Today, the apartment bears little resemblance to its former self. With the eventual blessing of his benevolent landlords, Grattan has completely transformed the rental unit – widening doorways, upgrading electrical systems, and reimagining every wall and ceiling. (Think leopard print in the den and kelly green in the central dressing area.) He gutted the kitchen, replacing an outdated scheme with a sexy mélange of mirror, lacquer, Rouge Griotte marble, and African mahogany. All that remains of the old bathroom is the tub, now refinished in a cherry hue and complemented by a blue-glass shower panel, red mosaic tile, and a matte-black toilet and fittings.
“It was all trial and error,” says Grattan, a virtuosic cabinetmaker and jack-of-all-trades who spent months living in a construction site, executing the renovation alongside the similarly intrepid Lynx Contracting. “If you haven’t negotiated with reality you haven’t designed, you’ve fantasized,” he avers. “If you can’t build it, you don’t fully understand it.”
Painted in Direct Green by Sherwin-Williams, the central room features an altar to Grattan’s late mother, with a Diptyque candle holder (bottom shelf); on coffee table, a candlestick by Refractory studio from R Hughes and a platter by Naoya Arakawa from Roman and Williams Guild.
That hands-on approach is at the heart of his multi-faceted philosophy. Grattan isn’t afraid to roll up his sleeves – or raise a few eyebrows. Since exploding onto the scene as the winner of the reality-television competition Ellen’s Next Great Designer, the Ohio-born talent has operated on his own creative terms, whether fashioning interiors for the likes of Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird or making sleek editions of case goods, as with his 2024 Thick collection.
“Design is not how it looks when everything behaves,” says Grattan, whose work can be found in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. “Design is how it survives friction.”