Small Space, Big Style: Darren Henault

By Donna Sapolin

Darren Henault is rolling on the floor with his eight-month-old girl twins, Bunny and Lulu. Belly giggles punctuate his descriptions of the Manhattan apartment he recently designed for Eric Dahl, the owner of Sandringham Ltd.—the company that does all his custom upholstery. As if caring for a pair of babies isn’t enough of a handful, Henault is in the process of renovating a guest house on his 50-acre farm in Millbrook, NY, designing a line of jewelry, and running an interior design business with projects in four different cities around the country—Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania. In a few days, he will fly to Venice, where he will tour textile mills and houses, and dine with Micky Riad, who co-runs Fortuny—the producer of many of the sumptuous fabrics he uses in his interiors.

Henault grew up in the textile industry and relishes every aspect of its production—from weaving and dying to finishing. “I’d love to design some fabrics,” he says wistfully. “But I’m just too busy at the moment.” Not surprisingly, multi-tasking occurs throughout our conversation. At one point, the girls are swapped for car keys and the cell phone goes hands-free as Henault dives into his car and heads for the Hudson Valley where he will oversee a photo shoot of his property’s main house for Architectural Digest. Though the phone drops out more that once, Henault manages to deliver a fluid account of the steps he took to transform a small one-bedroom apartment into one that is rich in both architectural detail and space-maximizing features.

DARREN’S DECORATI FAVORITES
Textile by Alpha Workshops	Bone Inlay by Charles Jacobson Inc	Lamp by Allan Knight	Daybed by Donghia
Rug by Odegard	Textile by Bart Halpern	Taboret by Jed Johnson Home	Sconce by Brighton Collection
Pillow by Holland & Sherry	Bed by Erika Brunson Couture Living	Textile by Clarence House	Textile by Chelsea Editions

“I usually focus on very large spaces,” says the designer, “but Eric and I worked out a barter arrangement for this location—he did all the upholstery for my new farm and, in exchange, I did the interior design work for his new apartment. Though he does upholstery for many designers, he resonates with my style and let me go with my vision, which was to give the shell a 19th-century character and then style it with more modern, unfussy pieces.”

That agenda included adding architectural details to a post-war environment that was been entirely devoid of them. What the apartment did have was low ceilings and a layout that lent itself to reconfiguration after gutting. With the support of architect, Garrow Kedigian, a hallway and closet were turned into a dressing room and a tiny foyer, which had once incorporated closets, was enlarged to create a grand entrance.

In the foyer (seen beyond the dining area), Henault added built-in shelving and cabinetry, fostering an elegant old-world atmosphere. “The immediate feeling upon entering is one of grandeur so the entry feels more like a room than a foyer,” says Henault. A Lutyens Furniture Limited “Cardinal’s Hat Light” casts an even glow and a lyrical sense of rhythm across the space via several fittings linked by gold cords that branch out from a single electrical point.

In the adjacent dining room, Henault installed thick crown moldings and additional built-ins, all coated in a creamy Farrow & Ball paint. The shelves are lined with an array of both new and old blue-and-white ceramic accents, forging the appearance of a collection that has been years in the making. To enhance the 1960s parquet floor, the designer stenciled a circular geometric pattern that seems to spiral outward. This design creates the sense of an ever-expanding room and provides a ground-level focal point for a round 19th-century Austrian mahogany table purchased at Sutter Antiques in Hudson, New York.

The chairs are upholstered in a needlepoint cotton fabric from Jerry Pair. Its Gothic patterning is echoed in Dessin Fournir’s gilded metal lantern overhead. “I love the fixture’s shape,” Henault says. “It has a lot of volume to balance out what lies below yet it’s also airy, which makes the room feel more spacious.”

In the L-shaped living area, Henault installed deep crown moldings, baseboards and casings coated in a high-gloss Farrow & Ball cream hue that emphasizes the architecture and adds dimensionality. The walls were painted in a flat taupe for a warm and inviting look. “The red undertones of this neutral color have a space-expanding impact,” he says. But it is the purposely scaled-down custom furniture (upholstered by the homeowner) that wields the greatest influence on the sense of space.

Pillows wrapped in a Bergamo silk and edged in a Samuel & Sons trim add teal hues to the trim 65-inch-long sofa upholstered in caramel linen silk from Rogers & Goffigon. The color is repeated in the 1950s Italian glass table lamps and in the photograph from New York’s Yancy Richardson Gallery that hangs on the wall. “We wanted one artwork that would be very graphic rather than multiple images that would add clutter,” says Henault. “This image of an old theater dome shot by a Russian photographer has a vortex-like feeling that makes the wall appear to recede.

“In a compact area, hang one image that draws the eye in.”

A pair of chairs dressed in a Bergamo striped cut velvet joins a space-saving tête-à-tête that Henault modeled after a 19th -century piece and upholstered in a Bergamo jacquard weave. The table surfaces are small and lean: two wooden cubes in front of the sofa do the job of a coffee table. To its right, an old writing desk turned sideways does double duty as a lamp table and a bill-paying surface; one of the low-backed dining chairs provides the seating and tucks neatly underneath when necessary.

A Persian Kerman rug from Symourgh International supplies an intricately patterned field of color that repeats the tones used throughout the room. “I’m a textile and rug freak,” Henault admits. “I love new rugs if they’re well done—I just designed some for Doris Leslie Blau. But all too often people use new rugs because they don’t know anything about old ones and are therefore afraid to buy.

For the window treatment Henault used a sheer wool Roman shade topped by a reverse-painted glass valance featuring an Arabesque pattern. “I had seen this done in a Kips Bay room about five years ago and it stuck in my head,” he says.

Much of the space in the short leg of the L-shaped living room is taken up by a baby grand piano. Henault created a cozy lounge area in the remainder by means of a custom daybed tucked into the corner. To have it blend with the wall and trim colors, Henault dressed the piece in a brown wool fabric accented with pillows wrapped in an easy-care ultrasuede; both from Pollack. A portrait belonging to the homeowner was hung low to the ground, just below a tarnished brass sconce and above Mecox Gardens’ small metal table.

“By playing with the scale in this way, the corner feels bigger and the sconce can serve as both a picture light and a reading light.”

The wood side table at the other end of the sofa was crafted by the homeowner’s shop, which also produces case goods. A mirror from Mecox Gardens fleshes out the arrangement.

Because the apartment is located in New York where street noise is most always a problem, Henault gave the bedroom some sound-dampening cushioning by upholstering the walls in an oatmeal-toned wool felt. A Samuel & Sons trim traces the wall just below the crown molding, helping to delineate this architectural feature from the vertical surfaces below. The designer painted the ceiling a vivid blue-green hue, which added visual spark to the otherwise neutral space and forged a connection between this room and the adjacent living room. Using Henault’s designs, the homeowner made a walnut-framed headboard and two limestone-topped nightstands. The designer dressed the whimsical lamps that rest on them with a custom shade.

An old closet and hallway leading to the bathroom were transformed into a new dressing and closet area. A 19th-century light fixture from Carlos de la Puente adds grandeur.

“A lot of people wouldn’t put something so big in such a small area. But if you choose well, it can be very powerful.”

An American Empire chair in a zebra-patterned fabric functions as both a step stool and as a spot to don shoes. A wall-to-wall linen carpet from Patterson, Flynn & Martin grounds the bedroom and dressing area in texture.

Photography by Bruce Buck.

Resources

Dining: Chairs – Custom Sandringham, Table – Sutter Antiques, Hudson,Chair Fabric – Jerry Pair, Chandelier – Kerry Joice

Living: Sofa Fabric – Rogers & Goffigon, Chair Fabric – Pollack, Photograph – Yancey Richardson Gallery NYC, Shades – Just Shades, Stool Fabric – Bergamo, Trim – Samuel & Sons

Den: Chaise Fabric -Pollack, Swing Arm Lamps – Circa Lighting, Mirror and Tree Table – Mecox Gardens, Stool Fabric – Bergamo, All upholstery custom – Sandringham

Bedroom: Headboard Fabric – Bergamo, Wall Fabric – Bergamo, Trim – Samuel & Sons,Headboard and Nightstands- Custom Sandringham,Lampshades – Just Shades, Bedding – Frette

Dressing: Carpeting – Patterson, Flynn & Martin