B”H
Timeless Interiors…There are a few interiors that I can look again and again and always love… they are just so, so me! One of those is Ivanka Trump’s “starter apartment” in Manhattan featured way back in 2007 in In Style and in House & Garden (a magazine that is sadly now extinct).
While I do like Ivanka’s apartment with Jared Kushner in the penthouse of the same building, featured in Elle Decor in 2012, it is much more modern and doesn’t make my heart skip like her old bachelorette pad. (They’ve just purchased a colonial home in Washington D.C. for $5.5 MM and I can’t wait to see how she decorates it.) Anyhow, her old, starter apartment, which I’m showing you today, is now on sale for $4 MM, if any one wants to jump on it haha.
Although I hadn’t looked at these pictures in a while, I was reorganizing my pinterest boards recently, got lost in the rat hole, and browsing through these old images, I realized that over the years I’ve stayed true to my style. In fact, my home has a lot of the elements present in the images I love so much about Ivanka’s old apartment, which in my view is a timeless interior!
Let’s name a few of my favorite elements from Ivanka’s apartment, which I have carried over into my own home:
- antique seatee,
- pop of yellow,
- mixed patterns,
- use of blue in generous doses,
- Chinoiserie elements,
- mother of pearl inlay,
- small dose of animal print,
- wood to bring the organic element without going all neutral,
- skirted table,
- touches of black,
- touches of gold, and
- trim, trim trim!
This list is meaningless if I don’t show you images of my home, yeah? Ok stay tuned, it’s on my BLOG TO DO LIST… For now, enjoy this eye candy…and if you keep reading you’ll find more funny connections between Ivanka and me…
Notice how it’s ok to use two separate area rugs, which is probably what we’ll be doing one day in our living room as it is pretty huge and has two separate seating areas. We’ve discussed purchasing sisals like the rugs in Ivanka’s apartment pictures, because I absolutely love the texture they add to a room, plus they are fairly economical relative to other area rugs – usually one of the large splurges in a room. However, we’ve decided that based on previous experience with sisal in our play room, these are not the best idea with kids (they are not as forgiving to stains, plus they shed a lot) and I’ll show you in another post our living room dream rug and some inspiration images.
Notice the trim on the two seater below. There’s also trim on the lamp shades and trim on the curtains you’ll soon see.
The blue walls remind me of the blue walls in our home. In addition, I have a silk scarf that my mother passed down to me and has been properly pressed and ready to take to the framer’s for months. Maybe the image below with the framed Hermes scarf will inspire me to finally get it framed.
I love the trim on those curtains and I love love love that library with a ladder. Libraries with ladders is something we’ve discussed multiple times for our own home. But, I can just imagine my boys and their friends jumping off the ladder and cracking their heads open and the dream quickly fades away…
You know from this post that I have a very similar mother of pearl inlay dresser in blue in my girls’ room. LOVE!
You’ve seen my skirted table with trim of course and glass top here before. I love Ivanka’s here in the bedroom.
Lastly, I have a black Chinoiserie fabric that I bought ages ago and have been dying to frame and put on top of our blue couch, sort of like so… although this is clearly not fabric…
My plan has always been to DIY a huge acrylic frame for it and I’ve just never carved out the time to get it done. Maybe another one of my goals for 2017…
And just for fun, let me show you how the apartment looks now in the real estate listing.
You can see how different commercial styling or staging looks than real styling… It’s stale, and lacks personality. This is done intentionally, but I never quite like it. In particular, this bedroom image, contrasts the beautiful images of the bedroom above…
We have a living room couch in a very similar blue velvet (you can see a peek of it here), and I do think from some video images I saw elsewhere, that this blue couch was in the original design, but I’m not super sure.
Finally, as I was trying to see if I could find more pictures of Ivanka’s old apartment, look the image I bumped into! Ivanka on a video interview with ABC News on July, 2016. Do you recognize this dress!?
Ha! Apparently taste in interiors is not the only thing Ivanka and I have in common!
But, wait… On an additional funny note… during the Spring of 2016 I was pre-selected for an interview process with a network that was thinking of creating a reality TV show on the lives of Bar and Bat Mitzvah stylists and planners. They loved my work and after a few email exchanges, I was sent the final questionnaire which was pretty exhaustive and the last step before moving to a personal interview.
One of the questions asked, which famous person’s Bar/Bat Mitzvah would you like to design/plan? I immediately knew my answer. I responded “Ivanka Trump’s kids Bar and Bat Mitzvah’s” because she has an amazing sense of style and the best match is when you’re working with a client who already has great taste. I knew I was taking a risk being this was a very heated political year and the Trump name might get some people upset, but I had to be honest. This had nothing to do with my political views. I really meant it.
I did not get the interview… I never found out if it was because of that answer, but it seemed odd because based on prior email exchanges this interview was a done deal. (And I haven’t found out if they’ve launched said show.) Funny and interesting story, no? Who knows, maybe one day I will get to work with Ivanka… seems like we’d get along, don’t you think!?
Anyhoo…What did you think of this apartment from over 10 years ago! Rumor has it Interior Designer Emma Jane Pilkington got the job to design Ivanka’s apartment back in 2003, so it is definitely not something recent. However, it doesn’t feel dated right? I bet you in 10 years it will still feel fresh and elegant. Timeless interiors… always a win!
Want to learn about the intersection of Judaism and Interior Design? Click here to bring “Mi casa es Su casa: Kabbalah of the Home” to women in your city.
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