Principal designer Danielle Colding of Danielle Colding Design walk us through a recent townhouse project. Colorful, eclectic, and comfortable, Danielle Colding's style involves creative uses of wallpaper to craft unique spaces that fit bold personalities.
Presented by Ann Sacks, Designer Home Tours is a collection of wonderful explorations of modern and unique home designs provided by some of the industry's most in-demand designers all across the country.
Host of The Grand Tourist podcast, Dan Rubinstein, gets a cheat sheet on the best sources, underrated museums, galleries, and places to have a power lunch that Gotham has to offer from this dynamic designer.
It takes a lot of talent and perseverance to make it in New York as a designer, but I believe it takes real grit for someone who's originally from the city to overcome the odds. And not just survive, but thrive.
Danielle Colding is one of these designers. Born and bred in the neighborhood of Queens Village, she fell into her chosen creative career after a very unlikely origin story for the city: after meditating on a beach in Brazil. She started her life with a creative childhood in a diverse, middle class area of town, studied at Stanford and became a teacher and practiced modern dance.
{capton}Photography: Brittany Ambridge
But after her encounter with enlightenment she moved back to New York and eventually opened her own practice in 2007. "I create spaces that are meaningful and reflect your life," she says about her work. "They need to feel good to be in."
Terrazzo Renata 16" x 16" field in Black; Kast Elm Sink; Photography: Brittany Ambridge
As seen in ELLE DECOR MADE Modern Ribbed Moon field in New Lagoon; Photography by Kelly Marshall/OTTO
Like any street scene in New York, it's all about a mix of everything that never, ever gets boring. "My job is to figure out my client's style and elevate it. It's about eclecticism and color, and a comfort level, too. It's a multicultural lens too, but never stuffy."
Malcolm Shabazz Harlem Market
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design museum
You can leave the private clubs to London and the sidewalk cafes to Paris: New York is all about the power lunch. For those meeting a client on a break from his or her Wall Street job, Colding suggests a cocktail at The Beekman Hotel, followed by lunch at chef Daniel Boulud's Le Gratin that serves traditional Lyonnais cuisine in a classic setting. "It's just epic," she says. When she wants to wow out-of-towners, she might take them to a below-the-radar Korean eatery in midtown called Her Name is Han, where the setting and food is "more restrained" than its ultra-packed, popular neighbors. For something in Brooklyn, Colding suggests the One Hotel in Dumbo, where views of the Manhattan Bridge are all the inspiration required to get a deal signed.
The Beekman Hotel
More than any other American city, New York remains the collecting capital. Dobrinka Salzman, who sells a unique mix of art and furniture, gets a resounding "love, love, love" from Colding. While most of the wares are midcentury modern, she especially loves the lighting sculptures by Christopher Baker. For highly contemporary, colorful, art from emerging talents that she often sources for projects, Colding suggests Uprise Art's showroom on Canal Street. And while the interiors and product powerhouse firm Roman and Williams might be a competitor of sorts, she loves the curatorial eye of the firm's art gallery in downtown Manhattan. "Their works have longevity," she says, noting how the gallery's pieces are both trendy and timeless at the same time. "They thread the needle very well."
Uprise Art Gallery
