Apartment on Fifth

This apartment overlooking Central Park has a rich inheritance. Donald Oenslager, the clients’ uncle, first decorated the rooms in the early 1960s. A Tony Award–winning set designer known for his famous designs for Anything Goes, A Majority of One, and Major Barbara, among other productions, he guided the decor of this apartment’s public rooms with rich color schemes and arrangements. Later on, these brilliantly highlighted the family’s eclectic collection of American paintings and antiques as well as the remarkable hooked rugs made by the patriarch of the household, a hobby that he developed as an aid to quitting smoking while he watched football games on television.

or the first few years we worked on this apartment, we made it a priority to conserve and repair the living room, especially the vintage Jack Lenor Larsen furnishings. When these fabrics wore out, we developed a new scheme, also in blue silk, and added as a counterpoint an Asian fabric in a tapestry weave on an ottoman. While it is more colorful than the Larsen fabrics, it plays well with contemporary art recently added to the collection. There is a new carpet of blue-green silk and the walls are covered in a beige stripe. A Stuart Davis painting of Greenwich Village hangs above the fireplace in the living room. Mirrored window reveals expand the views and light, a popular device in apartments overlooking Central Park.

The carpet design in the dining room is based on Chinese fabrics with bat motifs and was also executed by our client. The Chippendale chairs are covered in embossed leather. We adjusted the green of the walls to complement the warm palette of the painting and a large sculpture by Dale Chihuly.