Home design for NYC families
“The inspiration for our place was that rustic-girly Anthropologie look,” says Ward, who split the shared bedroom into two sections with a curtain repurposed from the canopy above Parker’s old bed. It hangs from an exposed beam overhead. Parker chose the paint color—Flower Pink Petal by Martha Stewart for Valspar.
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Below a display of toys tucked inside a picture frame, Ward lined up a row of Ikea shoe bins that she’s cleverly turned into a catchall for Parker’s drawing materials. “I use these in a lot of rooms I design. No one’s shoes should go in here; paper fits perfectly!”
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Ward found Parker’s vintage schoolhouse desk on Craigslist, which, along with Ikea and local sales and consignment shops, have proven to be rich sources of many of her brag-worthy finds. “Carroll Gardens has great stoop sales in the summer. We got our mini tulip table at one.”
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Ward decided to skip cable TV in the living room and instead create a space conducive to activities she and Parker could do together. “When I’m home, I just want to chill out and play games,” explains Ward. “We try to stay as analog as possible. This space is perfect for that: It’s casual.”
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“Parker likes to lie in her bed and read,” says Ward, pointing out the pink bookshelf within arm’s reach of her comforter. “All the books are easily accessible to her. That’s something I tell my clients when we’re working on a space: ‘Make as much as you can easy for your children to get at.’”
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A slim shelf above Parker’s bed houses a collection of P’s, plus letters that spell out her home borough of Brooklyn.
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A retro Fisher-Price record player and a schoolhouse desk chair are among the items in Parker’s section of the room.
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“I have my studio in Dumbo, but I do work from home a lot,” says Ward, who took the folding doors off a closet in the main living space, painted the inside, and installed shelving and blinds to make the nook a home office. “Being a single parent, it’s nice to be able to have that space when I do need to be here and work,” she says.
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Different types of artwork brighten up the mother-daughter space.
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“The inspiration for our place was that rustic-girly Anthropologie look,” says Ward, who split the shared bedroom into two sections with a curtain repurposed from the canopy above Parker’s old bed. It hangs from an exposed beam overhead. Parker chose the paint color—Flower Pink Petal by Martha Stewart for Valspar.
Photograph: Dan Hallman
When Jennifer Ward, the owner of Minor Details (minordetailsnyc.com), an interior architecture firm that focuses on children's spaces, moved with her daughter Parker, now 6, into a one-bedroom Carroll Gardens apartment in 2009, she faced problem after problem. "The walls were trashed and the space was raw," says Ward of her now-cheerful home. To brighten things up, she took a white paint roller to the wood floors, walls and ceiling and sectioned off her and Parker's shared bedroom with curtains.
The pair also have the three most important assets in real estate on their side: location, location, location. Not only is the area idyllic for families, but Ward's best friends own the brownstone. "Their eldest daughter and Parker are BFFs. We have an interior staircase, and they come in and out. We have a parent co-op thing going on."
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