New York Residence by Shamir Shah Design: 2018 Best of Year Winner for Midsize Apartment
“I’m not a huge color guy,” Shamir Shah confesses. “I’m one for dark and moody. It’s very sheltering.” That inclination is on beautiful display in this two-bedroom by Shamir Shah Design, a 3,500-square-foot apartment located on a high floor of a 1914 former manufacturing building in New York City. Walls throughout are painted complementary shades of gray and cream. Wide floorboards are grayed oak. But in the media room, the shade of the custom rug recalls damp sand. Its 19-foot-long banquette that pulls out into a queen- size bed for guests is upholstered in charcoal tufted linen. Above that hangs a biomorphic six-panel mixed-media work in an earthy palette by Malcolm Hill, Shah’s partner. A Dana Barnes sculpture rising from floor to ceiling between the living room’s twin Vladimir Kagan sofas is a treelike twist of wool in soothing oatmeal shades.

There are occasional bursts of color, however. At the entry, a painting by Max Neumann pops with tomato red. Snippets of verdant green peek out from around the corner. They’re coming from a lush vertical garden also installed floor to ceiling on two planes bordering the dining area. Guests seated along one side of the maple-slab table, so long it had to be craned in through a window, are afforded views of the plants as well as the adjoining kitchen’s glazed ceramic backsplash, in a coordinating sage.


Project Team: Nely Cuzo; Olivia Manzano.
> See more Best of Year Project Winners from the December 2018 issue of Interior Design