Meri Goldstein’s SoHo Apartment Filled with Art

Meri Goldstein’s apartment sits in the center of New York City’s SoHo neighborhood, a district known for celebrity spotting, nightlife, and a constant stream of new restaurants. The designer describes the area as “young, lively, and the place to be to see and be seen,” noting that there is always something happening, whether it is a gallery night or a new bar opening.

A Space Built for Energy

Meri wanted the energy of the street to continue inside, so she envisioned a bold aesthetic. Since this is her own home, she was free to follow her own guidelines rather than those of a client. She chose to skip major renovations and instead focused on a “cosmetic renovation,” which allowed her to lean heavily on paint rather than structural changes.

She used limewash on the walls instead of standard paint. The material adds depth and movement to the surface, a quality that is currently very popular. It offers an alternative to Venetian plaster because it is less costly and can be easily painted over if the look changes in the future.

The result is an apartment that shifts in mood and palette from room to room. “Though it’s a small space, each room feels completely different, intentionally,” the designer notes. The bold color and art serve as through lines connecting the various spaces.

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To fill her walls, Meri worked with Creative Art Partners to source contemporary pieces. The collection includes large-scale textile works and abstract art. Works by Lawrence Calver, Flora Hauser, Elizabeth Ibarra, Nico Hernandez, and Greg Ludlow bring another layer of color and personality to the interiors.

Curating the collection proved to be one of the project’s trickiest tasks. “Funny enough,” she says, “the biggest challenge was deciding between pieces. Since this is my own apartment, I’m the one calling the shots, and I think that’s the difficult part. I’m very indecisive in general, so having to choose between multiple pieces was quite difficult—I kept going back and forth.”

Meri drew inspiration from dinner parties she attended at the home of an art collector in Hong Kong. She wanted to evoke the same feeling in her own apartment and sought to fill her walls with gallery-worthy art.

With so many options available, finding the right balance was a process of elimination. The designer admits to agonizing over choices, constantly weighing the merits of different works before finally settling on a final arrangement.