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A bare, open 1,000-square-foot condo in Red Hook, Brooklyn, became a family home by putting bold pattern in carefully chosen places and using calm surfaces everywhere else. Beauty publicist Meredith Winfrey and her husband kept the apartment’s light, high ceilings, and exposed brick, then solved its practical shortcomings with a revised plan, custom storage, a rebuilt painted floor, and furniture adapted from secondhand pieces.
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The result is not a formula of colorful finishes everywhere. It is a study in proportion: concentrated wallpaper and tile create memorable moments, while creamy walls and a warm chalky floor give the eye somewhere quiet to rest. The project was documented by Morgan Goldberg for Architectural Digest on March 7, 2022.
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The apartment’s real starting point: great bones, little function
Light and character without a usable plan
Winfrey and her husband bought the second floor of a former industrial condo building during the spring 2020 period because they wanted to put down roots in New York. The unit had natural light, high ceilings, and exposed brick—features that are difficult to add after the fact. Yet the space arrived as a largely open shell with temporary dividers and no built-in closets. Winfrey described the first impression this way: “It had a really good feel to it, but it was not functional.”
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That distinction matters in a small apartment. An open plan can look expansive in photographs while forcing everyday activities to compete for the same floor area. Coats, shoes, cleaning supplies, a water heater, and pantry goods still need dedicated homes. Without a plan for those items, visual openness quickly turns into visible clutter.
A homeowner’s layout idea, made buildable
Winfrey had already imagined a layout intended to maximize usable area and storage. Aria Jahanshahi of Opa confirmed the basic instincts, adjusted the arrangement, and produced blueprints. Winfrey credited Jahanshahi with handling the technical side, saying, “He helped me with the technical side, which is not something I knew about because I have no professional experience.”
The project illustrates a useful division of labor: a homeowner can identify how rooms should feel and function, while an architect or designer translates that intent into a plan that accounts for circulation, openings, utilities, and construction realities. The feature does not publish drawings, dimensions, engineering details, schedule, or construction cost, so the apartment should be treated as a design example rather than a prescriptive renovation budget.
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Turning subflooring into a deliberate finish
The existing timber was not a finished floor; it was subflooring. Rather than treating that discovery as a purely technical setback, the couple rebuilt the surface with a sound barrier and another pine layer. They then painted the wood a warm, chalky color. The source does not identify a paint brand, color code, sound-barrier product, or flooring specification, but the sequence is clear: improve acoustics, create a stable visible layer, and use paint to make the floor part of the design.
Painted wood can unify rooms that might otherwise read as a collection of separate materials. A chalky finish also softens the reflectivity of a glossy coating, which helps a compact room feel settled rather than busy. In this apartment, the floor acts as a broad field of low-intensity color beneath the stronger wallpaper, upholstery, and tile.
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Creamy walls as visual breathing room
The walls were kept creamy rather than made into another pattern surface. Winfrey explained the balancing idea directly: “I didn’t want it to all be so bright and crazy. The white floors and walls felt like a good way to balance it out.” The finished floor is described as warm and chalky, while the walls are creamy; the point is not stark laboratory white but a light neutral that reflects daylight and separates the bolder elements.
This is a practical way to use pattern in a small home. Instead of asking every surface to compete, assign different visual jobs: the floor supplies a continuous base, the walls enlarge and calm the envelope, and selected vertical or horizontal planes carry the intense color. The approach leaves room for art, rugs, and collected objects without requiring a fully neutral interior.
Pattern is concentrated in moments, not spread indiscriminately
The entry makes the first strong statement
The entry uses Robert Kime’s Sunburst Terracotta wallpaper. Because an entry is a naturally bounded zone, it can absorb a more assertive motif without making the entire apartment feel enclosed. Winfrey said the Robert Kime paper was costly, so she limited it to a small area. That is both a budget decision and a compositional one: a short run of a memorable paper can establish the home’s personality more efficiently than covering every wall.
A bedroom gets the full floral treatment
One bedroom carries a floral Marthe Armitage wallpaper. Bedrooms can tolerate a denser visual field because they are destinations rather than circulation spaces. The floral paper creates a distinct mood behind the more neutral architecture, while the apartment’s creamy envelope keeps that mood from spilling into every room.
The bathroom uses tile as a color block
In the only bathroom, seafoam green Heath Ceramics tile shares the room with a double vanity, Carrara marble, and paneled walls. The tile supplies color through a hard, washable finish rather than a printed pattern. Its green tone connects the bathroom to the apartment’s broader interest in color while the marble and paneling introduce quieter texture.
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Winfrey learned about the company’s online sample sale after finding the tile otherwise beyond her budget. The feature does not state the sale dates, price, or current availability, so a sample sale should be understood as a sourcing opportunity that may not repeat, not as a guaranteed cost-saving program.
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A simple pattern-allocation framework
| Design move | Where it appears | What it accomplishes |
|---|---|---|
| High-impact wallpaper in a small zone | Entry | Creates an immediate identity while limiting material quantity and visual pressure. |
| Fuller printed pattern in a private room | Bedroom | Allows a stronger mood where circulation and competing functions are reduced. |
| Colored tile with restrained companions | Bathroom | Introduces durable color while marble and paneling prevent a one-note finish. |
| Quiet continuous surfaces | Painted floor and creamy walls | Provides visual rest between patterned moments and helps the open plan read as one home. |
For another small apartment, the specific products are less important than the allocation. Choose one or two places where pattern can be framed by doors, corners, cabinetry, or a change of function. Keep adjacent surfaces quieter so the pattern reads as intentional rather than accidental.
Storage turns an open shell into a working family home
The concealed closet does several jobs
A clever closet hides the water heater and stores coats, shoes, and household items. Combining mechanical equipment with everyday storage prevents a utility zone from consuming additional floor area. Concealment also protects the visual calm established by the painted floor and creamy walls. Dutch blue doors lead to the two bedrooms and the storage space, giving the practical components a consistent color cue.
Custom cabinetry makes the kitchen carry its share
The kitchen uses custom-crafted pantry and cabinets with minimal brass hardware from DeVol. The blue color continues into the kitchen, although no paint product or color code is identified. A pantry is particularly valuable in an open plan because it removes food packaging and small appliances from sight while keeping them close to where they are used.
Minimal hardware keeps the cabinetry from adding another competing pattern. The brass details function as small points of warmth against the blue rather than as a dominant metallic finish. When specifying custom storage, the useful questions are practical: Which items need daily access? Which can be placed high or deep? Where must doors clear a walkway? Those decisions determine whether custom work genuinely improves a compact room.
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Secondhand pieces become coherent through adaptation
An L-shaped sofa made from two couches
The living-room sofa began as two separate couches Winfrey bought at the ABC Carpet & Home outlet. Furniture artisan Juvenal Sanchez joined them into an L-shaped sofa and upholstered it in brown-and-ivory gingham. This approach solved two problems at once: it produced seating sized for the room and avoided the visual anonymity of a generic new sectional.
The matching ottoman, also made by Sanchez, uses contrasting stripe and paisley prints. Because the sofa and ottoman share an artisan’s hand and a related palette, the mixed fabrics feel deliberate rather than like unrelated thrift finds. The lesson for secondhand furniture is not to make every piece match. It is to establish a common thread—scale, upholstery treatment, color family, or maker—then allow variation within it.
Simple dining chairs and a sculptural light
Six Bum dining chairs from the British maker sit in the kitchen area. Winfrey valued their simple design and said, “I think that’s the hardest thing to find, simple things that are done really well.” Their restraint gives the surrounding cabinetry and finishes room to register.
In the living room, Patrick Townsend’s sculptural Orbit chandelier adds a strong silhouette overhead. A distinctive light fixture can define an open room without taking wall or floor space, making it an efficient place for a statement object when storage is limited.
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Collected rugs and objects supply the irregularity
The apartment also includes vintage rugs and furnishings gathered through flea markets, secondhand stores, antique malls, and live auctions. These sources introduce wear, variation, and history that coordinated showroom pieces often lack. Rugs are especially useful in an open plan: they mark a seating or dining zone without erecting a partition, while their pattern can echo wallpaper or upholstery at a lower visual height.
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The bathroom balances ornament with durable materials
The bathroom’s composition—double vanity, Carrara marble, paneled walls, and seafoam green tile—shows how a small room can carry several material languages if each has a defined role. Tile handles water exposure and brings the color; marble supplies a light, veined counterpoint; paneling adds vertical rhythm; and the vanity organizes daily use. None of these elements has to be repeated throughout the apartment. A compact room can be the place where a homeowner experiments with a finish that would feel too intense across a larger area.
How to borrow the strategy without copying the apartment
- Map the non-negotiables first. Draw the existing walls, windows, doors, plumbing points, heating equipment, and circulation paths. Mark where coats, shoes, cleaning supplies, pantry goods, and linens currently land. The most attractive pattern cannot compensate for storage that does not work.
- Separate planning from decorating. Develop the room arrangement before selecting wallpaper or tile. If the layout requires technical review, work with a qualified architect or designer; the Red Hook project used Aria Jahanshahi of Opa for plan refinement and blueprints.
- Test the floor assembly. Confirm whether existing timber is finished flooring or subflooring. If a new layer is required, resolve sound control, transitions, door clearances, and substrate preparation before choosing paint. The Brooklyn owners added a sound barrier and pine layer before painting.
- Reserve pattern for bounded surfaces. Start with an entry, a bedroom wall, a powder room, a backsplash, or the inside of a cabinet. Measure the area and order samples. A costly paper can have more impact in a small, visible location than across an entire open plan.
- Choose a quiet counterweight. A warm light wall color or low-sheen painted floor can connect rooms and prevent patterned surfaces from competing. Sample the neutral beside the proposed paper, tile, upholstery, and daylight at different times.
- Design storage around actual objects. List appliance dimensions, coat lengths, shoe counts, cleaning tools, and utility access requirements. Concealed doors, a pantry, or cabinets can preserve an open feeling while making the home easier to maintain.
- Adapt before replacing. Measure secondhand sofas, tables, and chairs for fit. An upholsterer or furniture maker may be able to join, resize, or recover pieces. Repeat one or two colors or materials so varied finds read as a collection.
- Set a sourcing fallback. If a sample sale or discontinued finish appears, verify quantity, batch consistency, return rules, and replacement availability before committing. The Heath Ceramics tile opportunity described in the feature was tied to an online sample sale and has no stated current terms.
What is documented—and what is not
The project is a 1,000-square-foot second-floor condo in Red Hook, as reported by Architectural Digest in 2022. The published account identifies the homeowners, the design collaborator, major materials, and several furnishings. It does not provide a renovation total, itemized prices, construction schedule, measured room dimensions, paint formulas, flooring specifications, or engineering documentation. Product availability and sale terms may have changed since publication.
Those limits are useful when applying the ideas elsewhere. The article supports design principles—concentrate pattern, calm the surrounding surfaces, hide utilities, and adapt furniture—but it cannot predict what the same work would cost in another building or city. Existing subfloor conditions, acoustic requirements, electrical work, labor rates, and building approvals will determine the actual scope.
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Winfrey characterized the finished apartment as “pretty eclectic, comfortable, lived-in, and a bit weird.” That description explains why the interior feels personal rather than over-staged. Custom storage handles the unglamorous requirements, a painted floor and creamy walls create continuity, and the strongest colors are assigned to places where they can be appreciated.
Her broader standard is equally important: “I like spaces that feel comfortable and like you can live in them. They’re not too precious. And you’re not worrying that you have to be careful.” The Red Hook apartment makes that standard visible. Pattern is not treated as a fragile luxury; it is used selectively, supported by durable tile, practical cabinetry, adaptable upholstery, and furnishings with enough character to tolerate daily life.
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