The common thread in all my apartments

Lily Sullivan is seeing red (and maroon and vermillion).

2025 is the year no color is off limits. Dan Pelosi gave us a tour around his upstate New York home and we counted seven (!) different paint colors in his rainbow-hued kitchen alone. Farrow & Ball added nine new swatches to its assortment at the beginning of February. And, as of last week, Drew Barrymore has a butter yellow Pantone shade she can call her own. Everyone we talk to lately has a color crush or three, and Lily Sullivan—Love and Other Rugs writer, former Domino editor, and the first to know about a cool new restaurant, vintage haunt, or boutique hotel—is no exception. Read on to find out which hues she’s itching to use in her apartment, plus her 2025 pattern prediction and ultimate neutral rug rec. —Lydia Geisel, home editor

Current Mood

What I’m loving: Reds (and mauves and deep purples). I love red and I want more of it. Always. Every apartment I have had in New York has a red thread through it. I continue to refine how it shows up in my spaces and even how to define red. My current favorite shades are vermillion for a punchy feel and maroon for moody.

My elevator pitch: I think a lot of people are afraid of how heavy or bold red can be, but these shades really make an impact, even if subtle and small. For me it started with chairs of my mother’s—beautiful tomato red Bertoias—and has grown to be an undercurrent in my home.

Photography by Brett Wood; Courtesy of Hotel Ulysses

How I’d bring the look home:

• Accents in the bathroom, from tile to a red-rimmed mirror. Bathrooms, entryways, and, in my case, my cute little bedroom are places where color can make a huge impact. Splashes of red feel really crisp and bright. I always look to hotels for design inspiration and I think Luke Edward Hall did a great job of playing with color punches in Hotel Les Deux Gares.

• Art is another easy tactic for weaving in a color that may scare you—I’m super inspired by colored frames, especially lacquered red ones.

• Something red to cover my floors. I recently pulled up my rugs and want to take things in a more heavy, grounded direction.

• A red light fixture can really warm up a space. I have been looking at everything from Sophie Lou Jacobsen’s collab with In Common With to the side lamps at Hotel Ulysses (above).

Photography by Meghan McNeer

1. I have a large record artwork in my home but this small-scale work is a really special way to remember a person or event through a song.