The walls are done in a textural suede rose sangria wall covering by Phillip Jeffries that plays off of the sweeping painting that takes center stage, Fanfare by Pat Passlof. The hand-knotted Chinese silk area rug is by Sacco Carpets and the custom designed curved wood sofa is by Paris Forino, fabricated by New York Art Upholstery and upholstered in Rosemary Hallgarten plush mohair. The rose-tinted window sheers are by Casamance, installed with motorized shades by Contour Drapery. “There are a lot of pinks and beautiful feminine colors in the Passlof painting,” Forino explains, “so we wanted the room to be a backdrop to that painting.”
Art: © The Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation/Eric Firestone Gallery, New York. Photo: Douglas Friedman
A building has to be exceptional for Fredrik Eklund to not only sell, but also help develop, and buy into—and 64 University Place in Manhattan is that building. “University Place has a lot of history,” Eklund says. “The location is just flawless between Washington Square Park and Union Square.” And it’s home to Eklund’s new pied-à-terre, designed with his oft-collaborator, interior designer Paris Forino.
“The building sold out, I think in three weeks, maybe with the exception of one of the penthouses,” he explains of the brick-façade 28-condominium Greenwich Village new build, designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox with interiors by SPACE Copenhagen, where both he and his business partner John Gomes purchased homes.
Fredrik Eklund’s name is synonymous with real estate. He’s run the number-one team at Douglas Elliman for the last 10 years, he’s sold over 143 buildings, most of them in New York, he wrote a best-selling book on it, and of course, he starred in the Bravo reality show Million Dollar Listing for nearly a decade.
So while the building and the apartment are exceptional, they were actually just a conduit to showcasing Eklund’s newest love—art. “I really wanted it to be the new home of my collection,” he explains. “I told Paris, let’s do something together again, but it’s not about the interior, it’s not about the furniture, and it’s not about me. It’s about the art.”
After designing countless personal and professional projects together—including a weekend home in Connecticut, a beach house in Miami, and a traditional Los Angeles manse done up in varying shades of pink, Forino and Eklund speak the same design shorthand. “It is always fun with Fred. He doesn’t like boring stuff,” the AD PRO Directory designer explains of her long relationship with Eklund. “We’ve been working together for 12 years, and I think both of our tastes have evolved and grown, but now it’s just very simpatico.”
“I can take a lot of risks with Paris,” Eklund agrees. “She trusts me and I trust her—and then I can push her.” The push for this apartment was that the real estate mogul didn’t want anything brown or gray in the two-bedroom home. “A lot of people with art just want white walls and furniture,” Forino says, “He wanted pink, blue, and yellow walls. He wants it to have a point of view. All of his homes do. He likes color.”
In the primary bedroom the walls are done in a suede lounge blue wall covering by Phillip Jeffries, with wall-to-wall white faux animal hide rug by Sacco Carpets, and a custom bed, fully upholstered in cashmere. “I wanted to wake up in a cloud,” Eklund explains. “Everything is soft. And everything’s sort of floating and nothing’s touching anything and there’s that beautiful, dreamy carpet.” In contrast, the bedroom for Eklund and his husband Derek Kaplan’s son and daughter is like a bold yellow spotlight, painted in butter yellow with the same suede texture. It also holds a custom vibrant bunk bed with a mod-influenced porthole feature. All of this, of course, serves as a particularly refined background for Eklund’s quickly expanding art collection. The primary holds the largest volume of works—and Forino left room for additions.
Like so many great stories, Eklund’s new creative endeavor begins with New York. “I really wanted to collect New York artists,” he says. “It’s a lot about my love for this city, the biggest love story of my life—and how I came here and reinvented myself here.” The living room serves as a showcase for a wall-sized piece by another famed New Yorker, artist Pat Passlof. “Everything starts with that painting,” Eklund says. “That’s why that living room is pink.”
In short, the design directives all came from the art. The Chinoiserie-inspired dining chairs done in pistachio Dedar fabric that flank the Fern dining table mirror a shade in the Passlof piece. The custom sofa by Forino is sleek but not too cozy by design. The floor lamp by Sophie Lou Jacobsen and the Sway pendants by Trueing are artful yet unassuming. “It’s not overly comfortable. That’s not what it’s about,” Eklund says. “I want me or my friends to sit there, maybe have a drink, and look at the paintings surrounding you.”