For a young family looking to start a journey in collectible furniture, hiring designer and former Galerie Philia creative director Jorge Brown Cott to transform their Greenpoint, Brooklyn, townhouse was a particularly good decision. “The wife told me, ‘If we invest in furniture, we want special pieces,’” recalls Brown Cott, “so I became their guide to new artists from Brooklyn.” A microcosm of some of design’s rising stars—including Luke Malaney, Kouros Maghsoudi, and Jeremy Anderson—now decorates the family’s 2,800-square-foot home.
While expertly curated, the house is far from a gallery. Comfort, function, and safety were key in this space, where they are building a life with a new baby. Brown Cott’s design allows such family living and visual experimentation to coexist.
Known for art-filled interiors that never shy away from color, Brown Cott began his design practice more than a decade ago in his native Dominican Republic. He built a career creating residences that center and advance the work of Latin American artists. When he moved to New York in 2021, he worked for Galerie Philia—the international contemporary sculptural design and art gallery—for two years, immersing himself in the emerging design scene in America. “People have this idea of collectible design as very cold and not easy to live with,” says the designer. For this Brooklyn home, his first project in the US, “my goal was to make something cozy, homey, and timeless, a fresh perspective on these functional art pieces.”
The collaboration began with a client-designer trip to some of Manhattan’s top furniture showrooms, where the homeowner husband, an avid guitar player, fell in love with a vibrant green sofa by Francesco Binfaré for Edra, now at the center of the living room. Its deep seat and positionable backrest provide a myriad of use options—relaxing, practicing music, or playing with the baby—and its hue became Brown Cott’s principal accent color for the rest of the home’s interiors. Deep, saturated green paints the wood-paneled walls in the baby’s room, covers the primary bedroom’s plush bed, and drapes the dining room (via Zak+Fox gradient linen curtains). Blue and red furnishings add secondary pops of color. More subtle pastels in artworks, the limewashed living room, and patterned bedroom wallpapers help conjure a soothing, soft atmosphere throughout.
To counter the typically narrow architecture of a New York town house, the designer turned to his “magic tools”—mirrors. He covered a wall in both the living room and primary bedroom in reflective antiqued glass panels to create the illusion of larger spaces. Built into the former is a custom wood cabinet by Malaney; its hand-carved organic shape hides the television from view when not in use. Layering materials and forms allows Brown Cott to create “conversations” between pieces, he says. It also facilitates his goal to utilize works by Latin American artists in every project, usually in conjunction with international furnishings from a range of time periods.
In the dining room, for example, a contemporary marble dining table is set with an artsy metal armchair by Spanish designer Ángel Mombiedro and a bent steel wall sculpture by Peruvian artist Aldo Chaparro. Together, they create a luxe, hard-edged vignette that is balanced by a vintage wood sideboard supporting bulbous table lamps by Brooklyn-based designer Danny Kaplan. “When you play with circles, squares, and unexpected shapes, it creates visual interest,” Brown Cott explains. He also brings philosophy together underfoot in the living room, where a bespoke rug created with Malcusa features a yellow and black abstraction on a neutral ground. It’s one of a few design collaborations created specifically for this home.
Despite their design collector ambitions, “the homeowners wanted a house that was not pretentious,” says Brown Cott. Thus, as star-studded as their decor may be, it makes a space that’s warm, inviting, and truly livable.
