In Mason Gooding’s 650-Square-Foot “Tree House” Apartment, Bold Colors Bring the Outdoors In
One thing that did not change was the diamond-pattern living room windows, despite, to Roth’s horror, a real estate broker suggesting they’d have to be replaced. “Those windows with the diamond pattern were just so special to the apartment. It’s one of those things where if someone was to recreate a modern version, it just wouldn’t feel the same,” she says. Roth kept the character where she could, choosing to leave the original glass and brass doorknobs throughout the space. “They are quite dainty and unexpected,” she says.
For Gooding, the home feels like a fresh start, but he appreciates its ties to the past as well. “A lot of what I love about this house is encapsulated in the idea of the past making its way or reinventing itself into the future,” he says. As a reminder of this, he saved a little souvenir of his home’s former life. “I think someone who maybe lived here before was a painter of some sort, and they painted bowls of fruit and teddy bears on the kitchen tiles. I took one of the tiles that had lemons on it, and I put it in a storage unit just to hang on to, just to preserve what had been.”
Though Gooding spends ample time traveling for work or visiting his girlfriend, Emilia Tosta, who lives in Austin, he loves knowing he has a place all his own to come back to. “I have a physical manifestation of [myself], and that means a lot to me,” he says.
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He also has a little analog nook under the historic windows in the dining area. Roth assumed it would be the perfect spot for a bar, until Gooding explained that he doesn’t drink much. What he did need, he said, was a place to display his rare Frank Ocean records and store the rest of his collection. “I’m a big record collector, and there was a time when I moved and I was trying to get rid of as many as I could or give them to friends so that they had something to remember me by,” says Gooding. But now, with his own space dedicated to music, “I don’t plan on giving up [collecting records] anytime soon. I like having a relationship to the past or to the analog, and I feel like a record player is a great signifier of that.”
When Roth began sending Gooding photos of aubergine kitchens, he didn’t shy away. “He was fearless,” she says. “He was really fun to work with because he was just ready to do anything bold.” The cabinets, painted in Farrow & Ball’s Brinjal No. 222, are paired with a backsplash of Clé zellige tiles, viola marble countertops, and hardware from MG & CO.
Seth Caplan
