If you’ve ever visited New York City and walked the Brooklyn Bridge from the Manhattan side, you’ll notice you end up in a little neighborhood called Dumbo. Known for its restaurant scene and city skyline views, the cobblestone streets will transport you to a historic industrial time period. Most of the brick buildings in this area, wedged between two famous bridges, are restored factories from the 19th century.

Nick and I fell in love with this Brooklyn building many, many years ago for its big industrial windows, tall loft ceilings, and history being an old shoe factory. We moved in October 2020 and instantly knew this corner room with gorgeous light needed a designer’s touch. So who better to work with? But the experts in modern apartment design headquartered right around the corner from us in Dumbo, Brooklyn – West Elm.

If you’ve been following along on Instagram, you know that this secret West Elm room has been something we’ve been working on for months. So I am jumping out of my seat excited for the final reveal!

Welcome to our West Elm Room

gold sofa | floor lamps | dark wood round side table | art | white accent chairs | round storage coffee table | rug

desk | wooden storage cabinets on each side of desk | desk lamp | leather office chair

West Elm Design Crew

Many people don’t know this, but West Elm offers free design services that can help you reimagine your home by video, phone or in-store. We worked with West Elm Designer Scott from the Chelsea Store Location and I am still blown away with how the room turned out.

We began by telling him about our interior design style as a couple – New York modern meets Mid-West globetrotter. I don’t even know if that made sense to him, but he took a walk around our apartment and instantly found inspiration for the room from one of our art pieces.

The inspiration photo print of a solo cyclist with his camera in front of the Lourve (pictured below) is called Man in Red and Designer Scott instantly captured our vision in one phrase, “Wes Anderson in Brooklyn.”

A Pop of Color

With the entire room being a very neutral color palette, I was so thrilled when Designer Scott suggested a velvet gold sofa! Vibrant & luxe to the touch, it gives the sitting area some personality and truly catches the eye. Whether it’s a couch, accent chair, or piece of art, I highly recommend having a moment of color to be an unexpected surprise in any room your decorating.

*Unfortunately, this West Elm sofa is all sold out, but a wonderful alternative is the Haven Loft Sofa that also comes in velvet with the color: saffron. 

Hidden Storage

My favorite part about this room, might be how functional it is! Designer Scott really listened to us and found unique West Elm pieces that have hidden storage to keep us organized. For example this round coffee table above has an empty drum where you can store blankets, board games, and everything in between!

round storage coffee table | industrial wood bookself with storage| black profile bookcase

Our Multipurpose Room / Office

Living in New York City, you need to be very purposeful about your space. We needed an area for Nick to work, as well as an area for entertaining ourselves. After almost a year of quarantine, we found we bond as a couple over game nights, so we chose a comfortable sitting area with no-tv for this room.

For Nick’s office area, Designer Scott had the genius idea to combine an industrial desk with two storage cabinets on each side to elongate the tablespace. (image below) I would have never thought of this on my own! We absolutely love that it looks like one long piece, but can be separated and combined in a different way if we ever want to mix things up.

desk | wooden storage cabinets on each side of desk | desk lamp | leather office chair

floor mirror | large green floor vase | faux cherry blossom branch | New York map print | Empire State Building print

In love with how the room turned out – highly recommend!

Love my West Elm Design Crew family 💛

Biggest thank you to my West Elm family for bringing this dream room to life!

Every little touch from the gold couch to the shelf decor has a finished feel that I know I couldn’t have done without them.

 

West Elm Designer: Scott Charles Jr.

West Elm Photographer: Landon Vonderschmidt