Confession: we love bank robbery movies. If it involves a heist, grappling hooks, cracking a big safe or getting away with a sensational caper you can bet we've seen it or would love to add it to our Netflix list. So when Shannon at Pink Wallpaper featured Laura Bohn's New York loft - located in a former bank, no less - I knew it deserved to be mentioned again.

Here's how New York Social Diary describes the loft:

We were swept away by Laura Bohn’s loft in a Beaux-Arts former bank building in the Village. Instead of decorating, she almost seems to sculpt interiors. She is in love with texture, strange contrasts and the play of light. She sees potential in all kinds of modern materials, including the most lowly or unyielding –concrete, plastic, finished metals – and turns them to her advantage. There is a luminous, organic quality to the colors with which she works, resulting in a space that is somehow simultaneously dramatic and serene. She is totally unafraid of a bare space, adores gut renovation and, by her own admission, is a workaholic.

The cavernous space is obviously no match for Laura's aesthetic. She manages to make it feel intimate and grand at once. It is colorful without being loud. Neutral without being boring. And as the observation above attests, texture is the name of the game with this rediscovered loft space. Again, my acid test for any environment is "would I want to live there?" The answer here (even without that delicious safe door) is a resounding yes.

Laura is a former model turned designer interior designer. And I should have guessed by looking at her work, but she actually worked for one of my all time favorites: John Saladino. Now that she has an established practice of her own, she describes her relationship with her clients:

I used to fill in with traditional work but now I really don’t bother. Actually nobody comes to me anymore for it. I’ve been around so long and either you like what I do or you don’t. I get people who want to start from scratch, to start over.

Her tips for fellow designers?

I constantly look for new materials. Plastics, different and strange metal finishes…there’s always something new. At the moment I love these hatbox toilets. Have you seen them? It literally looks like a hatbox shape but the tank and everything goes in it and then you have a mechanical seat…I mean it’s a $2000 john…but it’s gorgeous. Gorgeous!

Thanks for spotting this masterpiece and brilliant designer, Shannon! I'm hooked.