August 13, 2007
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| Robert and Cortney Novogratz could pass for poster-perfect suburban parents: They have six preteen kids they shuttle to school every day, log miles on a basement rec-room treadmill, and eat dinner with their brood at a modern refectory table adjacent to a back porch. For fun, they shoot hoops on their basketball court. But they’re the last people you’d expect behind the -wheel of a minivan. |
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Robert, AA, is an ex—Wall Street sales guy who answers the door in a trucker cap, wrists dangling with string bracelets, and Cortney, 35, an almond-eyed former ac-
tress, retains hints of a Southern drawl that belies a wholly urbane acumen. That basketball court? It’s on the roof of their four-story townhouse, the former gun-room annex of the circa 1905 New York City Police Headquarters, which sits across the street, and whose Renaissance Revival cupola looms above center court. |
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| Such drastic measures aren’t foreign to the couple. They are the principals of Sixx Design, boutique developers who buy small, derelict city properties the big guys overlook and turn them into gracious single-family dwellings. The rebuilt face of this building—thanks to new windows in mahogany casements and light-as-air glass balconies —-would now feel right at home tucked into some Roman side street, and that same cosmopolitan flair doesn’t stop at the front door. |
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| After they cleared the decks, the Novogratzes fashioned a lofty, flexible space that stylishly accommodates sticky fingers as well as discriminating adult tastes. It was a process that incorporated major art, vintage objects, and designer textiles irreverently. The walls and ceilings are Venetian plaster, buffed to a lacquered sheen. Penetrol, a paint additive, was incorporated into the mixture to create the finish and make it easy to clean. “Smudges just wipe right off,” says Cortney. In the first-level kitchen-cum-living-and-dining room, Botri cabinetry is illuminated by 1950s lights from a Monte Carlo casino. The Cappellini sofa is a slip covered model: “We always buy sofas that you can re-buy the slipcovers for,” says Bob. The bedrooms above are furnished in textiles that are rich, graphically. “Patterns lose a lot of stains,” says Cortney, whose master suite is modern with a soft edge, thanks to a Manuel Canovas fabric on curtains and a footboard, and a fluffy hanging light from Moss above the bed. |
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Source : Sixx Design
Tags: balconies, basketball, mahogany, Manhuttan, New York, roof, vintage, Wall Street
Technorati Tags: balconies, basketball, mahogany, Manhuttan, New York, roof, vintage, Wall Street
Comments:
1 Comment posted on "Town house in Manhattan - Interior design by Sixx Design"
Isabelle on January 30th, 2008 at 3:26 am #
Gorgeous, Love the basketball court to bits, I wish I had one like that
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