At the mention of hygge —the Danish concept of simplistic comfort and contentment—one might envision a cabin nestled in the woods, flickering with light from a glowing hearth, ample cable-knit throws within reach. Now, take that cozy aesthetic and shift the setting to a gleaming Manhattan skyscraper. The image becomes much trickier to conjure—that is, until you lay eyes on David Scott’s soft and layered designs.
Like a sculptor molding clay, the New York–based designer deftly transforms spaces to suit his clients’ deepest needs and desires—a craft that he’s honed through his firm, David Scott Interiors, over 29 years. With a shiny, New York high-rise at hand, Scott and design director Jim Fairfax set out to achieve an unexpected sense of snugness, serenity, and understated luxury 64 floors above Midtown East. The lofty abode, lined with expansive glass, boasts exposures on three sides, revealing mesmerizing views of the East River, the UN headquarters, and beyond.
Just off the kitchen, Scott carved out an intimate dining area, outfitted with a custom-designed banquette and vintage Onkel Adam lounge chair and ottoman by Kerstin Hörlin-Holmquist. The couple can enjoy meals or hunker down with a book in this cozy corner. “The colors take that room and just grab you—they’re very rich and beautiful,” Scott says of the Jennifer Hornyak oil painting. A PH Artichoke lamp adds a “modern classic” touch.
Scott’s clients, Kathleen Sullivan and Helen Stacy—both practicing lawyers and former professors who split their time between New York and California—were content with the existing layout, but enlisted his expertise to transform the 3,450-square-foot space into a restful escape through redecoration. “We determined that we weren’t going to alter the architecture significantly. Instead, we’d focus on assembling and curating a beautiful collection of furniture and art together,” Scott recalls. He maintained the apartment’s clean and bright look and introduced femininity, warmth, and depth through thoughtful furnishings with fluid lines, a variety of handwoven textiles, and a soothing color palette. “It’s this kind of oasis in the sky, which responds to that cloud-like softness above the city,” he says.
His embrace of hygge was sparked by the home-owning couple’s travels to Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, and Helsinki, where they became enamored with Scandinavian design. Sullivan and Stacy fell for “Scandi” style for a variety of reasons: “The simple lines and shapes, the precise quality of the craftsmanship, and the strong tradition of women designers and artists,” Sullivan shares—just to name a few.
To kick off the collaborative design process, Scott invited Sullivan to join him on a sourcing trip to Hostler Burrows, a woman-owned store in New York, specializing in Nordic design. “I do that often,” Scott notes. “We go out into the marketplace and I get to see my clients’ reactions—what they find comfortable, what turns them on, what turns them off.” A few enthusiastic purchases from that initial visit established a distinctive mood board for the apartment. The result is a pristine, light-filled home that reflects the colors of the city sky, with each room wrapped in textured fabrics and thick-weave carpets and punctuated with unique art and plenty of antique wood.
The ultimate resource for design industry professionals, brought to you by the editors of Architectural Digest
“David’s designs captured perfectly my love of beautiful things that are simple and well-crafted—not showy or ornate—orderly, and fastidious with great quality but without ornament,” says Sullivan. “He designs on his clients’ emotional as well as physical canvas.” And for Scott, that emotional component is precisely what his work is about. “Good design is about reflecting our clients’ desires of how they want to live and how they want to feel,” he says. “Then that richness can come through in everything we do.”