Welcome to How They Pulled It Off, where we take a close look at one particularly challenging aspect of a home design and get the nitty-gritty details about how it became a reality.

When a new homeowner purchased an apartment in a converted industrial warehouse in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, she turned to architect and interior designer Robert Garneau to integrate ample storage space—namely for clothes and books. Originally seeing Garneau’s Transformer Apartment in Dwell, she was eager to integrate similar creative and space-saving measures into her own 1,000-square-foot home.

“The client emphasized the importance of efficient, comprehensive storage for her belongings,” says Garneau, founding partner of New York-based Architecture Workshop. “She wanted most of her belongings to be out of sight, with the exception of a few areas to display cherished items, especially her extensive book collection.” A wall of live edge floating shelves—hewn from a single log—gave her ample space for her personal library and created a dramatic focal point in the main living area.

Another key priority of the renovation was creating a semiprivate bedroom space in the oversize studio—while maintaining sight lines to the apartment’s single wall of windows. “Aside from seamlessly integrating a vast amount of storage, the biggest design challenge was dealing with the sparse amount of available sunlight,” says Garneau. “Extensive floor-to-ceiling cabinetry was devised to act as walls, effectively carving a separate sleeping area while maintaining visual openness and sight lines to the windows.”

Transforming the oversize studio, Garneau was tasked with finding a privacy solution that would define the sleeping space, while maintaining visual connection to the rest of the apartment. Creating fluidity between the new sleeping area and living space, a translucent orange door was introduced. The oversize door, says Garneau, was “the key spatial move allowing the bedroom to have privacy, while maintaining cohesive continuity with the rest of the apartment.”

How they pulled it off: A translucent orange pivot door

The one-inch resin panel door, purchased from 3form, is a durable alternative to glass.
“What we love about the material we chose is that it exhibited the full color spectrum of orange,” says Garneau. “Inherently a deep, dark, reddish-brown reminiscent of the cherry wood; when lit up glowing, a bright yellow-orange.”
The door’s profile includes a cutout around the under-window cabinetry. “It allows the exterior wall to be uninterrupted and the orange door to float in the space,” says Garneau.
The door’s stainless-steel hardware includes a commercial pivot hinge, latch bolt, and shallow back-to-back recessed pulls.
“The door is playful thanks to its odd shape and bold color, while also injecting a lot of drama and mood as an art object,” shares Garneau. “We were able to create a private sleeping area without a typical bedroom feel.”

The loft’s entry includes wall-mounted and freestanding cherry storage units, conveniently positioned to tuck away outside items.

Now living in the transformed loft, the client keeps the door open during the daytime, and closed at night, when artificial light casts a warm glow throughout the space. “The door is certainly utilized as intended,” says Garneau, “open during the daytime to provide continuity in the space, and enclosed at night to create a serene and cozy bedroom.”

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Robert Garneau, Architecture Workshop

Contractor: Alb-Bros Construction Corp & Nycon Interiors Corp

Related Reading:

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How They Pulled It Off: A Door Disguised as a Life-Size Lite-Brite