The Insider: Glitz and Glam in a Bushwick Bachelor Pad
Not everyone could get away with an apartment that feels like a nightclub, but Vikas and Vishal Sapra, brothers as well as roommates, come by the black walls, mirrored bar and bubble chandelier honestly. Vikas is a renowned DJ and founder of the soon-to-launch music app Rippi; Vishal works for a creative and technology agency….
Not everyone could get away with an apartment that feels like a nightclub, but Vikas and Vishal Sapra, brothers as well as roommates, come by the black walls, mirrored bar and bubble chandelier honestly. Vikas is a renowned DJ and founder of the soon-to-launch music app Rippi; Vishal works for a creative and technology agency.
After meeting designer Stefania Skrabak of Art Home Garden while they were all working on an event for the men’s online magazine UrbanDaddy, the Sapra brothers hired her to take their chaotically furnished two-bedroom Bushwick rental to a new level of organization and stylishness.
“A nightclubby feel is what they were looking for. It’s always about the client and who they are, bringing their personalities into the space,” said Skrabak, a born-and-bred New Yorker with four degrees in fashion and fine arts from FIT, SVA and Marist College. “We started with the idea of an industrial-style loft, bringing in their Indian heritage with colors and textures.”
Skrabak worked out a cream-and-black scheme using Behr Paints’ Black Suede and Almond Cream, with wall colors overlapping from one plane to the next. “A typical wall is painted corner to corner,” she said. “Here, we overlapped the colors so each goes two or three feet into the next wall, which makes it seem the apartment is revolving around you.”
Skrabak also created custom wall art throughout the apartment, including two large abstract canvases behind the living room sofa and a black-and-white “scribble” headboard in one of the bedrooms.
Furnishings include a pair of black leather Wassily chairs by Marcel Breuer and a 1970s chandelier over the dining table, both of which came from the Sapras’ parents’ home in New Jersey. “They were very supportive,” Skrabak said. “They let a strange woman come into their house and take their light fixtures!”
She salvaged old railroad spikes and metal grates from a train station in Phoenicia, New York, where Skrabak has a second home and office, for use as decoration. “I wanted to bring in rustic, aged pieces to contrast the newness and modernity” of the recently constructed apartment building, she said.
Read all about it below.
Skrabak whipped up the wall graphics — two large abstract canvases, done with oils and acrylics — as a backdrop for the clients’ existing black leather sofa. The coffee table is from Blue Barn Marketplace in Phoenicia, New York, the throw pillows from Anatolia Tribal Rugs and Weavings in Woodstock, the Arco floor lamp from Design Within Reach.
The kitchen remains pretty much as it was, except for a new ceiling soffit with recessed lights. On the black wall hang two vintage Bollywood posters with glass mattes.
The living room, dining area and kitchen are all one open space. In one corner, Skrabak put a vintage chrome shelf, backed with mirrors to create a dazzling bar area. The Italian dining set is from Calligaris Home Furnishings.
Skrabak’s own scribbles on a horizontal canvas became wall art for one of the bedrooms, with zig-zag-patterned pillowcases custom-made by Maspeth Tailoring in Queens.
[Photos: Carlos Detres]
The Insider is Brownstoner’s in-depth look at a notable interior design/renovation project, by design journalist Cara Greenberg. The stories are original to Brownstoner; the photos may have been published before. Got a project to propose for The Insider? Please contact Cara at caramia447 at gmail dot com.
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my eyes just sort of glazed over in boredom while scrolling through the pictures. so dark and blah
my eyes just sort of glazed over in boredom while scrolling through the pictures. so dark and blah
I dig the black sofa and the pillows! Anybody have a leather sofa with a naughty cat? How does it hold up?
I did my renovation last year and looked at Remodelista so much I wanted to puke. White white white and more white.
Currently digging the very colorful, eclectic, and often outrageously high-end World of Interiors magazine, featuring mostly British decor.
I dig the black sofa and the pillows! Anybody have a leather sofa with a naughty cat? How does it hold up?
I did my renovation last year and looked at Remodelista so much I wanted to puke. White white white and more white.
Currently digging the very colorful, eclectic, and often outrageously high-end World of Interiors magazine, featuring mostly British decor.
I enjoy seeing what creative people are doing all over Brooklyn, and if I didn’t think this apartment design was worthy of sharing, it wouldn’t be here. It’s original and definitely not boring, the design is professional, and it looks like Stefania had a lot of fun putting it together. I certainly had fun hearing about it.
Have you naysayers noticed this line in recent Insider posts? “Got a project to propose for The Insider? Please contact Cara at caramia447 at gmail dot com” Go ahead — send me some scouting shots of YOUR place and we’ll take it from there.
I enjoy seeing what creative people are doing all over Brooklyn, and if I didn’t think this apartment design was worthy of sharing, it wouldn’t be here. It’s original and definitely not boring, the design is professional, and it looks like Stefania had a lot of fun putting it together. I certainly had fun hearing about it.
Have you naysayers noticed this line in recent Insider posts? “Got a project to propose for The Insider? Please contact Cara at caramia447 at gmail dot com” Go ahead — send me some scouting shots of YOUR place and we’ll take it from there.
Cheesy.
Cheesy.
Bookmarking this for when my grandmother asks me at Christmas why I am single when there are so many men in NYC.