A Look Inside the Sleek New Office of Celebrity Brokers Fredrik Eklund and John Gomes
For the powerhouse real estate duo of Fredrik Eklund and John Gomes of Douglas Elliman, there was really only one directive for the design of their new Flatiron office: don’t make it seem like, well, an office. “We wanted to make it like a living room, where we and our clients could come ‘home’ and feel relaxed and safe in a beautiful, non-office environment,” says Eklund, who also stars on Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing. More succinctly, says Gomes, "our inspiration was our apartments.” Unsurprisingly, then, they enlisted the services of interior designer Paris Forino, who has not only collaborated with the pair on ground-up residential projects like the Steiner East Village condos, but has also designed their own homes (she’s actually currently decorating Eklund’s country house in Connecticut). After working together so many times, Forino now shares a kind of shorthand with Eklund and Gomes: “I'm pretty attuned to what they like and they are really trusting,” she explains. “They tell me, ‘Just do what you do; we want your design.’”
The finished space, which clocks in at an impressive 10,000 square feet, took nearly a year to complete (“It was so hideous,” Eklund says of the office pre-renovation.). One of the most impressive features of the office is certainly its size: a double-height ceiling and a living room space that opens onto a kitchen both provide sophistication akin to a penthouse apartment. Adding to the homey atmosphere is also a masterfully lit bookcase, filled with design tomes and small pieces of art. Forino used a mostly muted palette of blond wood and pale pink, but a black-and-white graphic wallpaper from Kelly Wearstler adds a masculine energy. And of course, there’s a nod to the men’s employer, Douglas Elliman, in the form of pops of navy. “That’s their color,” Gomes says of the company's signature shade. “So that was an ode to them.”
While the duo chose this location due to its accessibility—“We can go north, south, east, or west and we won’t have to spend much time in our cars,” Gomes notes— there was an initial design challenge with channeling light to the offices on the mezzanine level above the kitchen. Forino solved this puzzle by a bit of demolition: “We created the large stone portal with fluted glass to get natural light through to them,” she says.
Even though Eklund and Gomes employ a team of 27 on both coasts, they kept the design of the new space a surprise until it was complete. “That was probably my most proud professional moment,” Eklund says of revealing the new offices to his team. “They were all flabbergasted,” adds Gomes.
