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Paige Blodgett Scher always dreamt of moving to Brooklyn Heights and launching her own interior design firm. She accomplished these goals simultaneously in 2021, when she rented the 450-square-foot studio that served as both her home and her workplace. Though Paige Blodgett Interiors eventually graduated to a bigger office, she still resides in the compact abode, which has become rather sentimental to her.
“This is really where my company got off the ground, so it’s a special space to me because of that,” Paige explains. “I had looked at a few apartments and when I walked into this one, it just felt like home. The building is Art Deco, so it had good bones and just felt like a nice, quiet space to settle in.”
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Immediately upon getting the key, Paige replaced the chrome-and-frosted-glass light fixtures with white hemispherical sconces and painted the entryway a warm olive hue. “Every time I move, the first thing I do—before I even unpack all of my boxes—is paint, because it makes a rental feel a little more permanent,” she explains. “You never know how long you’re going to stay, but it’s so worth going for it right from the start.”
The moody vestibule, with its navy Danish floral flatweave rug and vintage chairs upholstered in Carolina Irving Textiles viola vine fabric, is an introduction to Paige’s updated traditional aesthetic. A porcelain, flower-covered lamp wears a patterned, pleated Fermoie shade, while landscape artwork is hung in gilded frames. Collected pottery and candlesticks are displayed throughout.
When Paige hosts a dinner party, she pulls her grandparents’ wood drop-leaf table away from the wall and expands it, transforming the foyer into a convivial venue. “My friends come in from the city and I’ll do roast chicken night,” she shares. “We’ll sit around the table in my dark green entryway and light candles and eat. It offers me a way to entertain in a very tiny apartment, which I love to do.”
Paige often invites her neighbors and their pups over for drinks in the living area, which is outfitted with a cabriole-legged coffee table and a rolled-arm sofa swathed in a white, pet-friendly Perennials fabric. “A lot of creative people live in the building and they bring their dogs over and we swap design books,” she says. “I wanted to create a very homey, welcoming space. I am really happy with how it turned out because it’s become somewhere people actually gather.”
The room is anchored by an oversized hydrangea painting that belonged to Paige’s great-grandmother. It’s flanked by World Market wicker sconces that are in conversation with the vintage rattan armchair opposite them. “I feel like rattan and wicker aren’t just for the beach,” Paige opines. “They just add a whole different type of texture to a room. They mix well with the fabrics and the wood. There is a lot of wood in my apartment, so it was nice to bring in another element.”
To achieve a sense of privacy in the sleeping zone, Paige installed a floor-to-ceiling linen curtain around her Thuma platform bed. She then curated a playful English vibe with a custom rounded headboard in a sweet blue-and-cream Penny Morrison fabric, scalloped pillowcases, and an Alicia Adams Alpaca tasseled throw blanket. Each level of her tiered vintage nightstand holds treasures, from a silver lamp with a conical shade to a ceramic vessel from a trip to Seagrove, North Carolina.
Paige managed to enhance her white kitchen, too, with flower prints from London and a woven Target counter stool, and her basic bathroom with a coat of pale green-blue paint and a Rhode for West Elm Begonia Shower Curtain. She also brought in a Shaker-style Eldred Wheeler console for extra storage and decorated with beachy Bermuda prints, pushing her small rental to feel as personal as it can be.
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