Tour a Light-Filled Brooklyn Loft With an Eat-In Bedroom

What was once a cramped apartment is now an airy home, with a glass wall separating the dining and sleeping areas.

Photo: Claudia Uribe/New York Magazine
Photo: Claudia Uribe/New York Magazine
Illustration: Jason Lee

“You know,” event designer David Stark says, “I did actually have the intention of going into a place where I didn’t have to do anything.” But after a one-and-a-half-year home hunt that involved trekking through about 40 apartments, that thought vanished. “It was very important for me to find a situation that felt unique,” Stark says. In the end, it was the light, the views, and the doorman that sold Stark and his husband, artist and performer Migguel Anggelo, on the 1,500-square-foot, 11th-floor Brooklyn Heights corner apartment in a prewar converted office building. “I said, ‘I am going to make it into the space I have always dreamed of living in.’ ”

And so he has, with the help of designer Jane Schulak and the design-build team at MADE: Ben Bischoff, Lindsay Crozier, and Mike Landry. “What he bought was pretty humdrum and chopped up,” Bischoff says of the original space. To turn it into the airy-feeling loft it is now, they gutted the two-bedroom apartment, reoriented the kitchen, and did away with the extra bedroom to enlarge the living room. An intimate entrance foyer leads to the elegant, open, country kitchen with a glass wall that looks into the bedroom, allowing in natural light that would have been otherwise obscured. Though there are lots of playful details (like the chair in the living room made entirely of matchsticks and a custom console with pitchforks and shovels for legs), the overall effect is soothing and uplifting, heavy on muted colors. “My life is quite hectic,” Stark says. “I needed to make my permanent space an antidote to the pizzazz of the theater of events.”

*A version of this article appears in the January 25, 2016 issue of New York Magazine.

The Kitchen The Spalted-maple wood table in the center of event designer David Stark’s kitchen was custom designed by MADE. The woven bull’s head is a prototype Stark created for West Elm. Photo: Claudia Uribe/New York Magazine
The Kitchen The cabinets containing the sink and oven were designed by MADE from a material called Richlite, crafted from recycled paper. Photo: Claudia Uribe/New York Magazine
The Dining Room The marble-topped table was designed by Jane Schulak and MADE, inspired by a classic Maison Jansen table. The reproduction Thonet chairs are from Bauhaus 2 Your House, while one original Thonet was found at Holler & Squall on Atlantic Avenue. The small chair was a gift to Stark. The overhead light is by Paul Loebach at Roll & Hill. The curtains offer privacy, if desired. Photo: Claudia Uribe/New York Magazine
The Bedroom The floor tiles here, and throughout the apartment, are by Cuban Tropical Tile Co. Schulak designed the chest, inspired by an 18th-century style. The wall light by the bed is vintage Jielde. Photo: Claudia Uribe/New York Magazine
The Bedroom The marble piece on the left-hand side of the bed is from the Stephanie Odegard Collection by Paul Mathieu. The hanging lamp over the bed is by Con.tradition from Opinion Ciatti. Photo: Claudia Uribe/New York Magazine
The Bedroom The two-toned chair by the chest has a past. “My great-grandparents owned a hotel in the Catskills during the time of Dirty Dancing,” Stark says. “The chair came from there, and it was transformed by Dominique Bouillon in Paris, who did the decorative painting. The seat was upholstered in vintage fabric from John Derian.” Photo: Claudia Uribe/New York Magazine
The Living-Room Wall The console was designed by Le Prince Jardinier in Paris, while the two shag-carpet-covered chairs are by Migguel Anggelo. The wall art is hand-knit poisonous-snake skins created by artist Ruth Marshall. Stark says, “I had seen her work at a show at the Museum of Arts and Design, and I fell in love with them. She made me my set.” Photo: Claudia Uribe/New York Magazine
The Living Room The curtain fabric is from Christopher Hyland, the rug is from La Manufacture Cogolin in Paris, the sofas are from Verellen, and the rattan chairs are by Renzo Mongiardino for Bonacina Vittorio. Photo: Claudia Uribe/New York Magazine
The Matchstick Chair It was designed and made by Stark’s husband, performer and artist Migguel Anggelo. Photo: Claudia Uribe/New York Magazine
The Living-Room Bookshelves MADE custom designed the pair of matching bookshelves on recessed wheels so that they can be easily separated to reveal a flat-screen TV. Photo: Claudia Uribe/New York Magazine
The Guest Bathroom “The little, funny sink is from an old ship,” Stark says. “It spoke to the rule that we set up: Every room has something old with the new.” Photo: Claudia Uribe/New York Magazine
The Laundry Room/Pantry “We use this room for many things,” Stark says, “for refrigerating wine, for doing the laundry, for storing tools … It was really important to me that it looked chic and was considered like any other room of the house instead of just a closet that we dump stuff in.” Photo: Claudia Uribe/New York Magazine
Entrance Foyer “The wall covering is floor linoleum,” Stark says. “It was a great idea that MADE had to give a richness and surprise to this very small, highly trafficked space.” The blackboard is a portion of an art piece Stark and his team created for an event years ago. Photo: Claudia Uribe/New York Magazine
Tour a Brooklyn Loft With an Eat-In Bedroom