The Insider: Boerum Hill Parlor Floor Impresses With Chic Decor From Online Sources
A classic brownstone parlor floor, designed for entertaining, gets a blue-and-white scheme with a bit of Hollywood glitz.
When a movie-business couple, late of SoHo, bought this impressively proportioned classic brownstone, it was basically good to go — fully renovated and only in need, said Long Island-based interior designer Crystal Sinclair, of a coat of paint.
She recommended her go-to white, Benjamin Moore’s Chantilly Lace, and once painted, set to work furnishing the space in “crazy quick turnaround time.” Though the couple lives in the whole house, they asked Sinclair, who works with private clients as well as through Homepolish, to focus on the parlor floor and give them, she said, “a super-sophisticated space for entertaining.”
“The space isn’t a perfect rectangle, it’s an L-shape,” Sinclair said. “Challenging to lay out, but easy to separate into areas.”
The rear portion of the floor, where there’s a blue velvet sectional and a colorful wall of books, is somewhat more informal, intended as a place for the homeowners to watch TV and enjoy home-alone time. “The front is a little more formal, designed for having people over, with lots of places to sit and put drinks and food.”
“Blue was our theme, more muted in front and more vivid and playful in back,” Sinclair said.
The chic results were achieved on a budget. There’s nothing custom here. The couple came in with only one major piece of furniture, a mid-century wood console, along with art and collections picked up on their travels. Everything else, including large upholstered seating pieces, was sourced online, from mid-priced websites.
A vignette in the front hall features a table from Allmodern, a bronze stool from Restoration Hardware Teen and a piece of blue-and-white art from Minted that establishes the color scheme.
The mid-century console already belonged to the homeowners. Aside from that, they started at zero in furnishing the parlor floor.
Sinclair culled objects and accessories that were “scattered around the house” and worked them into the décor.
The couple does dinner parties in the downstairs dining room and cocktails for large groups on the parlor floor, which is two windows across in front and three in back.
Blue velvet chairs from High Fashion Home and art hung salon-style are among the appointments in the middle of the space.
A blue sofa from Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams and a gilded mirror from Anthropologie are key pieces in the front.
A round table from Pottery Barn with a rustic wood top and chrome legs “works as a centerpiece but isn’t too heavy, so it doesn’t block the fireplace,” the designer said.
Art is propped on a floating IKEA console, upgraded with a marble top. There’s another on the opposite side of the fireplace for symmetry.
Over the mantel, an abstract work from Z Gallery reinforces the color palette.
The homeowners had “a ton of books,” which Sinclair arranged on existing shelves by color “to make it look more cohesive and brighten up the space.”
A white shag rug from Creative Accents and a marble table from Restoration Hardware (heavy, but on casters) along with a TV, furnish the more casual lounging area at the rear of the parlor floor.
[Photos by Genevieve Garruppo for Homepolish]
The Insider is Brownstoner’s weekly in-depth look at a notable interior design/renovation project, by design journalist Cara Greenberg. Find it here every Thursday morning.
Got a project to propose for The Insider? Contact Cara at caramia447 [at] gmail [dot] com.
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