Tour a Greenwich Village Town House That Doubles Down on the Wow Factor
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What does a longtime Kentuckian’s dream home in New York City look like? Art-filled, funky, and colorful, according to a creative couple from Lexington who commissioned Manhattan-based Australian AD PRO Directory designer Paris Forino to decorate theirs—a 9,650-square-foot town house in Greenwich Village. Originally built in 1847, the six-story residence once belonged to millionaire financier Malcolm Forbes and played host to his many extravagant, celebrity-filled soirees. In 2012, when Forino had just begun her solo design studio in New York, developers Todd Cohen and Terrence Lowenberg hired her to complete a gut renovation of the former party palace, making its layout, finishes, and period detailing suitable for contemporary living with the help of Issac & Stern Architects. After the building sold to its new owners in 2019, they called on Forino to finish her job—designing the interiors for the couple’s own love of entertaining.
“The wife didn’t want it to be buttoned-up and stuffy,” explains the designer of her clients’ initial brief for the home, where they split their time with another in Austin. “She wanted it fun, with interesting, artful objects,” and to embrace their penchant for color, something Forino excels in. To inject the five-bedroom, six-bathroom house with a bright spirit, the designer created a sunny yellow throughline. The hue can be seen across the town house’s two floors of public gathering areas, designed to flow naturally into each other. In the dining room, a willow mural wallpaper by Fromental and the linen harlequin-print curtains sport a goldenrod colorway, while the adjacent catering kitchen has walls and cabinetry painted in another more buttery shade. The soaring double-height living room, complete with 17-foot-tall windows and a hidden bar, picks up the color as an accent—it upholsters a Jacob Kjaer wingback chair and ottoman and covers cushions on the built-in benches flanking the fireplace.
Elsewhere, in the home’s private spaces, yellow grounds a striped bedroom with a mustard-colored rug, accents the custom Sacco carpet in the walnut-shelved library overlooking the living room, and enlivens the trim and door to the intimate family room, where television can be watched from the velvet-covered custom sectional.
Inspired by its 19th-century roots, the town house does not have the seemingly ubiquitous open floor plan of most contemporary renovations. “The layout of the house has a classical feeling because the rooms are defined; they’re not just big, meandering, lofty spaces,” describes Forino. “I think [this layout] lends itself better to freestanding pieces of furniture than lots of built-ins.” Because the clients were excited by dynamic design, Forino sourced playful furnishings by makers from around the globe, including anthropomorphic chairs from Christian Astuguevieille’s Holly Hunt collection, resin sconces by Italy-based duo Draga Obradovic and Aurel K. Basedow, and a cocktail table with a fuchsia blown-glass base by London’s Grzegorz Majka. All the sofas are bespoke as are the rugs, which feature geometric patterns in a variety of tones. Advisor Elizabeth Fiore helped to decorate the walls with collectible artworks by talents like Frank Veteran and Juergen Teller.
However, while the living room is certainly the loftiest of the house, Forino notes that it’s where the homeowners often gravitate. “It’s a really beautiful room to sit in and it feels fantastic,” she says, thanks to floor-to-ceiling patterned curtains, a plaster chandelier, and the library overlook that help mitigate its height. Sunlight streams in from its oversized windows, which also provide a view of the back garden, landscaped by Brooklyn-based Corey Hutson and perfect for more grill-oriented gatherings. Overall, Forino describes her design strategy for this house as “eclectic but carefully curated.” And for a couple that loves to host, the abode itself is a conversation starter.
1/11The 17-foot-tall living room’s tremendous scale is mitigated by a library overlook on the second floor and a floral-inspired, plaster-finished chandelier, but the room’s design began at the floor with a custom black-and-white Sacco rug. From there, AD PRO Directory designer Paris Forino layered on color and form through the furnishings, including a curved Ransom Culler sofa from Thayer Coggin, a Jacob Kjaer wingback chair, and a glass-and-oak cocktail table by Grzegorz Majka. The pillows wear a Dedar fabric.
Art: Michael Scott/Elizabeth Fiore Art Advisory and Pazo Fine Art (Left). Paradis XI, 2009 by Juergen Teller (Right).2/11Custom cushions upholstered in a poppy Jim Thompson fabric top the built-in benches flanking the fireplace in the double-height living room. The home’s yellow throughline is picked up in the bench pillows and a Jacob Kjaer wingback chair and ottoman. Artworks by Michael Scott (right) and Juergen Teller.
3/11A willow-patterned wallpaper by Fromental wraps the sunny dining room, where the custom table is surrounded by chairs from Cassina and the curtains are made of a Paris L'après-Midi linen. The glass-and-resin sconces are by Draga & Aurel.
4/11Adjacent to the dining room, the butter-yellow catering kitchen is decorated with a whimsical side chair by Christian Astuguevieille for Holly Hunt.
6/11In the sunlit main kitchen, which has access to the home’s back garden, Bright Group stools at the island wear two green fabrics by Paris L'après-Midi.
Art: Frank Veteran7/11An artwork by Frank Veteran decorates the colorful breakfast area with its custom banquette with a geometric Pierre Frey linen twill backrest and Dedar-upholstered wool satin cushion, dining table by William Earle, and Bright Group armchairs covered in a Dedar floral print. The chandelier is by Gabriel Scott, and the room’s striped wallpaper is by Phillip Jeffries.
8/11The staircase, and its bespoke blue ombré runner by Sacco, climbs three stories around a hanging light fixture by Articolo Studios.
Art: Agnes Barley/Sears Peyton Gallery and Elizabeth Fiore Art Advisory9/11The husband’s blue-and-green office is wrapped in an Ashanti-inspired wallpaper by Zak+Fox and decorated with a custom sleeper sofa by Dmitriy & Co, a desk and chair from Suite NY, and a rug by Sacco.
10/11In this bold bedroom, a striped Dedar wallpaper and curtains of a blue-gray wool by Paris L'après-Midi surround the bed with its custom gray-velvet headboard and John Derian Company bedding and pillows. The custom bench at the end of the bed also wears a silver velvet, while a mustard rug enlivens the space.
11/11The cozy family room is made for relaxing on its custom Thayer Coggin sofa covered in a silver velvet by the Sign and the plush ottoman in a raspberry bouclé by Jim Thompson. The swing-arm wall light and the Christian Astuguevieille for Pierre Frey curtains add black as an accent color.
