A Clean Palette and Modern Flourishes Define This Gorgeous Brooklyn Home

New York City is full of hidden gems, places that seem ordinary enough on the outside, but inside are marvels of design creativity. Interior designer Heavenly Gaines has created one such oasis. Her apartment in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn is a beautiful mix of colors, textures and eras.

Heavenly’s living room is a glimpse of a design style that she describes as, “daring, eclectic, striking and global.” The room is a gorgeous blend of influences, from her beloved juju hats transformed into wall art to eclectic furnishings collected over the years. The room has a perfect mix of vintage and modern furnishings and accessories, that when blended together, create a cohesive space.

Beyond the furniture, the star of this room is its use of color, beginning with the striking black walls. “Black makes a statement,” says Heavenly. “Any color set against it instantly pops.” For Heavenly, choosing the right shade took a bit of work. “My biggest challenge was selecting the shade of black that would work well in my living room. I get great natural light so I choose Benjamin Moore's Black Beauty which has a red hue that gives warmth.”

Heavenly’s playful mix of modern and vintage finds is on display throughout the home. An antique cabinet dripping with character flanks the sofa. Its stylish, engraved metallic fittings and hints of age and wear bring depth to the space. The piece is topped with a framed quote from one of Heavenly’s favorite musicians: Prince.

Heavenly’s living room features a number of beautiful antique pieces from the cabinet to the floor mirror and picture frame. But the vignette is completely built around the settee, which is both an eye-catcher, and one of her favorite things in the world. “I bought it online and had it rebuilt and reupholstered,” she beams. More than just a find, the restoration was a labor of love. “It needed extreme open-heart surgery but it had good bones. Now it's the most beautiful sofa in the world.”

Heavenly's living room is a great guide to achieving a modern look. Lively patterns on the rug, plush lounge chairs and throws play with the eye as it moves across the space. On the far side of the room, a dark sideboard and metal shelving create a cool entertaining area that melts into the dark black walls.

One last corner of the living room houses a small home office from which Heavenly plans her projects. Taking advantage once again of the color-boosting power of her black walls, Heavenly opts for the simple-yet-striking pairing of her dark walls with the natural wood tones found in the shelving, desk, chair and wood floors. The feeling of nature is soothing, augmented with the addition of a glass vase holding banana leaf palms.

Though the apartment was brand new when she moved in, the bathroom was still in need of special attention. Typically, there’s very little renovation that can be done in a rental, making bathrooms an especially challenging design job. Fortunately, Heavenly was able to redo the floors in her bathroom to give the space more color and character. “The whole process took about six months,” she recalls. “I decided to lay the tile in repetitive half moon shapes.” To echo the shape and add layers to the design, Heavenly cleverly repeats the shape with a fan-shaped piece of wall art. “It gives a '70s vibe that I really love,” she says.

Like the living room, the bedroom benefits from healthy doses of natural light throughout the day. Here Heavenly accentuates the light with bright white walls. “The living room and bedroom are polar opposites,” she admits. Still, bits of the living room style managed to find their way into the bedroom. The shape of the carved headboard is a callback to the pattern of the living room rug, and a great way of creating design consistency in the home.

“What I love about my home is how it makes me feel. It exudes warmth and softness," says Heavenly. "It shows that a cohesive space can be achieved using different design styles.”

“The bedroom is mostly monochromatic,” the designer muses. And while white is certainly the dominant color — appearing in various shades not only on the walls, but in the side tables, lamps and rug as well — it’s the touches of color that give the room its character. “The peach chair, brown clay painting and walnut chest give the eye places to rest as they play against the white,” she explains, “and the black and off-white rug provides zest.”