The runway model had a checklist of things she wanted to change: unappetizing green marble countertops in the kitchen; dark, heavy reclaimed wood doors; and mismatched floors and entryways were just a few of the obstacles. “It felt really woodsy, like you were living in a Spanish-style house in Los Feliz, California, or up in the woods in a cabin. It was too dark. I knew I wanted to make it bright and airy and something white,” Vyalitsyna explains. “I wanted it to feel really happy and light.”
Harris went to work by replacing the green marble countertops with white Corian, removed an old wooden island in the kitchen and added clean white wooden doors throughout the apartment. New cabinetry hardware also lightened up the feel.
To make the most of her kitchen, Harris replaced her original long, dark table with one from Organic Modernism that has a round marble top and hammered-brass base.
Instead of a traditional coffee table in the living room, Harris opted for what she describes as “two small tables that are amoeba-like in shape that nest together” that can be pulled apart and moved aside while Vyalitsyna and Cahan’s 22-month-old daughter, Alaska, plays. The custom coffee table, designed by Harris and fabricated by Manzanares in Long Island City, has no hard edges and is still “really fun and sophisticated and adds a personal touch to the space,” says the designer.
Vyalitsyna’s favorite piece, however, may be the contemporary and minimalistic mirror that hangs over the fireplace in her bedroom. Harris says the hunt for the perfect mirror—something that would fit the space but also their vision—was quite a conundrum. The end result, from a young furniture studio based in Brooklyn called Bower, was worth the effort.
While the final collaboration between Vyalitstna and Harris is a far cry from the original apartment the model purchased in 2013, she didn’t entirely wipe the slate clean. One example: A set of unusual shutter-like doors that enter into her daughter’s nursery, which are big enough for the model herself to pop in and out of.
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