Bushwick

The Insider: New-in-Town Designer Does Up Own Bushwick Pad Around Dramatic Wall of Windows

Young designer and recent transplant Luna Grey decorated her rental unit in Bushwick with style, warmth and an eye on the budget.

Interior Design Ideas Brooklyn Luna Grey Interiors Bushwick

by Cara Greenberg

07/21/2016 5 minute 0

“Moving to Brooklyn was the best thing I ever did,” said Luna Grey of Luna Grey Interiors, who arrived a year and a half ago from Philadelphia. She ensconced herself in a 690-square-foot one-bedroom Bushwick rental with a small balcony and a glorious expanse of steel-framed casement windows.

The building, near the Bed Stuy border, is new construction intended to mimic old industrial architecture, at least in its fenestration and concrete floors. “We moved here because of the windows,” the 27-year-old designer said. “It’s magical, because of the amount of light that comes in. We don’t turn lights on until the sun goes down.”

Grey and her partner are the very first tenants in the fourth-floor unit. “In Philly, we lived in some old spaces,” said Grey, who has a master’s in interior design from Drexel University and has already established herself with a few clients in Brooklyn and Manhattan, and continues to take on jobs in Philadelphia. “I like when things work.”

With brand-spanking-new everything, including the all-white paint job, Grey’s task was to furnish. “We pretty much started over when we moved here,” she said.

She chose items from cost-conscious retailers and online sites to create a cleanly modern yet cozy environment, with just enough color and texture to warm things up.

Crate & Barrel armchairs in a neutral fabric, a coffee table from West Elm and a pouf from Anthropologie sit upon a multicolored hand-woven rug from India, also from West Elm.

The bright yellow drapes were a bit of a stretch for Grey. Normally, she said, “I’m a very safe person and these curtains are loud, but the windows are so stunning I wanted to draw even more attention to them.”

Just prior to moving in, Grey assembled modules from IKEA’s Besta line into a storage wall for media and her many fabric and wallpaper samples, as well as the general stuff of life. “Everything’s nicely put away,” she said. “Having too many things around doesn’t create a serene environment.”

Grey made the hanging terrariums to introduce some indoor greenery and, again, emphasize the windows.

A simple midcentury wood table found on Craigslist, along with Eames replica shell chairs from AllModern.com, outfit the dining area.

The copper pendant light came from AllModern as well.

Grey took a gallery-style approach to hanging artwork, including a poster of Coney Island’s Luna Park and her own framed grad-school projects above the comfy sofa. She came up with the arrangement by “laying everything out on the floor until it felt right.”

An acacia-wood dresser from Anthropologie and ombré bed linens from Area Home were pretty much all that were needed to decorate the bedroom, into which the show-stopping wall of windows extends.

In Grey’s minimalist home office, tucked into a corner of the bedroom, even the ceramic tape dispenser was chosen for its good design.

[Photos by Claire Esparros for Homepolish, unless otherwise noted]

The Insider is Brownstoner’s weekly in-depth look at a notable interior design/renovation project, by design journalist Cara Greenberg. Find it here every Thursday.

Got a project to propose for The Insider? Contact Cara at caramia447 [at] gmail [dot] com.