In the library, Forsblom painted the wood a distinctive blue and kept everything else relatively simple, wanting to avoid an overabundance of fabrics and colors. The chairs, the clients’ own, were reupholstered in Lee Jofa mohair velvet. The 1970s Italian travertine and glass table is from Maison Gerard. The sofa, from Room & Board, wears a blue cotton velvet. Peacock-printed velvet throw pillows are from Studio Four NYC. The Paolo Buffa desk chair is from Gaspare Asaro. Sixties-era Italian brass sconces are from the Paris flea market. The smoked glass and chrome Italian desk is from Galerie Portuondo in Paris. The 1950s spoked chandelier with conical shades is from Rago Auctions; cabinet hardware from Rejuvenation; custom wall-to-wall carpet from ALT for Living; and Roman shades in fabric from Angela Brown.
A central wall was razed, but original parquet Versailles floors in these two rooms was left behind, albeit stripped and whitened. “Missy Marie sur la plage! And really, the parquet square is perhaps the little black dress of flooring,” the designer notes. Leaving some of the Park Avenue–ness intact in some places while completely abandoning it in others is what gives the place its considerable charm.
The new open arrangement is light and airy—in part due to the 15-foot-wide windows—but it did require some novel thinking. “The more you open up the plan, the more you restrict your material palette. Everything looks at everything.” Forsblom says it forced him to keep it tight, a process he found highly enjoyable. Once a few elements were set—oak floors, gray walls, white marble—it began to fall into place. “We were trying to create a really legible vocabulary for the architecture so that, as you move in the space, it feels really consistent.” Part of this scheme, involving relatively low ceilings, was the decision to have no full-length curtains.
To maintain this unity, every room got the same crown molding, every window got the same cabinet detailing below. “This idea of creating a really crisp, clean architecture was important, because you can be playful on top of that yet remain rigorous and fresh.” He also wanted to eschew the Park Avenue parade of styles that sometimes happens—an English country living room, a Georgian dining room, and a French library, what Forsblom refers to as a curio box of the last 300 years of design history.
In an NYC Park Avenue co-op apartment owned by a married pair of clients with dissimilar styles, designer Brock Forsblom embraced an open plan for the family room, kitchen, and breakfast room. “Suddenly everything feels sexy and young and livable,” Forsblom says. The blue mohair velvet Milo Baughman sofa is the clients’ own; the chandelier is contemporary Italian from the Paris flea market. Train table from Ducduc. Custom Moroccan wool rug from Rug & Kilim.
In an NYC Park Avenue co-op apartment owned by a married pair of clients with dissimilar styles, designer Brock Forsblom embraced an open plan for the family room, kitchen, and breakfast room. “Suddenly everything feels sexy and young and livable,” Forsblom says. The blue mohair velvet Milo Baughman sofa is the clients’ own; the chandelier is contemporary Italian from the Paris flea market. Train table from
Ducduc. Custom Moroccan wool rug from
Rug & Kilim.
