November 17, 2024Several years ago, Harry Heissmann went to visit the Manhattan apartment of a prospective client who was looking for a relatively light decor refresh. Upon seeing the home, he recalls, “I told her so much that I’d propose to change and do differently that she said, ‘Well, you know, we might as well just buy a new apartment!’ ”
And that’s what she did, calling Heissmann back about 12 months later to show him the recently acquired two-bedroom she and her husband had found in a 2009 Tribeca tower designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill.
“It was complicated,” the German-born, Upstate New York–based designer says of the architecture. There was “a lot of glass and very little wall, plus columns, because it’s a high-rise. It’s not cookie-cutter rooms that are squares or rectangles. They have no ninety-degree angles.” So, there were challenges aplenty.
“But the great thing was, it was basically a clean slate,” says Heissmann, referring to the fact that the couple — she’s a writer, he’s a tech executive — didn’t plan to bring anything from their previous home with them, except for a few pieces of Pop-influenced art, including works by Takashi Murakami and Hunt Slonem.
That blank canvas, plus the constraints imposed by SOM’s architecture, got “the machine roaring,” as Heissmann puts it. His brain started whirring, trying to figure out “how to do the floor plan to anchor the rooms but not make the architecture go away,” he says. “There had to be a dialogue between the two.”
To help get this conversation started, Heissmann leaned into what he describes as the 19th-floor apartment’s “amazing light and spectacular views of pretty much everything,” combining this with the owners’ desire for color and plenty of it. And from this emerged a scheme that he pitched to the clients as a “Picnic in the Sky.”
“I had this idea of a summer meadow seen from above, from like a bee’s perspective,” he says of his inspiration for the circular, multicolored, pixelated-patterned rug that defines the apartment’s central living area. “I showed it to the clients, and they loved it, and then all the rest just fell into place.”
“By “the rest,” he means everything from the pair of pink custom couches — whose curves perfectly match those of the round rug — to the palette of pastel and brighter hues. That palette extends not just to the rose-colored sofas but also to the lavender table in the dining nook, the blue-lacquered GMD Berlin armoire in the entry and the emerald-toned French Provincial–style upholstered bed in the primary suite.
The “Picnic in the Sky” theme takes on a somewhat celestial feeling in that bedroom and the nearby nursery. In the former, a star-emblazoned Rubelli fabric designed by Luke Edward Hall covers the bed, while in the latter, a neutral-hued Papermint wallcovering adorned with moons and cosmic figures pairs with cotton-candy-colored furniture.
“I always work in the in-between,” says Heissmann, describing his approach, “and that’s what I think makes this project so successful and fun. It’s a mix between vintage and new, color and more subdued surfaces and textures, fine art and whimsy. I wove this creative tapestry of all these elements together, and it became this interior.”
Here, he takes us on a tour.
Entry
For the foyer, Heissmann ordered through 1stDibs a custom GMD Berlin armoire lacquered in a lapis-lazuli hue. He then reflected its polished-brass accents in the gilded frame of a scalloped-edge mirror, a golden Bearbrick sculpture and a shiny umbrella stand in the form of riding boots.
Living Room
To go with the custom sofas and bespoke Edward Fields “summer meadow” rug, Heissmann selected pale purple Kartell side tables and a marbled-resin coffee table. Hanging above is a cloud-like mercury-glass ceiling light by Ross Lovegrove, while in the background — behind a pocket door whose library wallpaper camouflages it as built-in bookshelves — the home office features an Ercole Home eglomise-glass desk.
Hall Bath
Fanciful mushrooms, and even more pink, climb the walls of this space, which also sports a light fixture by Robert Sonneman, artwork by Gaspard Mitz and a Missoni towel.
Dining Area
Vintage Andre Originals Art Nouveau–inspired lotus-flower-back chairs surround a custom oval table, all underneath a brass-and-glass 1970s chandelier by Motoko Ishii for Staff Leuchten. Hanging on the wall between the windows is a Hunt Slonem bunny painting.
Primary Bedroom
A custom version of Cosulich’s Mondrian glass-and-brass nightstand abuts the French Provincial–style bed, upholstered in that Luke Edward Hall fabric. Atop the nightstand are a Christopher Spitzmiller lamp and a small artwork by Takashi Murakami, created in 1999 as T-shirt packaging for Issey Miyake. The shams are embroidered with a design from a capsule collection Heissmann did for Hamburg House
Primary Bath
Slonem bunnies reappear here, multiplying like, well, rabbits across the surface of a Lee Jofa wallpaper and a matching fabric that Heissmann used for the shower curtain. The wicker bunny is by Mario Lopez Torres.
Nursery
At the clients’ request, pink defines the nursery’s furniture, from the custom crib to the upholstered glider to the changing table/bureau. The wallpaper, though whimsically arrayed with moons and stars, manages to strike a more low-key note, thanks to its neutral colorway.
