KGA custom bed upholstered in Coraggio textiles; upended cast-iron pedestal as bedside table; KGA cast-aluminum 29-inch square-base dining table with glass top; one of two custom millwork rolling chairs in tobacco-colored cotton velvet; custom broadroom antelope-print carpet from M&M Carpet Showroom; kelly-green leather and Coraggio textile round footstool. Paintings by Rikka Martel’s father. All textiles through George Cameron Nash showroom. All KGA-designed furnishings through MD Modern gallery.
“We employed reverse psychology in this 435-square-foot apartment,” says designer Kelly Gale Amen. When most people would choose light colors to make the room appear larger, Amen glossed the walls, floor, and furnishings in gradations of rich brown. It’s a cozy jewel box, and envelopment of light and adventure, he says. Owner Rikka Martel recently stepped down from the corporate world and a much larger apartment with 32 pieces of furniture and a myriad of paint and fabric colors, into this simplified but rich space and a new life as an artist and designer of eyewear (Rikka de California). Her heavenly digs now house four dual-use pieces of furniture: bed/sofa, table/desk, chair/lounge, ottoman/stool. With two additional folding chairs in a closet, Rikka is set.
