Interior designer Alyssa Kapito, whose alabaster-tinged Instagram feed is as polished as it is popular, has been celebrated as a tastemaker for millennials. Yet one of her most enjoyable recent projects—a penthouse on Manhattan’s Upper West Side—happened to be for a couple of baby boomers. “They were empty nesters who wanted to start again, which was kind of romantic,” says Kapito. “It was great to see them so excited and really involved in picking every piece.”
Perhaps more importantly, Kapito and the homeowners were “completely in tune” stylistically, agreeing on a soothing neutral palette and minimalist lines that nodded to classicism. “I am a millennial, but my work transcends that sort of stereotype,” says Kapito, who studied Renaissance art at Columbia University and worked at Christie’s before turning her eye on interior design. “I think what I offer is a fresh take on tradition.” Indeed, since establishing her eponymous studio in 2012, Kapito has created a series of spaces that show an appreciation for the past, seen in strategically placed vintage and antique pieces, while clearly belonging to the present, with luminous off-white surfaces and sculptural clean shapes.
After agreeing on a neutral palette and minimalist yet timeless lines, Kapito scoured high-end furniture galleries in search of Art Deco and modernist gems, such as this Pietro Chiesa glass-and-brass pendant from Bernd Goeckler. The wood table beneath it is a vintage Osvaldo Borsani piece from Morentz.
To come up with the look of this gut-renovated Upper West Side apartment, she scoured high-profile furniture galleries like Bernd Goeckler, Maison Gerard, and Hostler Burrows in search of Art Deco and modernist gems that would anchor the spacious rooms of the 3,000-square-foot unit overlooking the Hudson River. One of the first and most significant purchases was a Pietro Chiesa pendant with elongated glass panels and angular brass details, which now hangs in the foyer over a sleek oval table with tapered legs. “It set the tone for the entire apartment,” says Kapito of the one-of-a-kind fixture, ostensibly designed in the ‘30s. “Once we had it we said ‘let’s raise the bar, and let’s have fun doing it.’”
Among the home’s most covetable finds are a set of shapely armchairs with dainty beechwood details, designed in the 1940s by Adolf Wrenger; two brass ”croisillon” table lamps by Jean Michel Frank; and a small oak console by Gio Ponti. The thread that runs through the entire residence is an abundance of unpatterned fabrics in soft ecru and ivory hues. “Allyssa created the calm and beautiful oasis we wanted at this time in our lives,” say the homeowners, a married couple who lived for nearly three decades in a “well-used old apartment” just a few blocks away. “There's something magical about the newness and perfection of it all.”
