Moving From San Francisco, This Owner Wanted Something Different From Her New East Coast Home — A Pied-à-Terre With 'New York Energy'

There is something intriguing about having two homes that feel completely different, yet both reflect who you are. After all, our tastes aren't always defined by a single aesthetic, and sometimes a new city calls for an entirely different approach to the way we live. For one homeowner who had relocated from San Francisco to New York, creating an East Coast base was an opportunity to explore another side of her personality, one inspired by the energy, creativity, and artistic spirit of her new surroundings.

Having previously designed her San Francisco residence, interior designer Jeff Schlarb, founder of Jeff Schlarb Design Studio, was already familiar with her tastes and the way she liked to live. But while her West Coast home embraced a classic blue-and-white palette, her New York pied-à-terre called for something much bolder. "The beauty of a second collaboration is knowing what matters to someone while finding a new way to express it," Jeff explains.

This time, the ambition was to create a modern home that felt confident, playful, and deeply personal, with custom furnishings, richly layered materials, and an art collection reflecting the owner's passion for fashion, photography, and female artists.

The living room is perhaps the clearest expression of the homeowner's desire for something different. With its dramatic mix of black and white, sculptural silhouettes, and richly colored upholstery, the space feels energetic and full of personality. Yet despite the many elements competing for attention, there's a certain ease to the composition, with every piece given enough room to make its own statement.

Rather than introducing an entirely separate color scheme, Jeff took inspiration from the marble in the adjoining kitchen, building the living room around shades of black, white, and cream. "We specifically selected patterns that were more restrained in an effort to have a different experience than her large SF home," Jeff explains. Instead, the focus was on contrast and variation in scale — custom swivel chairs upholstered in Harlequin's Moremi Zebra fabric bring a striking graphic element to the scheme, while their rounded shapes help soften the composition. The Tom Faulkner Lily Ottoman Coffee Table continues this interplay of curves, combining the comfort of an upholstered ottoman with the practicality of a coffee table.

The resulting space has been designed as much for conversation as it has for visual impact. Generous seating reflects the client's love of entertaining, while the sculptural Halti light by Cameron Design House, with its almost jewelry-like form, brings an unexpected sense of movement overhead. Artworks by Tony Fey and Natalia Nicole Rodriguez add further points of interest, creating a space that invites visitors to look a little closer.

Moving into the kitchen, the atmosphere becomes noticeably more restrained, although the attention to materials and detail remains. Here, marble takes center stage, its natural veining introducing movement and contrast against the crisp white cabinetry and darker flooring. It's a sophisticated, largely monochromatic scheme that feels connected to the living room without competing with its more expressive furnishings.

In fact, this subtle continuity allows the two spaces to have different personalities while still feeling part of the same home. Rather than relying on a multitude of decorative finishes, the kitchen allows the natural character of the stone to do much of the work, proving that a quieter interior can be just as visually compelling.

While the living room embraces the energy of New York, the bedroom offers a welcome contrast. In fact, it's one of Jeff 's favorite spaces in the finished apartment, largely because of the way the custom furnishings, artwork, and color come together. Here, the intention was to create something softer and more intimate, a cocoon-like sanctuary away from the pace of the city. A dusky sage-green limewash by Portola Paints wraps the walls and ceiling, creating a continuous wash of color that makes the room feel wonderfully enveloping.

"The client gravitated toward the dusky sage among the options presented, particularly for how beautifully it paired with the blush tones," Jeff explains. Rather than introducing a contrasting white ceiling, extending the same finish overhead softens the boundaries of the room, creating a more immersive atmosphere. The hand-applied limewash paint introduces subtle tonal variations, while blush upholstery and warm timber provide a gentle contrast — it's a sophisticated, quietly expressive combination that feels distinctly different from the graphic living spaces.

Beyond its calming palette, the bedroom reflects Jeff's belief that beautiful design should never come at the expense of practicality. With space at a premium in a New York apartment, bespoke furnishings offered the opportunity to introduce pieces that felt entirely at home in their surroundings while making the most of every available inch. Rather than allowing storage to become a visual distraction, it was thoughtfully incorporated into the furniture, maintaining the room's clean lines and carefully considered proportions.

The bathroom takes a different approach to the apartment's exploration of color and texture, moving away from the softer, cocoon-like atmosphere of the bedroom toward something more dramatic and architectural. Here, Jeff allows the materials themselves to make a statement, creating spaces that feel rich in character without relying on additional decoration.

What makes this space particularly interesting is how contrasting finishes can completely change the atmosphere of a room. Smooth, reflective surfaces sit alongside softer, more tactile treatments, creating depth through the way they interact with light. Rather than repeating the same design language throughout the apartment, Jeff gives each room its own identity while maintaining a sense of continuity.

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