Everybody has a favorite memory of home. The husband homeowner of this Lenox Hill apartment that he and his wife and two sons recently moved into continues to recall an experience that occurred during the design process. He and his wife spent many hours with Jesse Carrier and Mara Miller, the interior design team they had commissioned for the interiors of their three-bedroom, prewar apartment.
“I keep remembering the most enjoyable day during the whole process,” says the homeowner, “where my wife and I spent a full day shopping with Mara and Jesse, just wandering with them looking for ideas and inspirations. By seeing what we liked and what we responded to, informed them of our aesthetic.” While the four of them ambled through the New York Design Center and elsewhere, the designers paid attention to what their clients liked and responded to. Of the process of designing the rooms of this apartment, Miller relates what she calls her and her husband’s “secret power: We’re good listeners. We look for solutions.”
Indeed, as the homeowner says, “We kept falling in love with certain pieces,” citing a table that now resides in their dining room, as well as a sculptural chandelier from Dennis Miller that hangs in the foyer. He cites, too, an antique Chippendale chest wrapped in an indigo-hued leather and accented with brass nailheads, a piece that occupies the entry and becomes the first item one sees upon entering the apartment.
As Miller emphasizes, “Every job Jesse and I undertake means involving the clients in every decision. These clients didn’t have an especially strong, or set, point of view, so it was our job to decipher what elegance meant to them, what comfort meant to them, what formality meant to them.” Among the dynamics that Carrier and Miller discerned was, as Carrier relates, “They wanted to strike a balance between elegance and accessibility for the family. They didn’t want anything to be off limits, especially with two active children.”
A rug from Doris Leslie Blau complements a wall covering from Schumacher in the living room. The window fabric is from Schumacher.
Chairs from Highland House surround a table from Dennis Miller in the dining room. The chair fabric is from Cowtan & Tout and the ceiling fixture is by John Pomp Studios.
The cabinetry in the butler’s pantry is custom by Elizabeth Vergara of Vergara Homes, and is painted in a high-gloss finish.
Counter stools in the kitchen are from West Elm. The range is Wolf and the hood is from RangeCraft.
A rug designed by Carrier and Company for Loloi Rugs complements the custom designed library by Elizabeth Vergara of Vergara Homes, and fabricated by Axos. An armchair from Highland House is covered in a fabric from Holly Hunt.
In the powder room, the vanity is custom from Maiolo Marble. The paint color is Benjamin Moore’s Summer Nights in a high-gloss finish.
A wall covering from Holland & Sherry covers the walls of the primary bedroom. The sconces are from Currey and Company and the nightstand is from Century Furniture.
Sconces from Hudson Valley Lighting illuminate the primary bath.
As a husband-wife team of designers themselves, the Carrier and Company duo have a particular perspective on other couples with children. “As a couple ourselves, we’re very open to compromise,” Miller says. One of the directives from the clients was to infuse their rooms—subtly and overtly—with Asian motifs, given that the wife is of Chinese ancestry. The dining room walls, for instance, feature a detailed Gracie wallpaper depicting cranes and birds in flight, cherry blossoms and people boating on a lake, all part of a decidedly Chinese-inspired pastoral landscape. The husband was especially pleased that the designers had discovered that circular modern dining table that would be used in a traditional way. “We were fixated on finding a round table where we could put a Lazy Susan, a traditionally Asian way of serving food for family gatherings,” he says.
And in keeping with a Chinese penchant for red, a hue that signals good fortune, the dining chairs are upholstered in a bright raspberry mohair. A “secretive” closet door opens amid the wallpaper to reveal plates, bowls, and platters adorned with red Chinese decorative motifs. “Mohair is a family-friendly material in a dining room,” Carrier emphasizes, “but you don’t often see it in red. And while the wallpaper is a traditional pattern, we purposely didn’t use an antique rug because we wanted to keep the room informal and welcoming.”
Although the apartment had been gutted under the direction of architect Elizabeth Vergara, the original floor plan was replicated almost verbatim. Hallways were widened and walls removed to bring in more natural light throughout, but the essential plan remained. The designers and Vergara made room, though, for what is now a dazzling blue-hued bar linking dining room and kitchen. “It’s a luxurious pop of blue lacquer,” says Miller of the prep station that draws the eye like a visual magnet. A former maid’s room was eliminated to make for a family eating area in the open-plan kitchen, a place where, the homeowner says. “Ninety-percent of our meals as a family take place.”
“We love working with families,” says Carrier, “and with this project I really do feel that Mara and I helped this family work through all the points in the design process.” As the homeowner adds, “Mara and Jesse really captured our taste perfectly. This feels like our home, but it came together because of their work.”