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How a Former Manhattan Nightclub Became a Calm, Sunny Family Loft

Jaimie Baird preserved an 1866 Tribeca loft’s exposed brick and industrial scale while adding warm color, molding, concealed storage and flexible rooms for a family of five.

By ThatPainter Team 18 October 2026
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A Tribeca loft that once operated as the 1980s nightclub Vinyl became a family home by keeping its industrial bones and changing everything around them: warmer color, quieter detailing, an open kitchen, hidden storage and rooms designed for three teenagers. The project shows how paint and proportion can soften a dramatic shell without erasing its history.

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The starting point: a nightclub inside an 1866 loft

Architectural Digest’s January 19, 2024 home tour describes Jaimie Baird’s two-story, ground-floor Tribeca loft, shared with her husband Chip and their three teenage children. The building dates to 1866 and retains exposed brick and a tall front entrance. In the 1980s, the space became Vinyl, a Manhattan nightclub associated in the feature with visitors including Grace Jones and Madonna.

That history created an obvious design trap. Reproducing nightclub imagery throughout the home would have made the apartment feel like a themed venue rather than a place for a family. Baird instead treated the past as architectural context. Brick, scale and selected references remain; the atmosphere is deliberately domestic.

Her own description of the process is useful for anyone renovating an old loft: “I would say my style is very clean. I start with a blank canvas and I really try to understand how my clients live.” In this case, the clients were her family, and the brief was a retreat from the city’s intensity. “New York is an intense place to live,” she says. “When I walk into my home, I want something a little bit more calm and serene.”

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Preserve the industrial shell, then soften it

Let original brick carry the history

Exposed brick is the most direct reminder that this is not a newly built suburban interior. Leaving it visible preserves texture, irregularity and a connection to the building’s earlier uses. It also gives a room a naturally variegated surface, so the rest of the palette does not need to work as hard.

For a similar renovation, the practical sequence is important. Stabilize and clean the masonry first; decide which walls should remain exposed; then choose painted surfaces that sit comfortably beside the brick’s undertones. Painting every adjacent wall stark white can make old brick look orange and disconnected. A warm, muted neutral usually creates a calmer transition, while a deeper earthy tone can make a large loft feel more grounded. Test large samples beside the actual masonry in morning, afternoon and evening light before committing.

Use molding to change the scale

Baird combined the loft’s industrial details with intricate wall and ceiling molding. Molding introduces a residential vocabulary without pretending the building is a period townhouse. On a tall loft wall, it also breaks down the visual height into readable fields.

Paint is what makes this move coherent. Matching the molding to the wall produces a quiet, architectural relief; separating it with a closely related shade makes the profile more legible; using a strong contrast turns it into a statement and can work against the desired serenity. The feature does not identify exact colors, so the transferable lesson is about value and sheen rather than a named formula: keep the relationship controlled, and let the profile provide the ornament.

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Build calm with an earthy, limited palette

The home uses a warm, earthy palette alongside custom and vintage furniture. Limiting the number of dominant hues is especially effective in an open loft, where living, dining and kitchen areas are visible at once. A restrained palette lets the eye move from brick to molding to furniture instead of competing with a series of unrelated accent walls.

A useful painting plan is to assign roles rather than chase a single “perfect” color:

  • Background: one forgiving neutral for most connected walls.
  • Architectural frame: a related value for trim, paneling and ceiling details.
  • Anchors: darker or more saturated notes supplied by furniture, rugs, aged brass and the brick itself.
  • Private-room variation: individual bedroom colors or art that allow personality without breaking the home’s overall rhythm.

This approach keeps the loft sunny and composed without requiring a blank, all-white interior.

Make the open plan serve real family life

Remove walls where togetherness matters

Baird removed interior walls to connect the living room, dining area and kitchen. The reason was practical, not merely visual. “Every weekend there’s like 20 teenagers around the island,” she says. “So we wanted an open-plan living room and kitchen so we could all cook and eat together.”

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For painters, an open plan means color decisions must be coordinated across sightlines. Establish the main wall color before choosing feature treatments. If one zone needs emphasis, use furniture, lighting or a subtle value shift rather than a collection of unrelated accent walls. A continuous ceiling color can make the connected rooms feel larger; a carefully placed ceiling treatment can define the dining or kitchen area without rebuilding a wall.

Make the island the social and visual center

The kitchen island is carved Calacatta Paonazzo with aged-brass panels, a material combination that supplies pattern and warmth in the middle of the open room. Because the island is a major visual anchor, the surrounding paint should support it rather than compete with its veining or metalwork.

When a stone island is this prominent, bring sample boards of the stone, metal and cabinet finish to the paint store. Compare them under the same lighting used in the kitchen. A color that looks neutral on a fan deck may read pink, green or yellow beside veined stone. The goal is not to match every undertone, but to avoid an accidental clash.

Hide working storage without losing access

A walk-in pantry sits behind a kitchen wall, with tall shelving and a custom rolling ladder. Baird explains the motivation plainly: “I’m a total neat freak, so having storage in the main kitchen would have driven me nuts. This is probably our most used room in the house.”

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Concealed storage protects the calm visual field while keeping supplies close to the island. It also creates a painting opportunity: the pantry can carry a more durable, darker or more playful finish because it is discovered rather than constantly seen. Use a washable coating where hands, boxes and ladder traffic will mark the walls, and protect corners with a robust trim detail. Keep the main kitchen palette quieter so the transition from public room to work room feels intentional.

Give teenagers rooms that can grow up with them

The bedrooms use art, vintage lighting and furnishings that feel personal without being overtly childlike. That distinction matters in a home with three teenagers: a room should reflect its occupant now, but it should not require a full redesign when interests change.

Paint can provide the flexible layer. Choose a durable finish for walls, leave room for art to change, and let lamps, textiles and small furnishings carry the most temporary colors. If siblings’ rooms need individuality, vary the value or undertone within the same overall family rather than assigning each room an unrelated bright hue. This keeps the hallway and shared spaces visually calm while allowing private rooms to be more expressive.

Vintage pieces also help avoid a showroom effect. A 1960s Fritz Hansen armchair, vintage lamps, rugs and bedroom furnishings introduce patina that new paint alone cannot create. Balance is essential: old surfaces should look chosen, not merely left over.

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Use one deliberate historical wink in the den

Downstairs, a den provides a place for gatherings and sleepovers. Baird says her teenagers needed somewhere to congregate, and the feature reports that the room sleeps a solid 12 people. A ceiling disco ball references the building’s nightclub past with a light touch rather than turning the den into a replica club.

This is a strong rule for adaptive interiors: concentrate the theatrical reference in one element. In a den, a reflective ceiling fixture can be playful because the room is already designed for teenagers and parties. The rest of the finish scheme can stay comfortable and residential. If you want a comparable decorative object, treat an accessible disco ball as an inspiration category, not as the unidentified vintage object shown in the feature; its brand and model are not specified.

Furniture and fittings that establish the mood

The feature names specific pieces, but it does not establish broad retail availability or exact model information for every item. Their value here is compositional: natural wood, aged metal, sculptural lighting and soft seating keep the loft from feeling like a commercial interior.

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Element Role in the home Painting or planning lesson
Custom cerused-oak dining table and media cabinet by Jeff Soderbergh Introduces pale, tactile wood and visual continuity Keep nearby wall color quiet enough for the grain to read
Italian side tables and a 1960s Fritz Hansen armchair Adds collected, period-aware accents Use art and small furnishings for variation instead of repainting every wall
Montauk sofa Softens the loft’s hard masonry and large scale Repeat the sofa’s warmth in the surrounding neutral or textiles
Calacatta Paonazzo island with aged-brass panels Creates a central kitchen focal point Test paint beside the actual stone and metal under installed lighting
1960s Poul Henningsen pendants and stools from Thomas Hayes Studio Give the open kitchen a layered, inhabited feel Coordinate ceiling color and sheen so fixtures remain legible
Custom stainless-steel and brass pantry ladder by Andrew Nebbett Design Makes high storage practical and visually intentional Protect high-contact wall zones with a washable finish
Vintage lamps, rugs and bedroom pieces Make private rooms personal rather than childlike Use paint as a stable backdrop for changing collections

The feature also mentions a 1,100-pound garden table that took nine men to move. That detail is a reminder to confirm structural access, stair turns, floor capacity and delivery paths before ordering statement furniture in a loft.

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A painting playbook for a former commercial space

1. Document what deserves to stay

Photograph brick, columns, ceiling height, old openings and any distinctive entry features before demolition. Mark the elements that carry the building’s identity. The objective is not to preserve every surface indiscriminately; it is to know which ones should remain visible while new work is planned around them.

2. Map sightlines before selecting colors

Stand at the main entrance, kitchen island, dining table and stair landing. Note which walls are seen together. In an open plan, one color decision can affect several rooms, so create a small elevation sketch or digital mock-up showing brick, molding, cabinetry, stone and upholstery at once.

3. Repair and prime according to the substrate

Old masonry, previously painted plaster, new drywall and wood trim absorb paint differently. Clean loose material, repair cracks, and use the primer appropriate to each surface. Spot-priming repairs without sealing the surrounding porous area can leave flashing, especially where a broad wall is viewed in raking light.

4. Sample for value, undertone and sheen

Paint large boards rather than relying on tiny cards. Test them beside exposed brick and under the actual pendants or lamps. Compare the same color in the intended sheen: a wall coating with a little washability may be practical in a family kitchen, while a lower-sheen ceiling can reduce glare around reflective fixtures.

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5. Paint architectural relief as one composition

For wall and ceiling molding, decide whether the relief should disappear into the background or read as a graphic layer. Keep the number of transitions limited. Too many contrasting strips can fragment the loft; too little differentiation can make expensive trim vanish.

6. Protect circulation and high-contact areas

Teenagers, weekend guests and a rolling pantry ladder create more wear than a formal sitting room. Specify washable wall finishes where hands and furniture meet the surface, add corner protection where needed, and keep touch-up paint labeled by room and sheen. A small maintenance plan preserves the serene effect better than a delicate finish that quickly shows damage.

7. Install lighting before the final color check

Vintage pendants, lamps and a disco ball all change how color is perceived. Make the final approval after representative fixtures are installed, or at least use lamps with the same color temperature. A neutral that works in daylight can feel unexpectedly warm or gray under evening light.

The design decisions in tension

The loft works because it does not choose one extreme everywhere. Each decision balances two legitimate needs.

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Design question Choice made in the feature What to consider in another home
How much history should remain visible? Exposed brick and the building’s scale stay; nightclub imagery is restrained Preserve authentic structure, then select only one or two references to the past
Should rooms be open or separate? Walls were removed between living, dining and kitchen areas Open plans support group cooking and supervision but require coordinated color and acoustics
Should storage be displayed? A pantry hides tall shelving behind a kitchen wall Conceal visual clutter where calm matters; keep frequently used supplies accessible
How should a family home feel tailored? Custom pieces are mixed with vintage furniture and practical gathering rooms Reserve bespoke spending for high-use anchors and use portable pieces for changing needs
How much theatrical detail is enough? A disco ball supplies a single wink to the nightclub era Concentrate playful references so the home does not become a theme set

Why the transformation feels sunny rather than nostalgic

“Sunny” is not achieved by covering the loft in bright yellow or by erasing its darker past. It comes from contrast managed at several scales: warm earth colors against rough brick, decorative molding against industrial volume, soft upholstery against hard stone and a kitchen arranged for people rather than display. The result is historically aware without being museum-like.

The family’s habits provide the final test. A room that can hold a crowded weekend around the island, hide supplies in a hardworking pantry, offer teenagers a den for sleepovers and still feel restful when the house is quiet has been designed around use. Paint supports that plan by setting visual boundaries, absorbing or reflecting light where appropriate and giving changing furniture a dependable background.

What to take from the Tribeca loft

A former nightclub does not need to look like a nightclub to honor its story. Keep the elements that cannot be replicated—masonry, height, old openings and traces of scale—then use color, molding, lighting and storage to make everyday life easier. Let one object, such as the den’s disco ball, carry the playful historical reference. The broader lesson is more durable: a successful loft renovation is not a choice between preservation and comfort. It is a deliberate arrangement in which the original character remains legible while every new surface earns its place in the family’s routine.

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