Rayman Boozer believes that a home can't only look ravishing. It also has to feel friendly. "I know friendly doesn't sound like a design word," says the ELLE DECOR A-List designer. "But it's really important to me that when people walk into a home, it feels like they're welcome. Things should be pretty but still feel like, Oh wow, a nice person lives here. Or at least that a nice person decorated."
That sentiment is immediately apparent in a Harlem apartment that the Indiana-born, Manhattan-based principal of design firm Apartment 48 renovated for a family of four. The space is textured and unexpected. The living room, painted in a soothing light blue, features a piano bench upholstered in a purple zebra print, French landscape paintings, gauzy curtains in a blush-pink and lime-green marbled pattern, and antique Chinese pottery. While the combination keeps the eye engaged, the overall ambience is comforting, like a full-body exhale.
In some ways, the project was decades in the making. Boozer's client, a self-described "major Rayman groupie," first met the designer at his cult Chelsea boutique, also called Apartment 48 (since closed), which was furnished like a real home. "I would go in and visit some of my favorite items and pretend it was my own apartment," she says.
This story is from the October 2024 edition of Elle Decor US.
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This story is from the October 2024 edition of Elle Decor US.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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