Come with us on a tour of the 600-square-foot Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn apartment of Alayne Patrick. Patrick, owner of New York cult boutique Layla, has an enduring love of Indian textiles: see how she incorporates them in her space.
The portrait that anchors the living room is a long-ago flea market find likely painted in Eastern Europe in the 1910s.
Alayne’s caned settee is an American antique that she bought 25 years ago and had restored and reupholstered with a feather bed and cushions in straw-colored twill.
“Pretty much everything fancy in my apartment, like my red George Smith armchair, was a gift,” says Alayne.
The lacquered cabinet holds prayer beads and blessed fabric from visits to holy sites in India.
A John Huba photograph of a Masai shepherd rests behind a vintage crystal container that holds Alayne’s favorite incense.
Pillows by John Robshaw, Lisa Corti, and Emerie et Cie are stacked in front of the unused front door.
Every inch of the apartment displays evidence of Alayne’s past life as a stylist.
Alayne’s iron bed is another flea market piece that she painted.
The art above the bed is unified by white frames and includes vintage cigarette cards from India and Hong Kong.
The kitchen is the room that required the most work: Alayne replaced the old linoleum with a hardwood floor and the cabinets with custom-built open shelves.
A stack of Indian cotton and terry towels–a specialty at Layla–sits on the drying rack next to a pink glass bottle from Grdn in Brooklyn and a Jonathan Adler vase, a present from house guest.
A bright Lisa Corti Indian tablecloth from John Derian covers the table and unifies the room.