Hot Take
October 21, 2021
Hot Take: Design Insights From Brooklyn Architect Elizabeth Roberts
Architect Elizabeth Roberts has designed trendsetting spaces for EyeSwoon’s Athena Calderone, actor Maggie Gyllenhaal and fashion designer Ulla Johnson. Elizabeth was dubbed the “titan of the townhouse” by The New York Times for her updates of classic brownstones. She’s currently designing a house on a mountaintop. “I like originality but also a familiar form — pizzazz and simplicity,” says Elizabeth of her decorating style.
Here, Elizabeth Roberts shares her design preferences and predictions.
Mood you’d like to create in a house: Calm, inspired spaces that reflect the people who live there.
Design motto: I’ve adopted the common improv technique of always responding with, “Yes and….”
Key influence on design trends: Saving the world’s precious resources. I’m inspired to learn more about how to source materials that are responsible.
Into: Dry-stacked stone masonry walls.
Over: Seeing arches everywhere. While they’re pretty and pleasing to the eye, it seems like we’ve been inundated with them.
Item in your home that reflects who you are: My Masayuki Matsukaze for Kartell folding chairs from 1979 (pictured above in Elizabeth’s Bellport, N.Y. cottage). There’s something about the unexpected safety yellow frames combined with the most basic “tan overcoat” color of the seat fabric that resonates with me.
How often you change up your own home: I just replaced the kitchen and some furniture at our house in Brooklyn, but it had been 10 years since the original renovation.
Choose any room in the world to redo: The Department of Motor Vehicles. We all spend way too much time in these dull rooms! Why not make them inspiring?
The sunlit offices of Elizabeth Roberts Architects occupy a former mattress factory in Brooklyn, N.Y. (above).
If you could only buy one more thing for your home: The perfect soft and delicious throw. I imagine it to be thick, cashmere and cream-colored. Somehow, I’ve never come across one that’s just right.
Color Crush: Pacific Sea Teal (2049-10), Benjamin Moore
Pair It With: Velvet Cloak (CSP-480), Benjamin Moore