apartment remained basically the same.
“This is a nice, functional, usable space, but you don’t have the architectural details you’d get in a prewar setting, so it’s more reliant on the design,” Rumore says. “We were more flexible and agreeable to go bold, because we felt that’s what would really put a stamp on the place.”
“This was a stretch for them, as they had never worked with a designer,” recalls Curtis, who would share photographs of potential furniture, accessories and the like with the couple via Pinterest.
It was also a stylistic stretch because their previous apartment was, essentially, straight out of Design Within Reach. Some of Curtis’ ideas, they admit, challenged their thinking.
Like the flowered Osborne & Little wallpaper on the double-height wall along the staircase in the entryway — it’s a pattern screaming out to be noticed. Originally, Stanley thought it looked like something from his grandmother’s living room, but they decided to go for it, and today he says it is “one of the best aspects of the apartment.”
Curtis also convinced the couple, who like to entertain and cook at home four to five nights a week, to replace the kitchen cabinetry, formerly white lacquer, with Henrybuilt’s beautifully grained wood designs. She also guided them towards marble countertops with subtle green veining that would echo that vibrant hue in the living area.
Furniture was chosen with an eye towards the duo’s penchant for retro-chic modern style. “We chose vintage pieces with a mid-century feel that aren’t so iconic or recognizable, which I think gives it more personality,” explains Curtis of the selection, which includes Tommi Parzinger lounge chairs and a Paul McCobb console in the living room, as well as McCobb dining chairs reupholstered with Maharam fabric, set around a vintage-inspired dining table by Desiron. These areas are also the only ones in the apartment with white walls, a deliberate move by the designer — a way to balance out the colorful rugs, fabrics and window treatments.
“They were really open to everything,” says Curtis. “Even though there is a lot of color and pattern, there is still a sense of order, modernity and restraint.”
Curtis was careful to balance all the busy-ness with a bit of edge, like the blackened steel staircase beneath that bold floral wallpaper in the foyer and the textural grasscloth wallcovering in the master bedroom.
The couple admits the end result couldn’t be more different from their previous residence. But Stanley says that, even after living in the new pad for a year, there’s nothing he would have done differently. Rumore is more effusive.
“Every time I come home I feel like a princess, because it is such a beautiful apartment,” she says. “I’ve lived in nice apartments in great neighborhoods, and I liked being at home. But here, I love being at home.”
