'We Really Pushed Boundaries With This One' – Inside a Harlem Apartment Where Every Room Feels Like a Work of Art

Harlem would be a renaissance for Adam Friedberg. After making his name in Colorado’s real estate market, the financier returned to New York, where, in a very different life, he was a performing cellist. The neighborhood’s creative energy was an easy sell, and a two-bedroom apartment in a Gilded Age mansion was his idea of the perfect setting.

Starting from scratch with this house design – no furniture, no heirlooms, no art – Adam didn’t want anything he’d seen before. While scrolling Instagram, his thumb landed on Jarvis Studio, drawn by their eclectic, no-repeats energy.

‘We always say we are more like a fashion house – I look at every project as a collection, and so every project is different because the client is the inspiration,’ says interior designer Jarvis Wong, who runs the New York studio with studio director Erik Staley.

Adam gave Jarvis Studio carte blanche, with one catch: while extremely open-minded, he is also deeply analytical.

‘He likes to know why you make a decision – so when you propose an idea, you better have a good answer for it,’ says Jarvis. ‘It made us even sharper.’

It was only meant to be a decoration project. The apartment inherited a few charms, namely its original wooden window casings that handsomely frame views of a Romanesque Revival church across the street, but was otherwise lacklustre.

So when Adam enquired about updating the kitchen, Jarvis saw a window of his own: ‘I said, “Adam, since we’re talking about this… the floor also has to go,”’ noting how the wood clashed with the regal casings and shutters.

Adam accepted the logic: African mahogany plank flooring went in and a larger renovation followed.

The open plan kitchen set the direction.

Adam is an avid cook, so Jarvis maximized functionality with cabinets that soar to the high ceiling. It risked overwhelming the living area with even more wood, but he subdued the palette with a forest-green finish and integrated unexpected details that lightened the look, including airy rattan insets across the top cabinets and a backsplash of hand-painted striped tiles.

The living room embraced those colorful intentions.

‘We wanted the carpet to be a piece of artwork,’ says Jarvis of its custom high pile. Dollops of deep navy, soft teal, and dusty pink layer joy and texture into the palette.

The dining area, meanwhile, makes its own mark with a bespoke silver travertine table. Grounding the space, it introduces a weighty material that appears soft thanks to expertly beveled edges.

The atmosphere shifts in Adam’s moodier bedroom, where aubergine drenches the walls and ceilings with a cocooning effect.

Jarvis designed a swooping headboard, covered in a flamestitch-inspired fabric, that pierces the room’s tall proportions with obelisk-like headposts – but countered with a bespoke powder blue rug with a lace-inspired border that skirts the bed, keeping the room on its toes.

A media room deepens the introspective mood, with deep blue grasscloth wallpaper and a bespoke, generously scaled purple sofa. And without risking a sedentary feel, a large artwork with oversized brushstrokes ups the energy.

‘It sort of shook everything up,’ recalls Jarvis after Adam green-lit the painting.

Art also comes into focus on one of the sitting room’s mustardy walls, where a Candida Höfer photograph now hangs. It would have been easily justifiable to Adam: it picks up the sitting room’s colors, nods to the neighboring church, and extends the perception of space as the eye travels into the apse of a Benedictine abbey.

But Jarvis didn’t need to convince him.

‘When Adam saw it, he said, “Oh my God, I’ve been there,”’ recalls Jarvis. It struck a chord; cathedrals and chapels were common venues when he played classical music, after all.

And for a cellist returning to New York and his more expressive self, it was full circle.

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