A Clean Palette and Modern Flourishes Define This Gorgeous Brooklyn Home

A unique approach to incorporating modern touches and creating continuity in her space makes interior designer Heavenly Gaines' Brooklyn home sparkle. The designer offers tips for making a rental feel like home.

Keep in mind: Price and stock could change after publish date, and we may make money from these affiliate links.

September 02, 2022

By: Jeanine Hays and Bryan Mason

Related To:

Shop This Look

Photo By: Chinasa Cooper

Photo By: Patrick Cline

Photo By: Chinasa Cooper

Inside a Design-Driven Bedford-Stuyvesant Apartment

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.

Mixing Modern and Vintage Influences at Home

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.

Black Walls Add Drama to This Living Room

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.”

A Modern-Vintage Mix

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.

A Statement Sofa Makes All the Difference

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.”

How to Create a Modern Look in Your Living Room

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.

A Sophisticated WFH Nook

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.

A '70s Style Bathroom Renovation

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.

Crisp Whites in the Bedroom Encourage Rest

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.

A Warm Bedroom Retreat With a Touch of Mod

“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.”

A Graphic Look and Edgy Color in a Gallery-White Space

“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.”

A Neutral Color Palette In an Eclectic Space

Bringing together so many influences in one room without things feeling disjointed takes imagination and skill. Ultimately, Heavenly credits a well-planned color palette for creating the connections that allowed her to blend her eclectic furniture tastes. “I decided to mix both muted cool and warm tones to enhance the tone of black I chose,” she says. “My furniture pieces and decor items range from African and French to modern and Art Deco. But it's all cohesive because of the muted tones.”

A Clean Palette and Modern Flourishes Define This Gorgeous Brooklyn Home

Related To:

Shop This Look

Inside a Design-Driven Bedford-Stuyvesant Apartment

Mixing Modern and Vintage Influences at Home

Black Walls Add Drama to This Living Room

A Modern-Vintage Mix

A Statement Sofa Makes All the Difference

How to Create a Modern Look in Your Living Room

A Sophisticated WFH Nook

A '70s Style Bathroom Renovation

Crisp Whites in the Bedroom Encourage Rest

A Warm Bedroom Retreat With a Touch of Mod

A Graphic Look and Edgy Color in a Gallery-White Space

A Neutral Color Palette In an Eclectic Space

Tour This Picture-Perfect Brooklyn Author's Home 12 Photos

A Tiny 800-Square-Foot Brooklyn Home With Big Style 12 Photos

Tour a Brooklyn Apartment After a Jaw-Dropping Makeover 14 Photos

There's a Bright, Airy Home Lurking Behind This Industrial Brooklyn Facade 18 Photos

Tour a Kid-Friendly Brooklyn Condo Bursting With Color 8 Photos

Tour the Paper Plant-Filled, Eclectic Home of a Brooklyn Artist and Author 26 Photos

Related Pages