The Insider: Designer Personalizes Own Prospect Heights Rental With Paint, Lighting, Music
The fact that the 900-square-foot apartment she shares with her husband is a rental did not stop interior designer Molly Torres Portnof of Brooklyn-based DATE Interiors from going all-out to create a distinctive space that reflects their tastes and interests.
Photo by Louisa and Fyodor
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The fact that the 900-square-foot apartment she shares with her husband is a rental did not stop interior designer Molly Torres Portnof of Brooklyn-based DATE Interiors from going all-out to create a distinctive space that reflects their tastes and interests. In fact, compared to navigating the needs and wants of her residential and commercial clients, Portnof found the creative freedom in designing a home of her own very liberating.
“With my own apartment, I loved being able to act on all my first thoughts and ideas,” she said. “I could concentrate on just having fun with the space and doing whatever I wanted to do.”
The one-bedroom floor-through in a vintage row house had been renovated quite recently, with nice wood floors, tall windows, a decorative fireplace and an updated kitchen and bath. “It was purely a furnishing and decorating project,” Portnof said. Step one was painting everything Benjamin Moore’s Super White: walls, ceiling, crown and baseboard moldings. “That helps blend everything together rather than having your eye go to nicks and dings and imperfections.” Then she swapped out light fixtures and added ceiling medallions, removable wallpaper, pipe-and-wood shelving, battery-operated or plug-in sconces, furniture, rugs and artwork.
Each item was carefully chosen, with nothing extraneous and nothing cookie-cutter, from the music paraphernalia that is a leitmotif to the layered Moroccan rugs and velvet sofa that is just the right shade of blue.
Because music is a large part of the couple’s lives, carving out space to listen to and play music and to display vinyl records, guitars and other musical paraphernalia was important. Personal photographs and mementoes from the couple’s travels identify the apartment as theirs and no one else’s. Said Portnof: “When someone walks into our apartment for the first time and says, ‘This feels like you,’ it’s the biggest compliment.”
Portnof embarked on an interior design career a decade ago when she and her husband Harry Portnof — he runs Brooklyn-based Greenway Records and is a partner in Levitation, a music events promotor out of Austin, Texas — were living in a 500-square-foot Manhattan studio. She dove into to “making the space feel bigger and better” with careful space planning and new furnishings, and found she loved the process much more than she loved her job in fashion digital marketing. After stints at Studio Sofield and One King’s Lane, she went back to school, studying interior design at the Fashion Institute of Technology and launching DATE Interiors, a full-service design firm (the name derives from Portnof’s Instagram handle, @designingatinyempire).
The blue velvet sofa from Interior Define and the vintage Persian rug, from House of Seance and found on Etsy, were the first things Portnof acquired for the apartment. “I loved them both so much,” she said — simple as that.
Leather safari chairs from Third Life Designs were another Etsy find. The coffee table came from Anthropologie.
The rattan bar cart was sourced from Serena and Lily.
The customized metal pipe and wood shelving unit from Soil & Oak was designed to hold electronic equipment and vinyl records. A pink half-wall behind softens the feel of the space.
Dining chairs by Pierre Jenneret came from France & Son; they’re paired with a Saarinen-style pedestal table.
One of the apartment’s few negatives, in Portnof’s view, is the lack of an entry foyer. “There was no space for a console, but I felt there should be some type of entry moment and a place to put keys.” She had the round mirror with a single shelf made by an Etsy vendor, JB + DG, to serve the purpose.
Framed art of personal significance, including concert posters, travel mementoes and friends’ photographs, are hung salon-style. “If it doesn’t have meaning, I don’t understand why you’d put it on a wall,” Portnof said.
Vintage Moroccan and Turkish rugs provide warmth and color in the bedroom.
A wide woven leather bench from From the Source sits at the foot of the bed. A round mirror from Anthropologie and a bubble chandelier from West Elm offset the square angles of the room.
The lightweight fiberglass ceiling medallion “is such a good trick for rentals,” Portnof said. “Three little nails bring quick, easy drama to a space.”
The wall-mounted vanity table, from the Finnish Design Shop, has only two legs and takes up minimal space.
Brass-framed wedding photos of the couple are arranged in a grid. “Here I got a little sentimental,” Portnof said.
[Photos and styling by Louisa and Fyodor]
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The Insider is Brownstoner’s weekly in-depth look at a notable renovation and/or interior design project by design journalist Cara Greenberg. Find it here every Thursday morning.
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