Modern Design for Art Collectors

An Uptown apartment combines gallery views with the comforts of home

Modern Design for Art Collectors
Left: A large-scale work by Kikuo Saito (from Octavia Art Gallery in New Orleans) adorns the apartment’s entrance, above a sleek console from Chicago’s Jayson Home and Akari light sculpture from Noguchi. Right: French doors open to a petite balcony garden. To the side, an antique German cabinet from 1st Dibs holds decorative pieces including a Lin Emery sculpture. Artworks by Wolf Kahn (top) and Pablo Picasso (bottom) complete the vignette.

“Small house, big art” was the owner’s vision for transforming her newly purchased apartment in a historic St. Charles Avenue building. And that’s what Leslie Newman of Space Interior Design helped create: A haven for the homeowner’s cherished art collection that captured the space’s airy elegance and calm atmosphere.

This wasn’t Newman’s first project with the homeowner, or her first encounter with the building, which dates to 1906, having evolved over that time from a private home to rental apartments to condominiums in the late 1990s. Newman had previously helped the same client decorate a unit on the building’s first floor and had assisted with remote design work during the pandemic, when the client was still living in a home out of state. Newman is also a former resident of the building (who led the redecorating effort of its lobby and hallways). But this was her first chance to work with the homeowner on a project from scratch, aided by Matthew Kohnke, the owner of MNK Design/Build (whose other projects include local businesses Cure and Vals as well as multiple residences).

The second-floor apartment’s good bones were apparent from the start. The homeowner was immediately drawn to the ample light and high ceilings, as well as a smart floor plan that made the unit feel much bigger than its 926 square feet. Those attributes made for a strong foundation, but as the owner said, “It wasn’t balanced. And it wasn’t graceful. And so, we started changing things.”

Modern Design for Art Collectors
Left: Clear sight lines through the apartment emphasize height and airiness and highlight the homeowner’s art collection. Right: In the streamlined office space, a fold-down desk by Maxine Snider keeps the computer out of sight. A Kartell Louis Ghost chair from Design Within Reach and drawing by Ellsworth Kelly maintain the clean lines.

In addition to balance and grace, the apartment needed a boost in other priority areas. The first was storage, as it offered only a 7’x7’ bedroom closet and a built-in cabinet that sat awkwardly in a corner of the dining room. Next was a powder room, as the unit’s sole bathroom could only be accessed through the bedroom. The kitchen needed a total rethink, and of course, the final layout had to maintain abundant wall space for art while prioritizing sight lines that accentuated the space’s height and airiness.

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In addition to the renovation, the homeowner sought a look that was softer and more feminine than her previous spaces, which leaned more contemporary. That led Newman toward rounded shapes in furnishings and a neutral palette that let the artwork shine. The two referred to the design direction as “modern French” and let that spirit guide their selections of furniture and ornamental pieces.

To create the powder room, Newman, Kohnke, and the homeowner transformed the living-room-adjacent laundry room into a dual-function space, adding a toilet and bar sink topped with black marble. They hid the stacked washer/dryer behind sleek cabinetry, which disguised the laundry function completely. To create additional design interest, Newman chose smoked glass layered with a smaller gold mirror and a chandelier by Circa. Decorative painter Anne McGee gave the ceiling some visual punch with a gold twist. Said Newman, “When you’re sitting in the living room, you can notice it, but I didn’t want it to be just painted or gold leaf – it looks a little scratchy and broken down, which I really like.”

In the living room, there was no obvious space for a television, so Newman asked local metal fabricator David C. Rockhold to create a metal column that would hold the TV and serve as a sculptural element. Rockhold also created the room’s custom curtain rods and rings, which Newman wanted to “feel heavy and genuine instead of someone else’s thinner rods – I wanted to have heft to it.”

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Because the apartment had no foyer or entry space, Newman simulated the feeling by moving the walls forward a bit and building closet towers on each side of the front door, offering 12-foot high storage for coats, as well as other accessories and files. The closets were covered by the low-profile cabinet front approach employed elsewhere in the home, creating highly functional storage that virtually disappeared into the walls.

Modern Design for Art Collectors
The kitchen is a study in form and function, with custom cabinets by Matthew Kohnke and Taj Mahal quartzite on countertops and backsplash. A colorful piece by Anastasia Pelias (“Automatic,” from Ferrara Showman Gallery) enlivens the scene.

The living room ceiling had to be lowered slightly to accommodate ductwork for air conditioning in the powder room (the previous laundry room was not air-conditioned), and the dining room adopted a slightly lower cove ceiling to allow the kitchen stove to vent outside (a change from the former recirculating model). Given the generous “starting” ceiling heights, the homeowner felt these were “totally worthwhile” tradeoffs for upgraded mechanical function.

In the kitchen (previously a U-shaped space dating to the mid-’80s), Newman moved the entrance from the dining room to the living room side, expanded the footprint slightly by taking a bit of space from the dining room, and changed the layout to a more efficient galley arrangement. Kohnke created custom drawers and cabinetry that suited the homeowner’s specifications, all designed with precision to optimize storage and function and hide what the homeowner called “the uglies,” like the trash bin and water filter.

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Moving the kitchen/dining room wall ended up shifting the placement of the bedroom door, creating a smoother sightline through the apartment (which Newman highlighted with an eye-catching antique chandelier in the bedroom). Interior doorways were raised to emphasize the feeling of height. The team was able to keep most of the unit’s original windows and glass (“You can see it wave in the sunlight – it’s gorgeous,” said the homeowner), and where necessary, Kohnke matched any new woodwork to the existing designs.

Modern Design for Art Collectors
The serene bedroom space welcomes a colorful work by Andreas Breunig (“oT4,” from Nino Mier Gallery in Los Angeles) over the bed and another by Helen Frankenthaler. Concealed built-in shelves on each side contain the homeowner’s books with minimal visual clutter.

The bedroom presented a dilemma common to many old New Orleans homes – an uneven wall where the building had settled over time – which the homeowner noticed when having shutters installed. Kohnke worked some visual magic by moving moldings and adjusting the shutters to create the illusion of evenness. Newman added functionality to the room with a cozy reading nook in one corner and a workspace in the other, moving the built-in cabinet that once occupied a corner of the dining room into the bedroom to create a concealed storage space for office necessities. That same storage approach was used to corral the homeowner’s extensive collection of books on each side of the bed, with hidden cabinets serving as bookshelves.

In the primary bath, an old whirlpool tub was replaced with a glassed-in shower/tub. Kohnke designed streamlined cabinetry with (deceptively) ample storage capacity, and the porcelain bathroom tile was sourced from Stafford Tile & Stone. “We needed something that could stand on its own because it’s really only the floor and shower,” said Newman.

Modern Design for Art Collectors
The pristine primary bathroom features custom cabinetry by Matthew Kohnke and hardware sourced from H. Rault. The tile is from Stafford Tile & Stone.

Apart from the tile in the bathroom, the intent had been to keep the original flooring through most of the home. However, a water leak from the apartment upstairs upended those plans very late in the renovation process, requiring the team to rip up the already refinished floors. Newman chose a new red oak flooring to provide a neutral background with a matte finish. “I wanted this floor to be invisible, not make any statement – just pretty,” said Newman. That leak also meant tearing out and reinstalling the living room ceiling, which had already been redone once during the process to add an overlooked air conditioning vent.

Those headaches aside, the homeowner was thrilled with the end result: a gracious space that offers tranquil views of the stained-glass windows in the neighboring church and a backdrop for the breathtaking paintings and sculpture that adorn every room. As she said, “[Newman] had the vision. I had the art. I wanted a small house where I could put big art… And that’s what we ended up with – big art.”

 

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