Designer Bohn banks on New York condo conversion

Interior designer Laura Bohn's living room has an 18-foot ceiling, so she used oversized furniture and low lighting to make it feel cozier

November 27, 2000
Web posted at: 8:20 a.m. EST (1320 GMT)

From Elsa Klensch
CNN Style Correspondent

NEW YORK (CNN) -- As apartments in New York become more scarce, one designer has literally taken her latest home layout to the bank.

Laura Bohn bought a Beaux Arts-style, former bank building in Greenwich Village and converted it into condos, with a penthouse on top for her husband and herself.

"The building, 1907, classical, limestone, all of that. It was such a turn-on," she said. "I mean, the idea that we could actually have an apartment here and a house on top of this bank was, you know, just heaven," she said.

Parapet walls enclose the garden around Bohn's piece of heaven.

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"It feels like Tuscany to me. I love enclosed gardens anyway. I think they're beautiful," she said.

Bohn brought the outdoors in when designing the entrance to her penthouse.

"You get off the elevator, it could be in any apartment building anywhere, but once you open the door, you are essentially outside again," she said. "So that's the shock value I wanted. I wanted to open the door and have `My god, you're outdoors.'"

Bohn bought this Greenwich Village bank building and converted it to condominiums, keeping the penthouse for herself

Bohn's duplex is essentially contructed of glass walls, and the outdoors influenced most of what she did indoors, including the colors.

"I love greens, I love chartreuse, I really love all outdoor colors," she said.

Working with an 18-foot ceiling in the living room, Bohn used oversized furniture and low lighting to make the room seem cozy. The dining room was designed around a 10-foot table that Bohn already owned, and the chairs are a mixture of styles and colors.

One of Bohn's favorite rooms is the master bathroom.

"It looks down the entire garden," she said. "I call it another living room."

Bohn said the penthouse was an enormous amount of work, but she's delighted with it.

"Makes you not want to go out to dinner even," she said with a laugh. "No, it's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful."

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