A MoMA collection specialist lives amid her art in her Brooklyn apartment
Meet Kayla Dalle Molle, the researcher who’s created opulence and comfort in the same space
The following written content by Gabriela Ulloa / Photography by Seth Caplan
“I really didn’t have any other parameters other than ‘prewar,’” says Kayla Dalle Molle, collection specialist at the MoMA, of her hunt to find her next home. On a Bed-Stuy street chock-full of Victorian-style row houses sat an 1892 brownstone with the sort of iconic period details any history buff or design lover would fawn over.
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But the hand-carved crown moldings and 10-foot ceilings weren’t the only reason the art researcher felt drawn to the space. After moving back to the city following a short stint in Connecticut, Kayla’s tolerance for clichéd horrible apartments was nonexistent. “I knew what Manhattan had to offer and I knew what I could afford,” quips Kayla of the harsh reality of New York City real estate; “I’ve already lived in a classic dungeon-like space.”
Cue the opulent apartment that most definitely warrants a double take. It’s no shock that Kayla, a researcher by trade, was able to secure the first apartment she saw, as she was in fact “very prepared.” “My work follows me into every facet of my life,” she half-jokes of her role at the famous museum. “It can be funny but also burdensome.” She was able, however, to set aside her analytical nature for one quite important task: the design process.
Equipped with years’ worth of memorable pieces, Kayla was able to fill the majority of the space with decor as decadent as the home she now occupies. Allowing her intuition to act as her “internal arbiter of taste,” reason and rationality were tabled—for a moment at least. Read more from Architectural Digest.
A brief inside look at the Museum of Modern Art-New York:
