Rachel Chudley went full-on fluvial for the interiors of a flat on the banks of the Thames belonging to her family. “We wanted to play on design contrasts throughout that reflected the colors and shapes of the river,” she says of the one-bedroom apartment in a 1980s brick building. That meant deploying a palette dominated by grays and greens — with a few exceptions. For the walls of the bedroom, for instance, she opted for custom lavender by Donald Kaufman Color.
For a Quogue, New York, beach house’s oceanfront bedroom, Eve Robinson brought the outside in. “Our client loved the idea of making a strong connection between the interior space and nature,” she explains. “The blues represent the ocean and sky, and the beige in the Steve Koch chairs and matching ottoman is reminiscent of the sand on the beach. We wanted the space to feel light, fresh and inviting.”
Further welcoming touches: Caste Design end tables and Christian Liaigre lamps.
Night Palm Studio’s Tiffany Howell transformed a Miami apartment on the ocean into a veritable paradise. “I wanted to give my client a sexy, fun pad filled with things she loves,” Howell explains. “We both like sculptural furniture, so there’s a lot of that throughout the space, but we made sure each piece was cozy.” This approach is epitomized in the main bedroom, where the Giovanni Travasa chair next to a postmodern tessellated side table provides an artful seat from which to enjoy the expansive sea view.
“We reimagined the Armonk, New York, home as a private wellness retreat, inspired by the structure’s original 1960s Scandinavian touches, including wood imported from Denmark, vaulted ceilings, expansive glass walls and a spiky copper roof,” says BarlisWedlick Architects principal Alan Barlis, who points to the the Murphy bed as a nice early-20th-century touch. “It was made to be storage, nightstands, closets and more.”
“It’s designed to offer sweeping views of the property and the mountain peaks beyond, which are spectacular year-round,” says Andrew Kotchen, founding principal at Workshop APD, explaining the firm’s scheme for this bedroom in a Berkshires mountain retreat. To complement the exterior vista, he layered the interior with an abundance of textures, like a rustic wishbone-inspired floor lamp and furry poufs.
“The house was designed by architect John Maniscalco,” Sean Leffers says of his San Francisco home atop Mount Sutro. “The architecture is super cool and minimal but gains warmth from organic touches like the cedar used for the ceiling here. I was told that some of the pieces of glass are among the biggest in the city.” All the better to take in the fantastic panorama visible from this bedroom.
Equally stunning is the decor, which includes Memphis Milano–style chairs — vintage finds that Leffers recovered in a moody velvet from Schumacher — and a 19th-century Turkmen rug.
The innovative pair behind Aussie design firm Arent&Pyke faced a challenge in approaching this project: how to match the allure of its architecture and environs. “Set on a cliff overlooking Middle Cove in Sydney, Australia, the home, featuring the signature boat-like curves of Walter Barda’s architecture, presides on the steep slope as a series of layers, each boasting magnificent harbor views,” explains Sarah-Jane Pyke.
A tough act to beat. But the two pulled it off — as Juliette Arent explains: “Charged with the decoration of the home’s minimal and highly contemporary interiors and outdoor spaces, we celebrated the honesty of its materials and echoed the tones of eucalyptus and stone prevalent in the surrounding bushland.” And they tied it all together in the bedroom with a large-scale David Larwill painting.
The alpine panorama outside the window set the tone for this bedroom, one of four, in a sprawling Aspen ski chalet by Forum Phi. “A mountain modern theme draws authentic inspiration from Aspen’s rich history, as well as its enriching and luxurious experiences,” says interior designer Stephanie Massmann, who worked alongside architect Andrew Dillon on the project.
The snowy scene is echoed in the cool palette of heather gray and whites, elegantly evident in the Kelly Hoppen fabric covering the armchair and the Allied Maker pendant hanging above the bed.
“This apartment is unique because you really don’t feel like you’re in New York City when you’re there,” says Gray Davis, referring to the expansive West Village home he designed with his Meyer Davis cofounder, Will Meyer. “The landscape and glass roof send you to another place, somewhere very private and serene.” In the main bedroom, the pair amplified this sense of serenity by incorporating a variety of luxurious, soft materials, such as the shearling upholstery on the Milo Baughman swivel chair.
“The most unique element is the floating fireplace,” notes Davis. “We added that and really love how it feels like a piece of furniture in the room.”
“The Equinox Hotel’s public spaces, including the lobby, the restaurant and lounge areas, are places of activity and connection,” Rockwell Group partner and studio leader Greg Keffer says of the fitness brand’s first hospitality venture, in New York. “In contrast, we designed the guest rooms as cool, dark, quiet oases. The rooms are divided into a generous, open entry foyer and dressing room/bathroom, with a welcoming, calming sleep chamber adjacent.”
Enlisted by clients to refresh the circa 1936 Spanish Mission-style house they’d bought in 1981, Studio Kate principal Kate Nixon gave the structure, on Sydney’s north shore, a very of-the-moment feel. “The home reflects and celebrates the current mood of formality and grandeur, authenticity and age in the face of social-media fame and laid-back luxury fatigue,” she says, noting that it sets “a new standard for interior decoration and legacy architecture.”
Updating, however, didn’t entail ditching the owners’ cherished antiques, like the armoire and zebra bench in this bedroom looking out over the water. Instead, Nixon gave the pieces their own facelift, refinishing, reupholstering and otherwise restoring them.
