This Stylish Brooklyn Apartment Is the Perfect Playful Take on Mid-Century Scandinavian
This Stylish Brooklyn Apartment Is the Perfect Playful Take on Mid-Century Scandinavian
Name: Babba Rivera, husband Carl Rivera, and our pup Blue.
Location: Brooklyn Heights — NYC
Size: 1250 square feet
Years lived in: 1 year, owned

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Babba Rivera is the founder of the award-winning New York City-based marketing agency, bybabba. Representing brands like Saint Laurent, Bumble, and more, Babba clearly knows good style. And with impeccable taste in all things lifestyle, fashion, and beauty, her Brooklyn apartment’s interior design reflects these passions. It’s also where she’s able to retreat from her busy work life. “Our home is our oasis where we get to recharge and take a break from the noisy areas of our offices (both of our offices are in Tribeca/SoHo),” she writes. “Our apartment in Brooklyn Heights feels very far from the pulse, yet it’s only 15 minutes away. I love that we have so many plants, both inside the home, as well as trees outside the windows; it is so calming. ”
Before she founded bybabba, she launched Uber in Sweden, worked as Head of Partnerships for Uber in New York, and was the Director of Brand Marketing at Away (that luggage brand you’ve probably heard commercials for if you listen to absolutely any podcasts). Along with Marika Frumes (whose home we’ve also toured before) Babba is a cofounder of the US branch of HER, a “community of women who value authenticity, empathy, and genuine connection” with a mission to “bring together a diverse group of women to learn from and support one another.” Like Marika’s Scandinavian-inspired loft, Babba’s home is a space that supports entertaining, conversation, and community.
“Besides being a place to recharge, our home is also truly a place to host,” Babba explains. “We love hosting friends for dinners, sleepovers, and movie nights. We have a projector screen that comes down from the ceiling, which is pretty neat.” Recently Babba jumped into the podcast scene with her show, “Out of Office,” which highlights unconventional career paths.
Apartment Therapy Survey:
My Style: I would characterize my style as Scandinavian, colorful, and airy with a few quirky touches.
Inspiration: A playful take on mid-century Scandinavian.
Favorite Element: I love that the kitchen is open, which makes hosting around food such a blessing, the same thing with our dining table and the custom bench, allowing for big groups to gather for dinner. I also love having an extra bedroom, as we have family and friends from Europe and love to host them. All that said, I also truly love my walk-in closet. It is my little creative oasis. I love playing around in there; it gives me so much creative juice and joy.
Biggest Challenge: There were a lot of challenges when it comes to renovating a 100-year-old building. I think the greatest challenge was when we found out that the floor in the living room was sloping about four inches. No contractor wanted to take on our project of renovating a kitchen on that condition, which is why we ended up replacing the floor altogether before starting with the kitchen renovations. Another challenge was finding anything that could fit in one of the openings of our living room; we wanted to find a nice bar cabinet to fit there, but it turned out no line was straight in this house. We, therefore, decided to bring in Benjamin Schleif who helped us custom build a beautiful bar cabinet and work around all the uneven walls. He also helped us build the custom bench by our dining table.
Proudest DIY: I guess the bench is the closest DIY project; we didn’t do it ourselves, but we feel proud of the idea and the results.
Biggest Indulgence: I love sweets! I really enjoy baking and usually look for any opportunity to bake banana bread or traditional Swedish cinnamon buns.
Best Advice: To live in the apartment during or in-between renovations, as you really discover so many things and come up with so many new ideas once you start living in the space. It was cool to be able to renovate and design a space that truly fits our needs! My other advice is to get a professional organizer—best investment ever. We worked with Natalie from Liberate Your Space, and I feel like we got so much more space after working with her.
What’s your best home secret? I learned that if you put a penny in your bud vases, your tulips will last longer! I now always leave a penny in each of the vases around my house to keep my florals fresh longer. I also really love the Laundress iron water; I put it in my steamer and it makes my clothes smell really nice, while also making the steam last longer.
Thanks Babba!
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