Happy place

Eclectic and colourful, Charlie Ferrer's new Greenwich Village home reflects the interior designer's personal and professional evolution

- DAN HOWARTH

Interior designer Charlie Ferrer had just three criteria when searching for a new home in New York City: a West Village address, a pre-war building and a working fireplace. Turns out that this combination is not easy to find within a reasonable budget. But, as luck would have it, a former client's son moved out of a one-bedroom, double-exposure apartment on Christopher Street, in a 1931 Bing & Bing condominium building that sits practically on top of the landmarked Stonewall Inn. It ticked all the boxes, and Ferrer wasted no time moving in.

The location is 'a dynamic little intersection of energies,' he says, and far livelier than Chelsea, where his two previous NYC apartments were situated. Each address encapsulated a moment in his gradual stylistic shift - the transition from the 'spare masculine' aesthetic of midcentury modernism to a far more eclectic, colourful, 'granny feminine vibe' reflects a personal evolution as much as a professional one.