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Actor and screenwriter Will Ferrell is not generally thought of as a model of sophistication, given his onscreen personas. After all, this is the man who, during his seven-year stint on Saturday Night Live, delighted viewers as a clueless cheerleader, a chronically head-bopping nightclubber, and a cowbell virtuoso.
Since leaving the program in 2002, Ferrell has made a specialty of playing terminally adolescent characters in a long list of blockbuster movies, from a middle-aged frat brother in Old School to a man-child raised by Santa’s helpers in Elf.
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That rollicking body of work—which includes cofounding the websitefunnyordie.com and writing his Tony Award–nominated one-man show You’re Welcome America: A Final Night with George W Bush—garnered him the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2011.
But Ferrell’s goofball genius has an urbane flip side. Consider, for instance, the Manhattan pied-à-terre he shares with his Swedish wife, Viveca Paulin-Ferrell—an auctioneer at Los Angeles Modern Auctions—and their three children. Located downtown in a converted Victorian-era printing factory, the nearly 2,800-square-foot loft exudes contemporary refinement, with sleek surfaces and mindfully preserved architectural details serving as a backdrop for 20th-century art and furniture.
Not that the home was always so pristine. When the L.A.–based couple bought the apartment in 2010, the place was in major need of an overhaul. “It was very dark and heavy,” says interior designer Shawn Henderson, whose expertise the pair enlisted even before closing on the property. (Ferrell and his wife had met him through a mutual friend.) Despite the apartment’s obvious flaws—generic cherry built-ins, drab slate wall tiles, glass partitions—everyone saw its potential. “We love history and anything with a good story and good bones,” Paulin-Ferrell says, adding that “it was exciting to think the floors were once covered in ink.” Explains Henderson, “The main task was to brighten up the place as much as possible.”
With that in mind the designer oversaw a dramatic renovation, enhancing the interiors with natural materials and custom finishes. He also replaced the outdated baths and completely redid the kitchen, where fossilized-granite counters and a mottled zinc backsplash now complement satin-finish lacquer cabinetry. The loft’s existing maple floors were whitewashed, a treatment that lends a softly neutral, somewhat Nordic touch.
In many former industrial spaces, structural elements can prove cumbersome, awkwardly interrupting a broad expanse or necessitating clumsy room configurations. Here, Henderson deftly incorporated the original details, such as the exposed-brick arches and the cast-iron columns, one of which helps break up the vast living room, giving the area a more human scale.
For furnishings, the decorator drew largely on the couple’s enviable collection of 1940s and ’50s American and Scandinavian design, much of which Paulin-Ferrell acquired through her work. “Scandinavian design is really moving in its simplicity,” says the auctioneer, who also serves on the board of trustees at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. “Even the parts you don’t see, like the underside of a table or a chair, are thoughtfully conceived.”
Together she and Henderson took inventory of the family’s California home, the designer recalls, “sizing everything up and figuring out what would work in the apartment. It was a real collaboration.” Arranged in front of a minimalist fireplace in the living room are armchairs and ottomans by Hans J. Wegner and Milo Baughman as well as contemporary boulderlike seating by Smarin. Those playful mounds are magnets for the clients’ three young sons—Magnus, age eight, Mattias, six, and Axel, three—and were among Henderson’s new purchases for the residence. Other eye-catching furnishings include modernist sculptures by woodworker Mario Dal Fabbro, whimsical Tejo Remy milk-bottle light fixtures (suspended above a Paul T. Frankl dining table), and a group of graceful walnut counter stools for the open kitchen.
People are always piled up along there,” Henderson says of the kitchen counter, which is a favorite gathering spot not only for the Ferrells’ immediate brood but also for the extended family members who use the apartment. “There are kids everywhere, all the time,” the designer adds. “The idea is, the more the merrier.”
Cheerful accents abound in the home, and the art especially strikes an upbeat tone. Among the array of contemporary works the actor and his wife have accumulated are many brightly colored prints, including depictions of flowers by Donald Sultan, an interior by Roy Lichtenstein, and numerals by Robert Indiana. There’s also an Alexander Calder–inspired weaving splashed with swirling abstract forms in the master bedroom. Echoing the schoolhouse palette of those pieces are nearly a dozen Eames side chairs that artisan Tanya Aguiñiga resurfaced in blue felt and two beds upholstered in a vibrant orange fabric.
“Even though there are these great pops of color, the apartment feels very balanced, very soothing,” Henderson says. And isn’t that, in the end, exactly what a busy Hollywood star would want?
More from Architectural Digest:
Entrance Hall: The New York apartment of actor Will Ferrell and his wife, auctioneer Viveca Paulin-Ferrell, was renovated by architect Richard Perry and decorated by Shawn Henderson Interior Design. Scandinavian ceramics from the End of History rest on a vintage Dunbar cabinet from Wyeth in the entrance hall; the FontanaArte mirror dates from 1960.
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Living Room: The living room’s boulderlike seating is by Smarin, and the Hans J. Wegner wing chair from 1stdibs and ottoman are covered in a Zimmer + Rohde fabric. The artworks include, from left, a Roy Lichtenstein print, a Mario Dal Fabbro sculpture from Maison Gerard, and two Sol LeWitt woodcuts; the television is by Samsung.
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More Of The Living Room: In the living room, Robert Indiana serigraphs are displayed above a Vladimir Kagan sectional sofa clad in a Pollack fabric. Vases designed by Patricia Urquiola for Baccarat glitter on the Milo Baughman cocktail table; the red armchairs and ottoman are midcentury, and the bronze sphere is by Hervé Van der Straeten for Maison Gerard.
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