Henry Mitchell (Henry Mitchell Interior Architecture, 646-831-8313) came to New York City from Oakland in 1989 with the intention of studying fashion but ended up getting his degree in interior design from the Fashion Institute of Technology. “I felt interiors and architecture had more longevity than the fleeting world of fashion,” he explains. One of his latest projects over the last eighteen months has been the gut renovation and design of a brownstone he bought and shares with a friend in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Henry has the top two floors and Sean Jackson, a graphic designer, has the garden and parlor levels. Sean’s colorful kitchen, located on the parlor floor, features custom glass shelving inside a lime-green niche, blue tiles for the back wall, a craftsman tool chest from Sears that holds utensils, and seventies-era Steelcase dining chairs (their original fabric intact) found in South Beach. The Lucite pendant is from a shop in Williamsburg, and the stainless-steel island was custom designed by Mitchell to support the glass-topped dining table. Photo: Wendy Goodman
The original fireplace (for which Henry made a summer screen from plywood) anchors the living-room area on the street side of the parlor floor. “I am trying to convince Sean to keep the plywood,” Henry says. The gilt antique mirror is Italian and came from a local antique store. The cocktail table was created from a salvaged slab of glass with two salad bowls from Ikea serving as the base. Photo: Wendy Goodman
Henry installed recessed lights in the ceiling and kept the garden floor open and loftlike. Photo: Henry Mitchell
Sean’s guest room features a custom-designed daybed, a photo from one of Sean’s ad campaigns, and a chrome-and-glass table salvaged from the street. Photo: Wendy Goodman
The master bath has a bathtub that normally sells for around $9,000 from Le Bain Ultra, but Henry got it for $350 at Build It Green as he said it was missing some pieces. The tub filler was purchased online for $500. The walls are concrete, and the floor is multicolored quartzite. Photo: Wendy Goodman
Henry is very inventive with sinks and usually finds unusual stands for them. Here, he took an antique chest from a local antiques shop and customized it to accept the sink. “I gave it several coats of lacquer to waterproof it.” Photo: Wendy Goodman
