Two things were being delivered on the same day that this Chelsea loft was being renovated and decorated: a new carpet and a new baby. “The living room carpet was being delivered the day I went into labor,” says Francesca Ugas, who owns the residence with her husband, Mateo Ugas. So dedicated was she to getting their family’s new home completed that Ugas says, “Contractions were getting more intense, but there was no way we were leaving for the hospital before my husband rolled up the old carpet and Swiffered the space before the new carpet was delivered. We made it just in time. Theo [their second child] joined us about an hour after we got to the hospital.”
Meanwhile, Chris McGovern, the interior designer for the project, coordinated the delivery of the rug as the couple headed to the hospital. “There was a big push at the end of the project to get it done,” he says, perhaps referencing both delivery processes.
McGovern admits to having a penchant for designing spaces that, as he says, “Can’t be anywhere else than where they are. Something that makes a space differentiated from all others is one I’m drawn to.” When the Ugases purchased the 2500-square-foot loft space in what had once been a hat factory, they encountered what was listed as a one-bedroom home, despite its scale. They entrusted McGovern, along with “an incredible contractor,” as she describes Noah Liu, and architect Eugene Khananov, to reconfigure the space into a three-bedroom, two-bath residence. As Ugas recalls, “From a décor and design perspective, we just asked ourselves, ‘What do we want to come home to after a long day?’ That became the guiding principle, with a constraint that we wanted the space to look great, too.”
Because McGovern himself lives in a loft just blocks away, he’s well aware of the dynamics of such quintessential New York spaces. “The big challenge of any loft,” he says, “is that there’s usually a lot of light at the front, but it gets darker the farther back you go.” Fortunately, with this unit, there were side windows onto a courtyard, making it possible to fashion three “legal” (i.e., windowed) bedrooms. He stripped and preserved the original four wooden columns, topped with iron capitals.
A ceiling fixture from Lambert & Fils hangs above a table by Roche Bobois in the dining area.
In the kitchen, the cabinets are painted in the shade Onyx by Benjamin Moore. A custom Lambert & Fils ceiling fixture hangs over the vintage Roche Bobois dining table.
Lounge chairs from Denver Modern flank a coffee table from Palacek in the living room. The sectional is from Lee Industries, and the rug is from Stark.
A wall covering from The Pattern Collective adds a striking backdrop to the custom bar by McGovern Project.
In the office, the desk is custom by McGovern Project and fabricated by Ark Design & Build.
In the primary suite, sconces from Visual Comfort complement a wallcovering by Chris Benz. The pattern is El Quijote from Wallshoppe.
In the primary bath, the sconces are also from Visual Comfort.
While the loft had been renovated 20 years earlier, it was decided early on to take it down not only to the studs, but also to the floor joists. “During the initial walk-through, Francesca kept saying the floor felt slanted,” McGovern recalls. “When we looked closely, we saw that the floor at one end was a full brick-and-a-half off.”
The couple wanted the main living areas to remain neutral in hues, while incorporating more dramatic decorative moments in the bedrooms and within a spacious mudroom/laundry room/wine cellar whose floor now sports a backgammon-like surface. As the homeowner says of that multipurpose space, and of the primary suite whose walls are covered in Chris Benz’s vibrant blue and black El Quijote wallpaper, “I see some of the loud prints we’ve chosen and their unexpected placement, and it makes me smile. When. we were in the design phase, I would show friends samples of wallpapers we were planning to use, and they would politely encourage me to maybe consider removable wallpaper. Chris was incredibly patient through the process.”
Indicative of the family’s desire to stay and play together, the main living space is centered with a billiards table that McGovern resurfaced with a custom gray felt. “We didn’t want a bright Kelly green to be the first thing a person sees when entering,” he says. Of the game itself, the homeowner says, “My husband and I used to go out to play pool, and we wanted to bring the things we love to the space. It’s fun to pour a drink and unwind after work over a game together.”
The family also gathers by an ethanol fireplace that McGovern installed and whose surround he treated with Portola Paints’s Roman Clay. And while sitting on the carpet that was laid during her delivery, the children now play with the oversized chess pieces at the chess table.
