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This project is my most ambitious to date.
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I built up my design firm studio Athena Calderone,
to create all aspects of this space,
allowing us to take this architecturally driven renovation
to the highest level.
This design takes original details of the home
and amplifies them.
I honored the apartment’s past,
yet I made this space wholly my own.
I am Athena Calderone and welcome to my Tribeca apartment.
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When I think about design, I’m always paying attention
to that very first point of inspiration,
and for me, it was the kitchen.
The form of this island was inspired
by a Le Corbusier desk that I saw.
I really wanted the island
to almost feel like it was this monastic,
modernist form that was dropped into this historic setting.
I went to the Mack Museum when I was in Vienna
and absolutely fell in love with the ceiling,
which was leaded glass,
and that’s where my favorite part of this home
kind of came together, which was these leaded glass doors.
They’re open right now,
but one of my favorite details
is that you can completely close it up.
So after I’m finished cooking
and I’m about to host guests,
I can close the leaded glass doors
and have just this beautiful island making it
be the focal point of the room.
I worked in direct contact with my architect,
Danielle Siggerud,
and she really helped me bring these leaded glass details
and the engineering to life.
We worked with Amuneal,
which is the most incredible metal fabricator.
They’re in Philadelphia.
I worked directly with the owner, Adam,
and I got to go to their workshop
and really understand the craft, the artistry,
and all the love to be perfectly honest
that went into these doors.
A fun fact about this apartment
is that it used to be Thierry Despont’s home
in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
He’s a French designer and architect.
He restored the Statue of Liberty.
He renovated the Ritz in Paris as well as the Getty Center.
And I just was led on a design journey that allowed me
to educate myself.
I knew nothing about 20th century design,
and suddenly I began studying the 1930s
and the art Deca movement,
probably because in order for me to design
from a place of confidence,
I really needed to do the work and do the research.
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We’re in the living room
and it is most certainly the most grand space of the home.
The wood paneling is likely the statement of this home
and it is historic.
I worked together with the brownstone boys
on restoring all of the wood.
What I love so much about the wood paneling
is the datum line
that runs throughout the entirety of the home.
And I took that as a statement that I wanted to use
to connect all of the spaces.
The focal point of the living room
is definitely the fireplace.
I decided that I wanted to offer some levity.
The room is clad in this beautiful wood paneling,
but I wanted this vertical statement
that brought a little bit of lightness.
So I’ve used a Saint Croix limestone.
Throughout the home,
one of the things I’m most proud
of is a lot of the relationships that I build
with so many incredible craftspeople,
and there’s really been a return to that lately in design,
and I really wanted to celebrate that here in this home.
You’ll see it in the mirror
that we have this beautiful hammered metal detailing.
I worked with Amuneal on all of the metal work,
and it’s just so exceptional
and ties in beautifully with the vintage candlesticks
that are from jaundice spray.
A lot of the doors are hidden, but it wasn’t necessarily
because I wanted to quote unquote hide them.
It was more that I wanted to honor the design.
I wanted to add an office where there was wood paneling,
so why not make it feel hidden
so you’re not breaking the rhythm
and the beauty of the design.
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We are here in my home office, which is such a sanctuary.
It’s wrapped in this creamy and dreamy luminosity.
And I developed this wall covering with Calico
and it’s inspired by parchment.
We worked with an incredible artisan
to kind of hand paint the parchment and the tonality,
but also did scams of real parchment skins.
This home office is a dream to create in,
and it really gives me both the calm and confidence
that I need to create and to design in.
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We are here in the hallway, which is a very dramatic space.
We’ve clad this hallway in stone.
It connects the public spaces to the private spaces.
It also connects the historic spaces
to the more renovated spaces,
and it really feels like a portal.
So on most days, you will find my husband in his studio,
which is the sexiest room in the house,
and I can lose him for hours and days on end,
and you’ll see why.
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So I’ve been chatting enough.
So babe, why don’t you take it over?
So I’m a DJ and music producer,
and it was important for me to have a space
that just felt moody and comfortable
because of the amount of time I spend in here.
I had inherited so many records
from my brother who was a DJ,
And even Jevon, who’s also a DJ and a music producer,
has been kind of taking inspiration
and pulling from Victor’s music collection.
And it’s really beautiful
that in a way it went from your brother to you to Jevon,
and it’s like multi-generational and multi inspirational.
I mean, just the other night,
like we were in here until probably 1:00 in the morning,
2:00 in the morning,
just listening to music together.
Victor and I have been together for over 27 years.
In every one of our homes,
there has been some sort of home recording studio
and home studio.
So I’ve learned a lot about sound isolation,
and essentially you wanna build a room inside of a room.
So the floor is floating and the walls
are away from the original walls
and the ceiling is dropped.
I guess I’m a sound engineer now.
You are.
Add that to the list.
[all laughing]
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We are now in the media room.
It embodies the 1930s and the art deco period
likely more than any space in the home.
I am so in love with the locker doors
and how they’re extending vertically
and breaking the datum line.
I love the ceiling, which is the inverse
of everywhere else in the home.
Usually the wood for the paneling
is at the datum line or lower, but here it’s in lacquer
and it’s curving onto the ceiling,
and it’s being met by this beautiful interior skylight.
The walls are padded.
They are this soft silk fabric
and this beautiful grid-like pattern,
and it’s just an amazing room
to get cozy in to be with my family.
Let’s head across the hallway.
I’ll show you my favorite guest bathroom.
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This is our guest bathroom,
and I’m in love with these large lava stone tiles
in that beautiful oxblood color.
They’re completely oversized.
I’ve continued this datum line,
but above the datum here we’ve done mirror,
which is definitely a fun design trick
to make a small room look even larger.
It’s just such a sexy little room.
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We are here in the guest room,
which is a very special space for me.
Thierry Despont, the former owner of this home,
this was his primary bedroom.
And these apothecary drawers were original
to his design, and I really wanted to honor him
and use and reuse the materials that were in this room.
The wallpaper cladding the walls here
is the exact same wallpaper
that Thierry Despont had in his primary bedroom.
So eventually I reached out
to Thierry Despont’s design studio
and I just asked where it was from.
And lo and behold, the person I ended up talking
to had worked with Thierry since day one.
He was here when Thierry lived in this space
and installed this fabric.
And bless his heart, he dug into the archives
and he found an extra bolt of this fabric.
And what’s really fun is the original wallpaper
that was sun faded after being in this room
for so many years,
I took it off the walls and I used it on the chairs
that are in the dining room.
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We are here in my primary bedroom,
which is such a beautifully romantic, cozy space.
It is clad in this beautiful silk wall covering
that’s this icy blue, a little bit gray,
and I played a lot with warm and cool tonality.
I really fell in love with beds nestled inside a niche.
It was something that designer Jean-Michel Frank
and Paul Dupré-Lafon often did in the 1930s.
And I really drew inspiration from that.
So I worked together with camp studios
and they developed
this beautiful hand-painted parchment for me.
I think that it was exceptionally crafted
and I’m in love with the space.
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What I love so much about this primary bathroom
is how it is completely swathed in this beautiful stone
from ABC stone.
This is the same stone that’s going down the hallway,
and I really wanted my bathtub to sit within a niche.
Doing my research and looking at 20th century design
and iconic designers, like Pierre Legrain,
was this beautiful dining table
that was black lacquer,
and on the bottom it was silver leaf.
So I drew inspiration and designed my vanity
to kind of honor that design.
I am so proud of the work that my entire team did.
The architects, the contractors, the engineers,
all of the craftspeople.
I walk through this space and I am so at home here.
It feels so cozy.
It feels so warm.
It feels like a beautiful hug.
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