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The jubilant spirit of Mary and Evan Davis’s New York apartment announces itself the moment you walk into the foyer, where leafy, luscious decoupaged fern prints line the walls and a bright blossom painting by Angelina George erupts like fireworks above a sober Shaker-style bench. “It sets the scene for the entire home,” says Katie Ridder. The Davises, empty nesters looking to downsize, had enlisted the designer to help them streamline their eclectic collections and settle into a simplified and serene—but by no means sleepy—aesthetic. “We wanted a house that was joyful and warm,” says Mary. Luckily, Ridder, a polymath when it comes to color and pattern who combines motifs and hues with irreverence and charm, proved the perfect fit for the Davises’ idiosyncratic passions, which include Eastern art and Scandinavian furniture.
The stars of the living room are Alvar Aalto armchairs with wool cushions limned in a green caterpillar fringe that has a counterpoint in the sofa’s embroidered tape borders. “The outline trim gives a loose-back sofa a little polish,” notes Ridder. Farrow & Ball’s Tunsgate Green helps brighten the northern exposure. Vintage Moderne ceiling fixture, circa 1960, from Carlos de la Puente Antiques.
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A vibrant work by Angelina George is layered over the fern decoupage in the foyer and paired with pillows in a vivid KRB fabric, a pattern-on-pattern-on-pattern combination that works because everything else in the room—including a Shaker-style bench that the Davises already owned—is pared down.
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In the dining room, which doubles as a workspace for Evan, a subtle strié effect repeats throughout the space—on the grasscloth-covered walls, woven lampshades, the flatweave rug, and more explicitly on the colorful Lee Jofa stripe on the banquette—illustrating how texture can work similarly to color as a unifying force.
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Using the couple’s penchant for Alvar Aalto furniture as a jumping off point, Ridder conceived of a Nordic-inflected backdrop for a potpourri of treasured possessions, which include Indian miniatures, Japanese prints, and paintings of the Buddha as well as plainspoken Windsor chairs and midcentury classics like a Maison Jansen bed. The unifying force? A Crayola box of nuanced, vaguely-Scandi shades and textures that “talk” to each other from room to room and unfurl like one giant mood board. “It’s the designer’s job to make connections,” says Ridder.
The honeyed background tone of the fern botanicals in the foyer are echoed in sleek Aalto armchairs in the living room, with cushions cloaked in warm amber wool. Their green caterpillar fringe riffs off the subtle cast of chartreuse on the walls, which in turn is mirrored in the fireplace’s juicy, green-tiled slip. And that flower painting in the foyer? It’s having a lively exchange with another hero in the living room, a cushy corner banquette covered in an exuberant floral fabric by Josef Frank. “Frank’s designs have movement and verve with a painterly, light hand,” says Ridder.
Josef Frank’s Mirakel linen on the banquette anchors a corner of the living room with lively color and movement. Its combination of shades gives cohesion to wide-ranging art like Japanese chrysanthemum prints and an antique screen, as well as a painting of the Buddha. The Swedish-style rug is from Doris Leslie Blau.
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Classic English country-style cabinetry by deVOL provides a backdrop for colorful art and accessories in the kitchen, including vintage Harper’s magazine covers, a bird painting by the clients’ daughter, cerulean subway tiles, and Arabia of Finland china.
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A pretty passel of pastel shades in the kitchen are unified by a roman shade made from an exuberaant Josef Frank print, Textile Primavera, from Svenskt Tenn. The Thonet stools wear cushions in a pinky Lowlands fabric and the pendant is from deVOL.
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Speaking of gleeful, the primary bedroom is literally a rhapsody in blue, anchored by an Indian-inspired Pierre Frey fabric that covers the walls, splashes across the curtains, and covers jib doors that cleverly hide built-in storage. The lively print, which helps combat awkward architecture issues that couldn’t be remedied, also stretches out on curtains that swish behind the bed, disguising the fact that the bed itself overlaps the windows by a few inches on either side. Azure tonalities offer cohesion here, too, swimming on the striped upholstery of a bench, the finish of Hwang Bishop lamps, and a John Stefanidis geometric box spring cover.
To give the primary bedroom’s paper-backed fabric walls a sense of order, Ridder created crown and base “moldings” from stripes cut from the Pierre Frey textile. To further disguise jib doors that open to storage, a series of animal prints and Indian miniatures were hung on top of them. The Bunny Williams bench is covered in a Peter Dunham fabric.
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In the guest bathroom, Ridder created trompe-l’oeil molding around the pink-toned Moroccan Bejmat tile in the shower stall, which the designer loves for its handmade, tonal variations. (“No two are alike,” she says.) The pattern in the encaustic floor tiles from Mosaic House brings all the colors together.
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The guest bedroom reprises a favorite Ridder pairing: pink and orangey red. “Reds can ground the pink, take away the sweetness, and give it a graphic punch,” she says. The headboards are covered in an Alice Sergeant fabric and the beds are dressed in Matouk linens with bedspreads Ridder found in India.
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Smitten by the magic Ridder bestowed upon the entire apartment, the Davises find their bedroom particularly transporting. “It’s like sleeping in a tent,” says Evan. Adds Mary, “It’s the kasbah he always wanted.” Fantasy made reality in a vivid nest that embodies your treasured pursuits? Now that’s true bliss.
