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Since his earliest days as an interior designer, Martin Brûlé has approached his New York apartment as a laboratory for experimentation. Located in a historic Art Deco building on the East Side, the residence has an idiosyncratic layout, with two small bedrooms and a large studio space that features 13-foot ceilings and a vast casement window. In his unconventional latest reimagining of the apartment, Brûlé flipped the rooms on their head, placing his bed in the studio, right at the heart of it all.
“It’s casual, personal, and bespoke to my needs and way of living,” says the charismatic Canadian-born designer. “I designed it like the ultimate hotel suite, a place with no rules.”
Ike Edeani / Andy Warhol, Ladies and Gentlemen, 1975/© 2026 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts/Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS) New York
Martin Brûlé in what is now the bedroom of his New York apartment. He paired an Andy Warhol work with a Eugène Printz folding screen next to an Eyre de Lanux table. Lamp by Isamu Noguchi; stool by Pierre Legrain; lounge chair and low table by Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann.
Brûlé manages to fly a bit under the radar, but he is evermore ensconced as a trusted talent for in-the-know global tastemakers. Think fashion designer Matthieu Blazy, the artistic director for Chanel, with whom Brûlé collaborated on scenography in the label’s past two runway shows. Or Pieter Mulier, the former Azzedine Alaïa creative director who tapped him to furnish the brand’s boutiques in Miami and Los Angeles.
With the 10th anniversary of Martin Brûlé Studio approaching next year, the designer heads a team of more than two dozen people in his offices in New York and Paris. A versatile creative talent, Brûlé has cultivated a personal style rooted in a penchant for Art Deco glamour, ’70s sensuality, and high-toned classicism, typically executed in serene palettes with elevated materials and sensuous textures.
Ike Edeani / Courtesy Richard Prince Studio; Courtesy Chiki and Andrew Dubow
Brûlé designed the bedroom’s daybed and mirrored side tables. A Richard Prince painting is set against a cashmere-clad wall. Plate by Pablo Picasso; vase by Hermann Seger.
In his apartment’s previous incarnation, Deco refinement prevailed, balanced with select minimalist modern furnishings, African sculpture, and a palette of warm, pale tones. This time around he has dramatically shifted not only the layout but the mood, opting for a duskier, sexier vibe. The creamy plaster walls remain, as do the expanses of mirror and some of the Art Deco furnishings, but Brûlé has introduced edgier art and richer, bolder color.
“I designed it like the ultimate hotel suite, a place with no rules.”—Martin Brûlé
On one side of the bed, a work from Andy Warhol’s “Ladies and Gentlemen” series hangs on a Eugène Printz black lacquer folding screen overlooking a glossy red Eyre de Lanux Parsons-style table that serves as a spot for dining, reading, and displaying objects. On the opposite side Brûlé installed a daybed sofa he designed with a curved cherry-red backrest and set against a wall upholstered in inky cashmere.
Ike Edeani
African sculptures, including a Senufo bird (center), are joined by a klismos chair in a corner of the bedroom.
“The apartment is very streamlined and utilitarian—simple, with decadent materials,” says the designer, who loves coming home from his constant travels and having the bed in the middle of the apartment. “To me it feels modernist and exciting.”
The story of how Brûlé got to this point is a bit unconventional. He grew up in Montreal, and he says that in his family “entrepreneurship was always front and center, more than culture and aesthetics.” He adds that his family included some “extreme personalities.” One of those personalities was his grandmother, who was always smartly dressed and kept things just so. The two were close. “The way she took care of things, objects, influenced me in a big way,” he says.
Ike Edeani
A Sterling Ruby artwork on the bedroom’s mirrored wall overlooks a 1920s bronze sculpture and a 1930s Jean-Charles Moreux vase.
And then there was the uncle who lived in Hong Kong and would visit the family with his beautiful wife, him dressed head to toe in Tom Ford and Armani, constantly smoking and very handsome. When Brûlé was 13 or 14, the uncle and his wife moved back to Montreal, and Brûlé often spent time at the couple’s apartment, which the uncle decorated with a tasteful mix of Chinese antiques and Art Deco, channeling a retro-chic China Club look.
Another influential personality from his childhood was his mother’s best friend, a composer and writer with the accoutrements of a high-flying lifestyle, including a Bentley, a house in Palm Beach, and stays in fabulous places. The young Brûlé was fascinated by the beautiful, cultivated people he met who might jet in from Monte Carlo for a party. But, as he acknowledges, what was missing for him at that time was true engagement with culture.
Ike Edeani
An Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann mirror hangs above the bed, flanked by bespoke side tables. Frette bedding; Charvet robe.
Fast forward to Brûlé’s early twenties, when he moved to New York to study fashion at Parsons. “It’s a bit blurry, but I did a lot of things,” he says. “My creativity came through, and my entrepreneurial spirit was always present.” While in school he got fashion gigs, including assisting a great stylist, and he worked with antiques dealer and decorator Jean-Paul Beaujard, an important mentor. Brûlé embraced the city with everything he had, going to museums and galleries, meeting new people, absorbing everything around him.
“New York is such an incredible place, and it unlocked things for me,” he says. “I lived in an apartment the size of a closet, and I was thrilled.”
Ike Edeani / Courtesy Melle van Herwaarden and Andrew Dubow
A painting by Melle van Herwaarden hangs next to custom shelves with vintage barware.
But Brûlé knew he wanted to expand beyond fashion, and he enjoyed creating environments. When he first moved into his current apartment—with a roommate initially—he began playing with colors, furniture, textures, finishes. In those early days he loved entertaining and having people over for dinner. One of those guests ended up asking him to take the creative lead on his apartment renovation, which already had an architect involved. Although Brûlé didn’t know it, that project would kickstart his design career.
The architect ended up dropping out, and the friend offered Brûlé the entire project, to be finished in six months. Without thinking twice, he said yes. Completely on his own, he stayed up until 3 a.m. every night to get things done. “This was the big launch,” Brûlé says. “I never questioned whether I could do it. What it showed me is that I really loved doing interiors.” Even though the project had no press, word of mouth spread, and new clients started to come.
Step Inside Martin Brûlé’s Apartment
Open Gallery
While Brûlé didn’t abandon his interest in doing larger restaurant, hotel, and retail projects, he discovered that he loves tailoring spaces for individual clients. “I create spaces that are portraits of the people who live in them.”
At the moment, Brûlé’s projects include a Park Avenue duplex, an Upper East Side art gallery, a large residence in Madrid, and the first hotel for a new brand in Milan. For him an ambitious project doesn’t have to be big. “It’s about the level of taste and vision. That’s what excites me,” he says.
When asked what success feels like, Brûlé stops for a moment to consider the question. Then he replies, “I don’t really think about things like that. I honestly feel this is just the beginning.”
This story originally appeared in the September 2026 issue of ELLE Decor. SUBSCRIBE