With the release of Stranger Things season 4, we’ve wanted to hero David Harbour’s emaculate New York Loft apartment.
This wasn’t an easy feat for Harbour once he started looking for his first home, set on “a one-room, loft-type, very New York space in downtown Manhattan”. After three years of searching, he came across his “uncut gem” neighbourhood of Nolita in a transformed wagon factory Harbour found his loft apartment – well, kind of.
Harbour described the space as the floors being uneven, crappy, and chipping drywall and two bathrooms placed next to each other that served no purpose other than making it a two bathroom. Essentially the space hadn’t been touched since the ’70s. Despite the terrible impression it made on Harbour, the price was right.
Luckily, Harbour was going to be shooting in Atlanta for about a year, which meant he would have time to renovate the space without worrying about living arrangements in the meantime!
To help with this massive 1,400 sq ft renovation, he enlisted the help of Kyle O’Donnell of Gramercy Design. Harbour said that O’Donnell’s key eye for detail is one of the reasons why he entrusted him. O’Donnell’s main goal was to draw inspiration from the neighbourhood vernacular to add back anything that may have once been there in the past,” O’Donnell says. “And to recreate the charm of a vintage NYC loft space, but update it with modern conveniences to suit David’s lifestyle.”
The renovation took about 10 months to complete, which included stripping down the space to its factory roots, revealing interesting architectural features like metal bolts that once held the tools to make wagon wheels! Other significant changes included combining the two bathrooms into one, adding five closets, and installing a tin ceiling. O’Donnell even sourced authentic, antique flannels from a decommissioned factory in Pennsylvania and had them stripped and refinished.
Harbour’s finished apartment is bright and open, with fresh vintage charm. While most of the 11-foot walls are white, warm tones of burnt orange, red and brown are evident in the furniture, art, books, rugs, and many, many plants making the space seem warm and inviting!
What makes Harbours Apartment so appealing is the ability to maximise the space through his use of natural lighting, warm colour plates and curated furniture, art, books, and, of course, his massive plant collection.
(photographs by Max Burkhalter & Gramercy Design)
