Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe, one of the most decorated power couples in sports, found themselves in pursuit of a new kind of ornamentation: the interior design of their first home purchased together. For the former WNBA guard and the reigning U.S. Womenโs National Team champion, the winning tip came from Rapinoeโs stylist, Karla Welch, who put her on to ELLE DECOR A-List designer Mark Grattan.
โNew York is a really special place to both of us,โ Rapinoe says.
Rapinoe slid humbly into Grattanโs Instagram DMs: โMy fiancรฉe and I just got a place in SoHo and need HALP!โ The place in question was a 1,650-square-foot, two-bedroom pied-ร -terre with high ceilings, sweeping views onto the city, and a rooftop terrace to boot. โNew York is a really special place to both of us,โ Rapinoe says. โSue is from here. It feels like the place where we fell in loveโit feels like home in so many ways.โ Grattan was charmed by the soccer starโs effusion of emojis. โI typically let people sweat a little bit,โ he says. This time, he responded the same day.
Grattan knew heโd need โHALP!โ with the project, his first residential design commission outside his own Mexico City home. (That apartment, in a Luis Barragรกnโdesigned building, was on ELLE DECORโs April 2021 cover.) To that end, he brought on friend and frequent collaborator Chloe Pollack-Robbins, of Curious Yellow Design, to manage the job and keep things progressing on an admittedly compressed timeline. โIโm more of a storyteller,โ Grattan says. โChloe understands my glitches, my triggers, my mess. It was very easy to go into this with her.โREAD MORE
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