All products featured on Architectural Digest are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
It was the opposite of love at first sight when Noe DeWitt first laid eyes on this apartment in New York City's historic Gilsey House building. "I walked in and I literally said, 'Absolutely not,'" the photographer remembers. "It was in shambles, it hadn’t been touched since 1971. The windows were super thin, it was super noisy. There were piles of bricks in the middle of the living room. It was really, really depressing." Way too much to sift through to find the place's potential, Noe thought. His wife, Carrie Hunt, the vice president of brand creative at J.Crew, had only one thing to say: "We'll see about that."
The couple's close friend, architect Jeffery Povero of Povero & Company, had come with them to see the unit, and he quickly sketched out some drawings to show them how the apartment could work for their family of four (plus a dog). "My wife is extremely talented, and Jeffery is extremely talented," says Noe. "I waved a white flag and said, 'Go for it.' The bones were there, the building was great, the neighborhood was on the up and up." From there, it was full steam ahead. The perimeter of the unit stayed the same, but everything else—the interior walls, the floors, the ceilings, the windows—came out. "Jeffery's original plan the first day, that’s what it became," says Noe. "He really saw the bigger picture." The gist of the architect's vision? A home with an easy, circular flow, with the kitchen as the central hub that everything else revolves around. Here's how it came to life:
The kitchen
Though it's the absolute heart of the home, Jeffery purposefully positioned the kitchen so that it's completely separate from the apartment's one main hallway. That corridor stretches behind the space, so foot traffic loops completely around the kitchen rather than through it. To keep storage similarly unobtrusive, Jeffery used dead space in the walls; shelves are tucked away above the island, and a linen closet is around the corner. When it came time to choose paint colors and finishes, Noe and Carrie naturally gravitated toward neutrals. "I grew up with white walls, Carrie grew up with white walls. I’m a photographer, she’s a creative director," he says. They both like the contrast of black and white, and they knew that any color would change throughout the day. But, Noe also admits, "I think it was probably fear of commitment. We weren’t ready to pick a color."
The kids' bedrooms
Before moving to Manhattan's NoMad neighborhood, Noe and Carrie had spent ten years in Chelsea in a completely open full-floor loft, which in the end just wasn't practical for their family. "There was only so much we could do to reconfigure our space to accommodate our two growing boys, who are now teenagers," he says. In this apartment, each of the kids has a space to call his own.
The living-dining room
Moving to a place with actual rooms meant starting from scratch furniture-wise. Noe and Carrie knew they needed a couch ASAP, so they bought one at RH with plans to swap it for something more romantic once the kids get a little older. The rest of the decor took a long time to accumulate. "The way we choose things is we go in spurts; we build up energy and we’ll say, 'OK, we need some side tables,'" Noe explains. The couple will then do a deep dive on sites like 1stdibs and eBay and peruse local antique stores like Showplace Antique + Design Center to get a sense of what they want. "Carrie's job is concepting, so she is always pulling tear sheets from magazines and books," he says. Ultimately, though, they value function first and foremost. "If something’s not comfortable, we’re not going to get it."
The master suite
Artwork is everywhere you look in the apartment—except for in the master bedroom, which Jeffery put all the way in the back, the quietest part of the unit. "We kind of love having nothing in that room," says Noe. "In the morning, the light pours in. With what I do and what Carrie does, we are surrounded by imagery all day. There’s something very peaceful about waking up to nothing but white walls. It’s like waking up in a cloud."
