April 13, 2025New York–based interior designer Justin Charette is happy to give his clients what they want. But once he gets started on a project, he’s doesn’t go back to them with lots of questions. “People who hire me like someone who takes charge,” he explains. “I don’t dictate, by any means, but I take the reins, and I don’t overwhelm clients with choices.”
For proof that he doesn’t dictate, compare Charette’s own weekend house, in Bellport, Long Island, with an apartment he did for a couple in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park neighborhood. The house, which he shares with his husband, Alexander Atkins, a L’Oréal executive — and their miniature schnauzer, Finland — is a study in Charette’s favorite color: black. And it is as tightly organized as he could make it. “We like our surroundings to be super-crisp,” he says.
The Gramercy Park apartment, on the other hand, is full of color. And its organization is a bit more casual — perhaps medium crisp.
When Charette bought the Long Island house, which dates from the 1960s, it was covered in white vinyl siding. Replacing that material with shingles was his nod to the quaint surroundings. But then he painted the shingles a dark slate gray, signaling that a designer with a strong aesthetic was at work and foreshadowing shadowy rooms inside.
Before he came along, the house was vastly overdecorated, Charette says. He gutted the interiors and had them rebuilt with the cleanest possible details. Then, he made ample use of Benjamin Moore’s aptly named Jet Black paint. The couple’s den is so dark that the tufted BassamFellows sofas, upholstered in what Charette describes as a “very dark gray leather,” qualify as bright. Richard Phibbs’s 2009 Boot Camp photo winks at the house’s strict organization. But order and darkness help Charette and Atkins relax.
“We like being able to watch TV and fall asleep in the den,” Charette says. “It’s right off our bedroom, so we can practically crawl into bed.” The bedroom itself isn’t black, but it’s criss-crossed by black lines — in the Sputnik-style pendant lamp from Blueprint Lighting, the venetian blinds, the chair and table legs and, especially, the stems and branches of Calico’s Eden wallpaper. “It has seaside vibes without being super beachy,” the designer says of the pattern.
The primary bathroom is deliberately dark. “We even painted the ceiling black, because we wanted it to be very moody,” Charette says. The kitchen couldn’t be more different. It and the powder room feature jaunty juxtapositions of black tiles against white lights, fixtures and ceilings. This is Charette thinking like a graphic designer.
The living room is also characterized by contrasts: The fireplace wall, covered in shiplap, is black; the other walls are white (Benjamin Moore’s Chantilly Lace, to be exact). A large painting of boxers — commissioned from the California artist America Martin — transitions from black to olive green, one of a small number of “almost neutral” colors Charette was comfortable using in the house.
A Fat lounge chair by Tom Dixon, a Danish modern rocking chair in walnut and a Taccia lamp by Achille Castiglioni for Flos are lined up as if on display in a design museum. In fact, all the pieces in the room are newly made versions of modern classics. “I didn’t want it to be overly eclectic,” says the designer, rejecting the anything-goes-with-anything approach of some other designers.
To give the room extra character, Charette turned to 1stDibs for small objects like trays, teapots and vases. “I like accessories that aren’t mass-produced,” he says.
The owners of the Gramercy Park apartment — an art-world couple from London — managed to get Charette to shift out of neutral. They went so far as to ask him to use each of the primary colors somewhere.
“It was a challenge to use lots of colors while still keeping all the spaces cohesive,” he says. He succeeded in part by painting every room the same off-white and employing warm wood finishes throughout.
There are some black pieces on the blue living room rug, including a simple metal floor lamp and a Lawson-Fenning ottoman, which Charette found on 1stDibs. But they’re like a few licorice jelly beans in a jar of cherry, orange and banana — in this case a room with red, orange and yellow elements. Those include a burgundy-lacquered side table from &Tradition, a pair of swivel chairs covered in a custom tangerine bouclé and a mustard-colored throw on the sectional sofa.
The walls are just the right backdrop for colorful artworks, including a painting by Ky Anderson, in the living room, and a richly colored canvas by Martin, in the adjoining dining room. There, a multicolored rug sets the stage for a set of rich blue Beetle chairs from Gubi. The apartment’s bedrooms go even further in their use of color. One is largely turquoise, a color that appears not just on the walls but also in Michele DeLucchi’s Memphis chair, found on 1stDibs. The other bedroom is enlivened by splashes of red, including in a bold artwork by Cynthia Rojas.
Compared with Charette’s own house, which could be drawn in charcoal, this apartment is a fat pack of Crayolas.
Charette, a native New Yorker, studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology and the New York School of Interior Design. He spent 12 years working for restaurant group BR Guest on projects like its Blue Water Grill and Dos Caminos venues. When the company was sold, in 2016, Charette decided it was time to go off on his own.
He now has more than enough work — including several 20,000-square-foot houses in the Hamptons. “People keep recommending me,” he says, sounding surprised. He has three employees in his Flatiron District office, but they handle logistics — Charette is the only designer. And he’ll give you as much color as you like. But that won’t change his own view that black is beautiful.
“Black gives me a clear head for thinking,” he says. Then, referring the super-dark-green end tables in his living room, he adds, “Even when I use color, it ends up looking black.”
