Tyler McGillivary and Her “Colorful and Bubbly” Living Room Are a Celebration of Weird Vibes
Location: Crown Heights, Brooklyn
Square footage: 700-1,000 square feet
What are you inspired by?
“I’m always gravitating toward pieces that feel one of a kind in colors and form, like they only exist in a cartoon. An idea of a room that you would see in a Polly Pocket house. Today, there’s so many amazing furniture designers that do crazy, squishy objects, but they’re outside of my price range. The versions of those that feel exciting are not necessarily known furniture designers from the 1960s and 1970s that made these weird, wild pieces. I love to find those pieces and then have them create this world that I get to exist within.”
What do you like to collect?
“We have a bunch of plants—a fish hook, string of pearls, pilea, big pothos, and other hanging plants in my dining room. My weirder collection is in the studio that I’ve spent way too much money on, like a ghost cactus, little begonias, and succulents. I need every space I live in to have a million plants. It’s like they act as art better than art.”
Favorite pieces in the living room?
“We have a big wall of collected art, and one of my favorites is a painting of this melancholy-looking girl that has half blue and half green hair. I found that one at an antique store in Virginia. I don’t really know how to describe it, but that girl is me. It just has this strangely familiar energy to it, and I’ve had people say, ‘That is you.’ I’ve said that to dudes I’ve dated and if they’re like, ‘No, I don’t really see that,’ I’m like, ‘You’re not the one.’
Our couch is such an interesting piece. It’s this brown ’70s corduroy couch that’s super worn in and the pillows are the perfect plush shape, on a wood frame. We found it on Craigslist, from somebody that had it for years and finally gave it up. I love that element of furniture where you’re taking this piece that somebody poured so much of their life into. It’s cool to pass that on into another environment and life.”
Anything in the room that inspires your designs?
