This is the latest instalment of The Inside Story, Wallpaper’s series spotlighting intriguing, innovative and industry-leading interior design.
In a waterfront enclave of Red Hook, Brooklyn, a loft in the historic New York Dock Building served as an industrial landmark, a cabinet of curiosities sourced from across the globe, and – above all – the home of interior designer Laurie Blumenfeld and her husband, Robert Russo. Conceived and executed by Blumenfeld's studio, the space takes raw industrial architecture and coaxes it toward warmth and worldliness.
Laurie Blumenfeld at home in her Red Hook loft
Built in 1910 as a warehouse for the New York Dock Company, the building arrives with all the industrial splendour one might hope for: soaring beamed ceilings, 13ft metal-framed windows, and original concrete columns still bearing traces of graffiti from the building's years as an unofficial street art museum. The structure was reimagined into residences in 2018.
When Blumenfeld arrived, she set out to build on its spirit, treating the home as a kind of autobiography rendered in objects. The result is part gallery, part travel journal, part family heirloom – filled with pieces old and new from South Africa, India, Greece, Peru, Vietnam, Brazil, Turkey and Italy, each woven naturally into the interior rather than displayed as trophies.
Among the most compelling of the apartment's stories: a visit to the Basquiat and Warhol exhibition at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris led Blumenfeld to commission a large-scale artwork from artist Alex Mitrecey for the living room. Around it, other vignettes unfold – a ceramic bowl from Umbria, a soapstone sculpture from Cape Town, chairs by Brazilian designer Juliana Vasconcellos alongside ‘Wassily’ chairs, Marcel Breuer's 1925 Bauhaus classic.
Recreate the mood
The neutral palette – black, taupe, ivory, gunmetal gray and white – serves a dual purpose: canvas for the eclectic objects on show, and complement to the building's industrial character. Powder-coated black metal echoes the factory-style window frames and threads through the kitchen, office and bedroom. Cerused wood, sheepskin, travertine and glass bring warmth, while colour arrives deliberately – through large-scale art and a striking antique concave mirror in the primary bedroom.
Then there are moments that depart from the script entirely. The powder room, draped in Farrow & Ball's ‘Paean Black’ in limewash and anchored by an asymmetrical vanity in Cipollina Ondulato Rosso marble, is moody and immersive – a world apart from the airy openness of the living areas.
Yet for all its gallery-like qualities, there is no mistaking this loft for anything other than a home. Russo loves to cook, and the bespoke kitchen storage system – a sculptural centrepiece that immediately draws the eye – was designed with dinner parties in mind. Each room also carries an original piece designed by Blumenfeld's studio: a personal signature that runs through the whole.
Red Hook, Blumenfeld says, is ‘a place where past and present coexist effortlessly’ – and the loft holds true to that: industrial and intimate, globally sourced and place-specific.