Back To The Future

2 min read
May 12, 2021
dpages

“WE ARE…

indeed the sum of our memories,” says Timothy Godbold, an interior designer who grew up in a remote part of Australia. Godbold was thinking about “why I gravitate to certain things,” after completing a Manhattan apartment that references Space: 1999, the British sci-fi series that he watched as a kid in the 1970s, as well as the “mod” look of many American TV shows of the same era.

THE APARTMENT…

was featureless — that is, until Godbold got there. To add texture he bought several hundred Motawi Tiles based on a design by Frank Lloyd Wright. “I had them make them unglazed so we could plaster finish them and paint them,” says Godbold, who used the tiles for the back of a bar recessed into a living room wall, and for the walls and ceiling of a dramatic powder room. Then he designed red oak paneling with a fluted surface, which was made by his contractor, William Ramos — “and it wasn’t easy,” Godbold says. The paneling appears in the entry, along with a custom bench-and-marble-table unit and a wool-and-silk runner that’s a kind of op-art sculpture in its own right. The geometric painting is by British artist Terry Haggerty.

THE PANELING…

makes another appearance in the living room behind an Agent 86 sofa (named for Don Adams’s character in the 1960s spy spoof “Get Smart.”) Vintage pieces, like Baker’s Floating Pagoda chairs with lacquer-and-brass accents and the Italian travertine coffee table, mix with new chandeliers by Atelier Alain Ellouz and a custom rug by Alt for Living. Typically for Godbold, neutral tones predominate — which makes pieces like the William Scharf painting in the living room all the more eye-catching.

A LARGE…

table with a travertine top from Apparatus Studio anchors the dining room. It’s surrounded by C Back chairs by Cuff Studio. Overhead, a QD09 Pendant Lamp by Quincoces–Dragò combines ribbed glass, stainless steel and wood. In the den (formerly the second bedroom), Godbold hung custom shelves of white oak and smoky gray travertine above a Room sectional sofa in a Jack Lenor Larsen fabric. A vintage Kappa chair and small tables by Stephane Ducatteau fill out the seating area, all on a custom, geometrically exuberant rug.

THE CUSTOM…

bed by Michael Dawkins Home, upholstered in a Loro Piana cashmere fabric, dominates the owners’ bedroom. The drapes are a sheer alpaca Rosemary Hallgarten fabric. The silk shag rug is by Woven and the Angele chandelier is by Stephen Antonson. The mirrored pedestal is from Space Modern in Florida. In one corner of the room, a Unesco chair with Kit Miles Kubrick upholstery makes a colorful statement. A bird painting by Hunt Slonem hangs over a textured Cowtan & Tout wallcovering.

AS A…

young man, Godbold moved from Australia to London, and then from London to New York, both times to work for Ralph Lauren. In 2012 he took up interior design and moved out to the Hamptons. Most of his clients, like the owners of this apartment, are husband-and-wife couples. Because he is fast, organized and doesn’t do frilly rooms, he says, “The wives hire me, but the husbands end up very happy.”