A Bold Park Avenue Penthouse for Empty Nesters

After living in a six-story townhouse for decades and raising their family there, the empty-nester clients of interior designer Phillip Thomas wanted to live on one floor. Thomas helped them find this Park Avenue penthouse to start the next phase of their life in.

“Penthouses in prewar buildings often feel very small with low ceilings,” Thomas notes, “as they were converted from former storage spaces. But this apartment has wonderful bones. In many ways, it had all the qualities that they had grown accustomed to and loved after 40 years in their townhouse.”

After the move and trying to incorporate as much of their original belongings as possible given the proportions of the new space, Thomas set to work. He designed custom pieces that complemented their art collection and continued those palettes by using a variety of high-gloss paint finishes and de Gournay custom wallpaper on all surfaces of the entry foyer, including the ceiling, so it feels like “you are walking through a cherry grove,” he says. He designed the powder room with one of the mirrors from the former townhouse that had been over the mantel in the dining room: “I just thought that the space was so small proportionally, why not open it up by using an overscaled mirror?” The walls are done with plaster embedded with gold, silver, and copper leaf.

The biggest welcome surprise was in the breakfast room, which had a glass ceiling hidden behind the Sheetrock. Now it’s a solarium.

“It’s so easy for people to tell you what they don’t like,” observes Thomas. “But when it comes to knowing what they like, they may not know it until they see it.”

The Foyer: The custom de Gournay wallpaper gives the feeling of walking through a cherry grove. Thomas was inspired by his clients’ collection of Japanese block prints.
Photo: Genevieve Garruppo

The Blue Room: The wife’s music room–she plays the guitar–also serves as a guest room: the daybed was custom-designed by Thomas with Clarence House Mohair. The walls are Benjamin Moore’s Patriot Blue. Photo: Genevieve Garruppo.

The Blue Room: The wife’s music room–she plays the guitar–also serves as a guest room: the daybed was custom-designed by Thomas with Clarence House … more
The Blue Room: The wife’s music room–she plays the guitar–also serves as a guest room: the daybed was custom-designed by Thomas with Clarence House Mohair. The walls are Benjamin Moore’s Patriot Blue. Photo: Genevieve Garruppo.

The Breakfast Room: “As we embarked on the renovation,” Thomas says, “we discovered that behind the Sheetrock ceiling was a glass ceiling, so we decided to open up the space to create the feeling of a conservatory to take advantage of the natural light.” The pendant is from Charles Edwards.
Photo: Genevieve Garruppo

The Kitchen: “At one point, the kitchen was going to be fully renovated, but they decided to hold off and just give it a cosmetic makeover,” Thomas says. “All of the wood was stained grade; it wasn’t particularly remarkable, so we decided to paint the entire kitchen a color I adore, Benjamin Moore’s Cheating Heart; it’s almost black.” The pendant is from Guinevere Antiques.
Photo: Genevieve Garruppo

The Powder Room: The walls are a gold/silver-leaf application by Decorative Art & Design. The mirror is from the clients’ previous townhouse.
Photo: Genevieve Garruppo

The Primary: The bed is vintage Angelo Donghia. “It’s an interesting mix, a kind of Egyptian undertone with an American folk-art feeling,” Thomas says.
Photo: Genevieve Garruppo

The Terrace: Instead of a back garden, they now have a garden in the sky with boxwood from Roger Miller Gardens.
Photo: Genevieve Garruppo