A Former Manhattan Nightclub Became This Sunny Family Home
Before embarking on her design career, Jaimie Baird, by her own account, had lived several different lives. “My first job was in internet advertising in New York City—just when the bubble burst,” she recounts. “I was laid off, so I took a three-month sabbatical and traveled through Australia and New Zealand by myself with a camera.” When she returned to her hometown of Boston, she began a new career as a professional photographer. It wasn’t long before she began shooting interiors; from there, it was only a short hop to designing them herself. “It’s something I did with my mom,” she recalls. “We would move rooms around and look at art and just pull things off the walls. It was our thing to do at home together.” Now, 20 years later, Baird has built up a flourishing design business with a portfolio that spans residential projects in Manhattan, Connecticut, and Cape Cod.
“I would say my style is very clean,” she says, “I start with a blank canvas and I really try to understand how my clients live.” But this time, Baird already knew them inside and out. She was designing the house for herself, her husband Chip, and their three teenage children. “They’re always the hardest critics,” she laughs.
Before she got around to introducing them to the home—a ground floor loft in Tribeca—she knew a history lesson was in order. The two-story unit had lived several lives of its own. It was built in 1866 and retains many of the original details, including exposed brick walls and a double-height front door so spacious a horse and buggy could easily pass through. But its more recent history is what really piqued Baird’s interest.
“It had been renovated multiple times over the years. But in the ’80s it was transformed into a nightclub called Vinyl,” Baird explains. Vinyl, along with neighboring club Area, located just around the corner, was a bastion of New York nightlife where the likes of Grace Jones and Madonna could often be spotted. As the mother of three teens growing up in Lower Manhattan, she felt responsible for educating them about their own little slice of New York history. “I asked them, ‘Do you know who Andy Warhol is? He was in our living room dancing his face off in the 1980s.’”
Nevertheless, when approaching the design, she avoided any literal interpretations. “New York is an intense place to live,” she adds. “When I walk into my home, I want something a little bit more calm and serene.” Instead, she mined references pulled from refined European homes. “We were inspired by Joseph Dirand’s Paris apartment—his design sense always blows my mind,” she adds.
In the main living and dining room, she paid homage to the Haussmannian flat by installing intricate molding on the walls and ceilings, effectively softening the otherwise industrial space. “I liked the idea of blending these more delicate elements with heavy original architecture,” Baird says. As for furniture, she sourced new and vintage pieces that would live in harmony in the dual-use space, like a custom cerused oak dining table and vintage-inspired media cabinet by Rhode Island–based designer Jeff Soderbergh (the latter hides a retractable television), Italian side tables from the 1970s, a Fritz Hansen armchair from the 1960s, and a plush Montauk sofa that could easily fit all five members of her family.
Baird brought a similar sense of contrast to the adjacent kitchen, where a monumental carved Calacatta Paonazzo stone island with aged brass panels sits below sculptural Poul Henningsen pendant lamps from the 1960s. According to Baird, the room is also purely functional. “Every weekend there’s like 20 teenagers around the island,” she says. “So we wanted an open-plan living room and kitchen so we could all cook and eat together.” To keep the madness in check, she tucked a walk-in pantry behind the kitchen wall, complete with a rolling ladder servicing floor-to-ceiling shelves. “I’m a total neat freak, so having storage in the main kitchen would have driven me nuts,” Baird says. “This is probably our most used room in the house.”
In fact, so much of the home was created with teenagers in mind. “I love designing for teenagers because they’re not kids anymore,” Baird explains. “They want to own their space and not have it be too young.” In the bedrooms, that meant creating refuges they could grow into and still love in a few years when they’re returning from college. For example, she took a risk by hanging contemporary paintings and a vintage starburst pendant lamp in her youngest daughter’s room. “I remember showing her a picture of the lamp,” Baird recounts. “She told me, ‘I don’t know if I like it, Mommy.’ I said, ‘Too bad, it’s already on its way from Italy.’ But now? She’s madly in love with it.”
1/15Baird and her family in front of their Tribeca home.
2/15“I love bringing outdoor elements inside; it creates a really interesting contrast,” Baird explains of why she chose a stone garden table for the home’s entranceway. “But it’s 1,100 pounds and it took nine men to move it. It isn’t going anywhere ever again.”
Art: Michelle Kesselman/Meesh Paints3/15“This space acts as a throughway between two of the children’s bedrooms and the primary suite,” explains Baird, who created a cozy mise-en-scène with a Pierre Augustin Rose 280 sofa, Ryo Shearling Chairs, Crosby Street Studio Alpaca rug, Rare Floor Lamp by Hans Bergström for Ateljé Lyktan from the 1950s, and a custom ottoman. “But at night we like to sit here, gather, and play cards.”
4/15Baird wanted to keep the communal spaces as open and airy as possible, so when renovating the apartment she removed interior walls to create a joint living room, dining room, and kitchen. She devised an earthy palette of hand-hewn furniture by the designer Jeff Soderbergh—the dining room table and media cabinet are his designs—alongside vintage pieces like a Fritz Hansen Danish Relax chair from the 1960s, a monumental 20th-century Parchment mirror, an egg-shaped Murano table lamp, and a pair of French Maison Bagues brass and glass side tables from the 1960s.
5/15The table by Soderbergh “is something that I will pass down to my children,” Baird says.
6/15“I’m not a huge fan of waterfall islands. So, by adding this profile with the baseboard in marble, it became something more true to my own style,” Baird explains of how she created a more classic feel with the kitchen’s central element. She then highlighted the Calacatta Paonazzo marble’s metallic-toned veining with aged brass cabinet fronts and stools from Thomas Hayes Studio in steel and oak. Above hangs a pair of vintage 1960s Poul Henningsen pendants in cream.
7/15“When do you have the opportunity to have a pantry in the city? We had this tiny slice of space, so we took advantage of it,” recounts Baird, who managed to find the spare square footage tucked behind the kitchen wall. To make the most of the height, they installed a custom stainless steel and brass rolling library ladder by Andrew Nebbett Design, which perfectly matches the Golden Lion cabinet hardware and Waterworks sink fittings.
8/15A kitchen alcove becomes a vintage-inspired wet bar.
9/15In the powder room, a Calacatta Viola washstand and matching baseboards, a vintage sconce found on Etsy, and a mirror sourced from Shield Vintage.
10/15“I’m in love with the Greenwich Hotel,” Baird explains of the design for the primary bedroom. “Their penthouse rooms by Axel Vervoordt were the inspiration.” To create a similar aesthetic, Baird limewashed the walls in a shade of terracotta red, installed a blown-glass Napoleone Martinuzzi for Venini lamp from the 1920s, and covered the bed with a custom-designed Loro Piana cashmere bedspread.
11/15“When you walk into the primary bathroom, there are so many different textures happening,” Baird says. “The washstand and mirror frame are onyx, the baseboards and the door frames are marble, the walls are limewashed. It all looks very serene, but when you look closely, a lot is happening.” Baird paired the heavy material palette with a collection of vintage Italian glass lighting, including Venini ceiling pendants from the 1950s and two Murano Pulegoso glass and brass sconces.
12/15When Baird found the house, the primary bath was divided into two separate suites. “When you’re married with three children, a lot can be accomplished while you’re brushing your teeth,” she says. “So my husband and I decided to be together.” She turned to Palmer Industries to fabricate the custom washstand, which she matched with brass Water Monopoly sink fittings.
Art: Roxanne Bryant13/15“My teenagers needed a place to congregate,” Baird explains of the downstairs den, where she says her children and their friends hang out and hold sleepovers on the weekends. “This room sleeps a solid 12 people—we’ve tried it before.” However, she steered away from stereotypical furniture for teens, instead opting for a deep-set Minotti sofa, vintage Italian armchairs from the 1960s, and a Crosby Street Studio alpaca rug. On the ceiling, she added a glittering disco ball, a tongue-in-cheek nod to the building’s previous life as a 1980s nightclub.
Art: Natasha Law/Voltz Clarke Gallery14/15“Your bedroom is your sanctuary as a teenage girl,” Baird says of the space she designed for her youngest daughter, who will soon be turning 13. “And she loves her room.” Above the custom Ricky Lore bed hangs a painting by Natasha Law and a Murano Sputnik chandelier from 1970.
Art: Matt McClune/Galerie Renate Bender15/15Baird’s son’s room showcases an Auden bed by Lawson-Fenning, a Paolo Moschino wall sconce, a West Elm nightstand, and a painting by Matt McClune.