Scale is often the seductive factor of buildings previously used for non-residential purposes. Here the
insertion of a large window is a modern touch while respecting the original structure.
Image via Fearon Hay Architects.

Karen McCartney muses on New York styles from uptown chic to downtown cool.

Most cities have housing types that immediately spring to mind when that location is mentioned, and for New York it is the artist’s loft, the upmarket apartment building and the brownstone. Having just returned from a trip to the Big Apple I am able to report first hand on the former two, but sadly can claim no direct experience of the latter.

Martyn Thompson Studio's range of wallpapers and fabric is displayed artfully in his Soho loft.
Image via Martyn Thompson.

I stayed in a loft in Soho, one of the few originals left that haven’t been over-sanitised and turned into a smart three-bedroom apartment. It belongs to a photographer friend who is bohemian in spirit and highly creative in the treatment of his space. While his shelves are crammed with artworks, books, ceramics, objets trouvés, and various work-in-progress projects, his sanity, he explains, is maintained by keeping all horizontal surfaces clear. The joy of this loft is that it retains the raw beauty of its original use as a factory and office space for Singer sewing machines, with floor to ceiling casement windows, timber floors and 4m ceiling heights.

NASCAR’s Jimmie Johnson’s New York Apartment in Downtown Manhattan is a picture of curated artworks
and objects.
Image via Elle Decor.

At the other end of town, near the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I experienced for the first-time and first-hand, true, moneyed, high-end taste. The entrance had the classic canopy seen in many a movie, and the marble foyer was occupied by not one but two liveried doormen. Recent cutbacks had resulted in the redundancy of the men who travelled in the lift with you to press the button for your floor.

New York apartment of Francisco Costa, Women's Creative Director of Calvin Klein, presents a play of
tones and textures which combine style and comfort.

This apartment belonged to an interior decorator of great style and, judging by the artwork on the walls, wealth. Hers was a finely tuned aesthetic of quiet luxury with the twist a collector’s eye brings. A mustard velvet lounge sat in front of a perfectly muted blue painted wall while clusters of artworks were positioned with all the accuracy and impact of the museum the apartment overlooked. She kindly gave me a tour of the space, which had not only the perfection money can buy but was also so thoughtfully and exquisitely curated that you were aware of a clear design intelligence at play.

A view of the floor to ceiling windows and clean horizontal surfaces in the loft of photographer Martyn Thompson.
Image via Martyn Thompson.

The two spaces could not be more different. Each beautiful and appealing in their own way, and each one hundred per cent quintessentially New York. Yet the lesson I learnt from them both was essentially the same. It was about developing a decorating ‘personality’. Whether you have a mountain of money or very little, it is all about having a clear idea of what you like, collecting and curating with care and thought, and putting it together with confidence.