Designers know a thing or two about the road not taken. For every project that reaches move-in-ready, there’s a quiet accumulation of aesthetic could-have-beens—saved to virtual mood boards or personal wish lists and seldom revisited. But for AD PRO Directory member Neal Beckstedt many of those long-forgotten possibilities resurfaced when a Manhattan bachelor contracted him to overhaul his Chelsea residence above the High Line, an audaciously colorful apartment that, coincidentally, the designer revamped for an international couple five years earlier.
“He appreciated what was there but quickly wanted to do something different,” says the AD100 designer of the homeowner, an entrepreneur who tracked the designer down after admiring the apartment’s large, airy rooms and attention to detail. (The homeowner realized later that he had been following Beckstedt on Instagram all along.) “We wound up talking about all the things we could do, and some of them happened to be things that the previous owner didn’t want to do.”
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For Beckstedt, this meant a push to embrace what he calls a “more efficient use of circulation.” After gutting the apartment, he rearranged and reoriented the rooms toward the windows to allow for maximum views and light; then, inspired by Japanese boxes, he clad floors and walls in soulful wide-plank Douglas fir to create a cocooning effect that cozies the space without diluting the sophistication. “It’s our take on warm minimalism,” says Beckstedt. “The homeowner is really focused and edited but very approachable and warm, and I wanted to capture that.”
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His client adds: “I wanted something that was calm and peaceful—a respite from buzzing city life, but I also travel a lot and needed something comfortable that I could come home to. A lot of the reference images we were pulling were Japanese in terms of clean lines and spare rooms. The wood wasn’t something that I was necessarily expecting, but once Neal suggested it, I couldn’t unsee it. It’s so calm and peaceful and perfectly suited to the space.”
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That’s because Beckstedt—with some fastidious intervention by his go-to millworker, whom the designer practically has on speed dial—made sure that the varying wood grains aligned with care. “Every board is a continuous length and a perfectly imperfect match with the boards around it,” Beckstedt explains. “It’s very tailored, super structured, and extremely precise.”
To differentiate the spaces and imbue each room with depth and character that enhances the sense of tranquility, the designer layered in an elevated mix of patterns and materials, leaning into the soothing blues and greens the homeowner favors. In the kitchen, tinted concrete counters and a collection of vintage ceramics by Jacques Blin soften the expanse of wood, while maintaining a sense of calm. In the primary bedroom, a chocolate leather and oak bed topped with a vintage textile coverlet makes more of a dramatic statement against the wood-clad walls. And in the adjacent living room, midcentury pieces mingle with custom furnishings (a sofa swathed in velvet mohair; a modern club chair in linen) for an eclectic look that adds visual interest and dimension.
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Beckstedt further tempered the precise lines of the wood with rounded elements. An oval niche carved into the ceiling in the dining area mirrors the egg-shaped Verde Saint Denis marble table beneath it, while an elliptical braided raffia rug anchors the media room. Throughout the home, undulating folds of white linen drapery glow as they filter the abundant sunlight that streams into the space.
“I love that everywhere you look, there’s something interesting for your eyes to land on,” says the homeowner, who Beckstedt says gave him free rein to push his aesthetic vision. “I love coming home and just looking around.” Here, the designer’s long list of what-ifs appears to have been fully exhausted.
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