When asked about his love of midcentury furniture, Kevin Dumais answers with a crime story. The year was 2002, and he had just moved from his native Massachusetts to Manhattan. To celebrate, the young designer bought a long-coveted vintage Finn Juhl chair online and arranged to collect it from a Greyhound bus that was arriving at Port Authority.
The table and chairs in the dining area are by BDDW; the custom ceiling fixture is by O’lampia, the flooring is white oak, and the room is painted in Benjamin Moore’s Intense White.
Wrestling the bulky piece through a service gate, Dumais overlooked a key detail: swiping his Metrocard. Enter a transit cop, and a hefty ticket. Surely the moral of the story is that the chair was more trouble than it was worth? “No! It’s one of my favorite pieces,” Dumais says. “I’ve reupholstered it three times.”
In the family room, the custom sectional is covered in Great Plains and Donghia fabrics, the cocktail table by Daniel Scuderi and the chandelier by Trans-Luxe are both custom, the Ecart International sconces are from Ralph Pucci, the curtains are of a Stark fabric, and the carpet is by Tai Ping; the walls are in a Dualoy leather, the ceiling is painted in Benjamin Moore’s Bison Brown, and the artwork is by Zipora Fried.
These days, the furniture is delivered by other people, but a sleeves-rolled-up New England practicality endures. Dumais, who worked for designer Russell Groves before opening his own design studio in 2009, has honed a style very much his own.
Carefully mixing midcentury classics, contemporary art, cool hues, and rich textures, he gives clients’ homes a metropolitan elegance that feels casual and current. Unsurprisingly, his brand of unfussy sophistication is a hit among young Manhattan families — including one that recently tapped him to craft a home in their TriBeCa loft.
The living room’s custom furnishings include a sofa in a Lee Jofa fabric, a pair of armchairs in a Rosemary Hallgarten fabric, and a walnut side table from Eric Appel; the custom cocktail table and stools with seats in a Larsen fabric are by Daniel Scuderi; the round dining table is by Egg Collective, the Dessin Fournir chairs are in a Keleen leather, the 1950s floor lamp is from Lost City Arts, the Pamela Sunday table lamp is from Studio Van den Akker, the rug is by Joseph Carini, and the curtains are of a Great Plains wool sheer.
The couple had been renting in the Flatiron District, but when their sons (now one and three) came into the picture, the area started to feel hectic. They faced a dilemma common to New Yorkers in search of space and quiet: North or south? “I’d spent my childhood on the Upper East Side,” the husband, who works in real estate, says with a smile. “That was enough.”
The master suite’s combined office and dressing room has a custom desk by Dean & Silva, Knoll chairs in a Pollack mohair, and a custom ottoman in an Edelman leather; the custom cabinets are walnut with an oxidized gray stain, the walls are in a Phillip Jeffries wallcovering, the custom pendant is by Trans-Luxe, the rug is by Beauvais, and the artwork is by Sam Moyer.
TriBeCa, the de facto neighborhood of the city’s new crop of bright young things, beckoned. The wife, who grew up in a pocket of Oslo, Norway, where neighbors greeted each other on the street, appreciated the sense of community.
However, her Scandinavian upbringing presented a unique design challenge: “My husband loves Danish modern, but to me, it feels like my grandmother’s house. I lean contemporary.”
In the dressing area, the custom bronze screen by Dean & Silva is fitted with Bendheim glass.
Dumais came to the rescue, weaving the two aesthetics into a seamless whole. “I used vintage pieces and shapes but in finishes that felt a little more fresh, like mahogany with a high polish,” he says. “No teak.”
The couple also relied on Dumais to find a balance between personal taste and a home tailored to their family-and-work lifestyle. In other words: Yes to the Barcelona daybed in a Brochier velvet (their elder son occasionally uses it as a trampoline), but no to a formal dining room. “When people come over, they want to eat in the kitchen,” the husband says.
In the master bedroom, the Roman Thomas bed and Room benches are in Great Plains fabrics, the bed linens are by Pratesi, and the faux-fur throw is from RH, Restoration Hardware; the BDDW nightstands are topped with Baker lamps, the curtains are of a Holland & Sherry fabric, and the Kelly Wearstler rug is from the Rug Company; the walls are wrapped in a Phillip Jeffries silk-and-abaca wallcovering, the light fixture is by Apparatus Studio, and the artworks are byLisa Oppenheim.
Indeed, filled with cheerful western light and outfitted in walnut and marble, the kitchen is both stylish and inviting. Against one wall, a slab table in pale maple and a butterscotch leather banquette form a pocket bistro that feels very TriBeCa.
The master bath’s tub and fittings are by Lefroy Brooks, the stool is from Room & Board, the walls and floor are sheathed in white dolomite marble, and the artwork in the hallway is by Robert Janitz.
Still, the apartment doesn’t completely succumb to the influence of its surroundings. Given the couple’s desire to escape the formality of the Upper East Side, it is perhaps ironic that their downtown loft now has the graceful flow of a Park Avenue prewar. An adjacent apartment was purchased and annexed, creating space for such niceties as a proper mudroom and a family room.
In the living room of a TriBeCa apartment designed by Kevin Dumais, a vintage Mies van der Rohe daybed from Lost City Arts is upholstered in a Brochier velvet; the table is by Caste, the chandelier is by Studio Van den Akker, the rug is by Joseph Carini, the sculpture is by Kohei Nawa, and the painting is by Sarah Crowner.
A master bedroom-and-office suite feels like a world apart. The office, with its chocolate wood and leather pulls, has a polished gravitas. (“I put just a stripe of color in the carpet,” Dumais notes. “It’s important not to go too far.”) The couple enjoy having their own neck of the woods, whether it’s for privacy or to be able to “do a bit of work in the evening without waking the kids.”
Indeed, the couple are effusive in praising their designer’s ability to account for the practicalities of parenthood. But when asked to point out her favorite piece, the wife’s choice has nothing to do with strollers or playdates.
Marilyn Minter’s photograph Solaris hangs in the entry, where the custom ottoman is in a Spinneybeck leather and a Rogers & Goffigon fabric; the chairs are by BDDW, and the custom ceiling fixture is by Remains Lighting.
Instead, she gushes over a Marilyn Minter photo, hung in the gallery-like foyer, which depicts a pair of silvery high heels through rivulets of water that distort the foreground. A striking image, the effect is both dramatic and glamorous. Wendy Cromwell, the art consultant who found it, says, “For this couple, family life didn’t preclude excitement and glamour.”
She has a point. “When we first started envisioning the project, there was some glitter on the mood board,” Dumais admits. “Yes,” nods the wife. “There was.”
This story was originally published in the March 2018 issue of ELLE DECOR.
