This Raucous Harlem Duplex Is a Spectacularly Daring Display of Pattern Play

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 the kitchen of a prewar duplex apartment in Harlem that was renovated by Rayman Boozer of the firm Apartment 48, the custom cabinetry is painted in Benjamin Moore’s Cat’s Eye. The Thomas Harlev dining chairs are vintage, the wallpaper is by Matthew Williamson for Osborne & Little, and the window shade fabric is by Clarence House.

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.

In 2006, right before Boozer landed on the cover of Elle Decor, she hired him to decorate the family’s two-bedroom apartment, which is in an early-20th-century tenement building. During the pandemic, the space began to feel tight, especially since the two children were approaching middle school. Through a stroke of luck, the upstairs neighbors put their unit on the market and the couple was able to purchase it, with the intention of creating a duplex. The first person the wife called was Boozer. “When Rayman and I started talking, I said, ‘I want to be able to live in every part of this apartment,’” the client says.

In the living room, an Interior Define sectional is enveloped by a bold Kerrie Brown wallcovering and a sconce by Visual Comfort.

Their first project together was mostly surface level—paint, curtains, nothing structurally substantial—but with this second one, their ambitions grew. They ended up touching every square inch, moving the kitchen upstairs, adding a staircase, and shifting walls to improve the flow. “We did as much as we possibly could to this apartment to make it a home for them forever,” Boozer says. Drawing on their shared love of prints by designers and brands like Susi Bellamy, Osborne & Little, and Kerrie Brown, they remade the space into a fresh, sophisticated take on classic interiors. “My design sensibility is Rayman’s design sensibility,” the client says. “What drew me to him from the beginning was his eclectic mix of modern and traditional, as well as his incredible color sense. I love, love color. I don’t shy away from it. More, bring it on.”

Marvel at the Colorful Patterns in This Harlem Duplex

Open Gallery

She also admired the way Boozer’s rooms read like they came together over a long period of time. He achieves this by layering a diverse yet cohesive mixture of furnishings. It helped that the client has an outstanding art collection and a number of pieces from their first collaboration. The guiding mantra was there’s no such thing as too many patterns. So in the kitchen-dining area, Boozer paired trompe l’oeil wallpaper, red ikat curtains, midcentury Danish chairs, and Moroccan zellige tile.

The primary bedroom’s custom headboard is in a Romo velvet, the curtains and lampshade are in a Susi Bellamy fabric, the velvet bed throw is by Toast, and the walls are painted in Benjamin Moore’s Blue Danube. The artworks are by Jackie Saunders.

Meanwhile, there are countless details that represent Boozer’s consideration for how the family would use the space. There’s always a table where you’d want to set down a drink, and just-right lighting to establish the mood. In the cocoonlike library, the marbled wallpaper lining a book-shelf and the sheer linen curtain hiding a view of a brick wall demonstrate moments of care for the overall experience. Many of the most thoughtful elements are surreptitious, namely specifying outdoor fabrics and materials in areas that receive extra use. “We made it very durable but also very approachable,” the client says.

A Nina Campbell wallcovering backs a home bar, the curtain fabric is by Susi Bellamy, and the chair is by Made Goods.

The final result looks almost exactly the same as the initial drawings Boozer made for his client, who trusted the process. “I knew everything was going to look amazing together,” she says. “A lot of people fear [taking risks in decorating their homes] because it’s an expensive proposition and you think, Well, maybe we’ll go for something safer. And I say, Life’s too short.”

This story originally appeared in the October 2024 issue of ELLE DECOR. SUBSCRIBE