Gene & Heidi’s Colorful Art-filled Home

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Name: Gene, Heidi and Baby Wyeth
Location: Downtown — Brooklyn, New York
Size: 1,285 square feet
Years Lived In: 2½ years

Gene recently shared his home through a House Call Gene’s Graphics & Color: Geometric Art Collection — and I couldn’t wait to share more! A perfect kick-off to our Art, Craft & Collection month, this Brooklyn family’s loft is oozing with exciting art and Gene shared one of the most extensive resource lists (including all the art!) we’ve ever published!

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

Apartment Therapy Survey:

Inspiration: We love great interior, design, and art from the 60’s and 70’s but it’s always a balancing act to make our home “inspired by” without being too kitschy. Our house photography style was inspired by old Domino magazine photography.

Favorite Element: Our apartment is long and narrow with windows only near the living room and kitchen. This combined with the frosted glass sliding doors in the bedroom and nursery, and lack of sufficient lighting made the apartment feel dark and small.

From our bedroom and nursery, we removed the frosted sliding doors and cut out the corner wall that blocked the view of the window from the bedroom. We then installed clear glass walls in the bedroom and nursery. This one change completely transformed our apartment, it brightened up the whole apartment, making it feel more airy and open. Floor to ceiling curtains were also installed for privacy.

Biggest Challenge: I collect Hard Edge, Op and Concrete art from the 60-70’s. I have over 120 pieces in my collection, and some range as large as 5-9 ft tall. The challenge was displaying them in our small apartment without making our home feel cluttered and closed in while still presenting them in a cohesive manner.

My solution is to restrict my collecting to only tall, portrait or square shaped pieces that can be stacked. I display groupings of art in tall floor to ceiling columns. This maintains a structured presentation, and at the same time, allows more art to be displayed since each column requires less horizontal space. It also helps make the apartment feel bigger, since it puts emphasis on the height of the ceilings.

What Friends Say: “Um, that’s art…?” or “When can you come help decorate my place”

Biggest Embarrassment: My refrigerator. When we did a mini update to our kitchen, my wife refused to let me get a new one since all the appliances were brand new. I keep hoping one day it breaks so I can get a better looking one.

Proudest DIY: Turning our 10 x 9 storage closet into an office for me and my wife. The built in cabinets and floating desk are all IKEA!

Biggest Indulgence: Polder Sofa

Best Advice: We had a limited budget when we were looking for a new apartment. We wanted to buy in downtown Brooklyn area, but most of the buildings were out of our price range. We found an apartment at the Belltell Lofts, a historic art deco building. It didn’t have some of the finishing touches of the other luxury condos but made up for it with its great price. With the savings, we were able to add upgrades and renovations to our apartment and still managed to spend 200-300k less than if we would have purchased one of the other buildings in the area.

If you’re in the market for a new place, you might think about getting one with less bells and whistles and do some renovations yourself. With the savings, you can buy your dream couch 🙂

Dream Sources: No reserve auctions where I am the only bidder.

Resources of Note:

PAINT & COLORS

Mirage White

Dynasty Celedon

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

ENTRY & HALLWAY

Arcs From Sides or Corners, Grids & Circles Series

Vertikale serielle Struktur

Drowned World

Primaire

Untitled #150

7A

Untitled

Unititled

(Image credit: Aaron Able)

LIVING ROOM

Vertical Not Straight Lines Not Touching on Color

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

DINING ROOM

(Image credit: Gene Na)

KITCHEN

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

BEDROOM

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

MASTER BATHROOM

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

NURSERY

GUEST BATH

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

OFFICE

Thanks, Gene, Heidi & Wyeth!

Images: Gene Na

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