Family Living in Black and White

New Yorkers will tell you that downtown lofts and Upper East Side living are contradictions in terms. This family set out to prove that wrong.

They worked with architect Nancy Nienberg and Sissy + Marley Interior Design to bring the loft sensibility they loved—and had previously lived in—to the uptown location where they wanted to raise their family. The ingredients were two adjoining apartments, chopped-up and characterless, stacked one floor above the other in a converted department store. The saving grace: 14-foot-high ceilings, ripe for re-invention.

“It was a complicated conversion,” Nienberg says. “We had to figure out how to pump up the magnitude of the rooms to match the height of the ceilings and create that loft-like feel: open, flexible space, while keeping it human scale. Bringing it both up and down in size.”

The goal was accomplished not only through spatial moves—including a complex stairway in the center of the space—but also by leveraging the black and white palette the clients developed with Sissy + Marley.

In the kitchen, the white and dark volumes emphasize the height of the ceilings, break up the large space visually, and delineate the working and storing zones.

“It was nice to play the black and white against each other,” Nienberg says. ”The white is flat, while the black, Henrybuilt’s dark stained walnut, has so much materiality in it. It adds a lot of texture.”

The monotone palette is anything but monotonous. The black and white lets the textures and shapes sing. Bright colors don’t bury the subtle beauty, like the marble veining and the figuring in the walnut cabinet fronts that add depth and bring nature inside. It’s a far cry from the coldness associated with a “colorless” palette.

The subtle sheen and thin profile of the steel shelves add to the texture, like a small piece of abstract art.

“Behind the elegant materiality, the Henrybuilt system makes it functional for the family,” says Nienberg.

Henrybuilt extends from the kitchen…

...to the small family control center.

Henrybuilt is also found in the hard-working entry that corrals everything from school backpacks to kid vehicles—at an arm’s reach to grab easily when going and drop off when coming.

The family’s private spaces are located on the upper floor, which also benefits from high ceilings and gracious windows.

In the primary bedroom, the architect used the Henrybuilt wardrobe system like a freestanding element to keep the feeling of the large room intact.

It created a walk-in—or in this case a walk-through—closet without cutting the room down in size.

“The crafted details in Henrybuilt’s work lend another layer of touch and sophistication,” Nienberg says. A modern system approach can blend well with traditional craft and quality.

It’s no wonder the clients sought out Sissy + Marley. They’re known as masters at designing interiors that weave sophisticated adult décor and kid-friendly spaces in a way that enhances both. It’s the opposite of design-by-compromise.

This approach meant carrying the same level of quality—in touch, function, and longevity—into the children’s rooms with Henrybuilt’s wardrobe system: a solution for clients big and little. It can stay put as the kids and décor grow up around it.

Black and white for kids rooms? Absolutely. Sissy + Marley proves that these spaces can be as exciting for kids as they are for sophisticated for adults.

It’s a project that turned conventional wisdom on its head. A family home in black and white. An Upper East Side location with a downtown loft feel. Sophisticated décor and playful spaces all in one.