With easy access to trains, Central Park, and an endless array of shops and restaurants, location is everything for this Upper East Side apartment. “The area is great because it has the livelihood and ease of living in New York City, but it has a similar routine to that of the suburbs, where the families are up early getting the kids to school and lively at the end of the day with dog walks and families running around to after-school activities,” says interior designer Emma Beryl. “This was important to our clients when we started the renovation.”
The clients are a young couple with two small boys who bought the apartment just before the pandemic. “They ended up spending the next few years outside the city and loved it so much they moved full-time, but kept the apartment as a place to crash when coming into the city for work a few days each week,” Emma explains. “When it was clear they wouldn’t be using the space full-time, the goal became to create a home away from home that was turnkey and ready to host other couples for dinner or welcome the whole family for weekends exploring the city.”
Requirements included a space for both boys to sleep, a casual dining area, and a comfortable entertaining zone that felt calming and soft but could withstand active kids. The bathrooms had been renovated prior to purchase, so while they stayed untouched, all other areas of the apartment were completely transformed with a soft, romantic aesthetic featuring durable fabrics, neutral tones, and patinaed metals.
You enter the apartment through a long hallway, which allowed for a landing zone for keys, bags, and coats—and a perfect mirror for “last looks” before heading out. Just off the entry is the petite kitchen, which is still generously sized by NYC standards. “We redid this room to be light and functional, so you get the luxuries of a larger kitchen all in 50 square feet,” Emma says. “The best part of this room is the banquette we built to create a casual eating spot for when it’s just one person in the city for work.”
The living and dining area is one large open room. “We placed a farmhouse table with two pendants above to define the dining zone and help delineate it from the rest of the space,” Emma explains. “We also added a wall of built-ins that we dressed up with vintage books from one of our favorite styling sources, booksbythefoot.com.”
The children’s room lacked natural light, so Emma leaned into the coziness by drenching the walls in Bancha by Farrow & Ball, a deep green. “We put in a daybed with a trundle to save space day-to-day, but it’s also quick and easy to set up when both kids are staying in the city,” she says.
The final space completed was the primary bedroom—designed as a serene retreat from the city’s energy. “We centered the entire room around a piece of art sourced from Amelie Du Chalard. It introduces subtle, calming color to the space, while the navy bed pulls the cooler tones from the painting, tying it all together,” says Emma.
The result: a polished, welcoming pied-à-terre that feels just like home—even when home is somewhere else.
