June 4, 2023The sunny top-floor loft in a former factory building in Tribeca must have had Ashe Leandro’s name on it, because designer Ariel Ashe circled back to it twice. Her first visit was to inventory furnishings belonging to a family of five who were moving to Los Angeles and had just hired Ashe and her design partner of 15 years, Reinaldo Leandro — honored members of 2023’s 1stDibs 50 — to design their home there. A few weeks later, Ashe recalls, “the loft’s buyer, a bachelor from Los Angeles who planned to use it as a pied-à-terre, reached out to us, not knowing the connection. It was fun to imagine the space for a new client.”
The incoming occupant had few programmatic requests, so Ashe used the abundant light and honest, utilitarian architecture as jumping-off points to create the kind of disciplined but relaxed interior for which her firm is known. “I got to do what the space was calling for,” she says. “I wanted the pieces to be sculptural and the space to have a gallery feel.”
It is very much an open loft, with a combined living room/kitchen/dining area occupying most of its 2,000 square feet. Of the three original bedrooms, one is now a guest room and the other a home office. The overall feeling of serenity comes from the pale color scheme and an almost complete absence of ornament and pattern. This is typical of Ashe Leandro’s practice, which has drawn many celebrity clients, including, most recently, artist Rashid Johnson and actors Liev Shrieiber and Donald Glover. “You only need pattern when a room is uninteresting,” Ashe says. “There was enough going on here, with the brick walls and ceiling beams, to use their texture as decoration.”
A handwoven rug in the main living area set the tone for “a lighter palette with punctuations of dark,” Ashe says. “It’s black and white and very flat. I’ve been wanting to use that rug for a long time, but nobody would say yes. It’s goat hair, sadly, but so beautiful.” A white sofa of Ashe Leandro’s own design was custom-made to fit the available space. “I don’t ever do L-shaped sofas. They feel very suburban to me, like a piece of furniture made for TV watching,” she says. “This is not a traditional L. It’s kind of a half C.”
Beyond those two anchors, the carefully considered furnishings, many sourced from 1stDibs, are notable for their decidedly unboring shapes. “Once I had the foundation laid with the sofa and the rug, I got to be more artsy with the other pieces,” Ashe says. Near the entry door, what appears to be a mathematician’s chalkboard — actually a photograph by Jessica Wynne — hangs above Chris Lehrecke’s aluminum and wood console table. “I’m loving aluminum and wood right now. The mix feels very masculine.” On 1stDibs, Ashe spotted a slingy circa 1960 leather lounge chair by Dutch designer Abraham Polak, offered by MORENTZ, as well as Marco Zanuso’s swooping Senior chair, of similar vintage. She had the latter reupholstered in smooth yellow cotton velvet. “It has such a beautiful shape, it doesn’t need anything more” in terms of pattern or texture, she says.
What Ashe calls a “Prouvé-style” oak credenza, 16 feet long, of Ashe Leandro’s own design, spans a wall beneath existing bookshelves Ashe was happy to repurpose. A chunky lava-stone coffee table by contemporary designer Ian Felton, a hefty ceramic side table from BZIPPY and a pair of short French stools with cane seats from Orange Furniture, the last two found on 1stDibs, are given plenty of breathing room, like all the room’s furnishings, so that they stand out like specimens in a garden.
The nearby dining area centers on a lozenge-shaped oak table hugged by 1970s Pierre Cardin–designed chairs — some black, some ash, all found on 1stDibs. “I had to buy two different sets to get enough,” the designer says. Isamu Noguchi paper lamps and flat Roman shades in nubby linen keep things simple.
In the bedroom, Ashe inherited a distinctive shiplap ceiling and a tricky stepped-out wall, for which she found the perfect solution on 1stDibs: a 1960s wood and cane modular wall unit by Italian designer Leonardo Fiori that could be arranged to conform too the space. A three-armed sconce from Italy, new but with a vintage feel, makes a strong statement above a custom oak bed designed by Ashe. The linen spread on it is, somewhat surprisingly, a vivid berry hue. “Yes,” Ashe confesses. “I added a jolt of color at the last minute.”
