Step Inside 6 Truly Stunning New York City Homes

Is there any classic New York type of design? Perhaps not, as the city itself can’t help but thrum with a diversity of styles layered through boroughs, space, and time. And that’s the beauty of it—a classic uptown residence can feel just as quintessentially New York as a minimalist SoHo pad. Below, we roundup up six of our favorite home tours that are set in the Big Apple. So sit back, relax, and get ready to feast your eyes.

One Prospect Park South house with a dining room ping pong table

“Prospect Park South is that unique neighborhood where all of a sudden you have these large whimsical houses, considerable pieces of property, and grassy medians in the middle of the street,” designer Ryan Mahoney, a partner at Workstead describes the historic neighborhood. “It’s another world.”

Five years ago, Mahoney and his Workstead team were invited to explore it after a repeat client purchased the 6,500-square-foot 1901-built residence. Time had taken its toll on the original clapboard structure, which had at some point been covered over in asphalt shingles, and its rooms revealed more than just gentle wear and tear. Nonetheless, Mahoney was in awe. “You’re greeted by these huge yew trees that frame the symmetrical entrance,” he says. He adds that beyond the picturesque portico he discovered stained glass windows, fireplaces in seemingly every room, and a bright twisting staircase crowned by a laylight. In other words, character—and plenty of it.

A fashionable Park Slope home with plenty of light pink

Sometimes it’s the mood that matters most. A few steps into a first-level Brooklyn apartment in the historic Park Slope neighborhood, and any thoughts of being inside a 19th-century brownstone dissipate. From the soft pink walls to the sculptural sofa reminiscent of a reclining odalisque and the evocative painting by French artist Philippine de Richemont, one is instantly transported to a chic, glamorous reverie. The home is fit for a style-conscious couple moving in together for the first time.

The element of theater is intentional, says Darren Jett, a New York–based interior architect. He was more than happy to oblige the homeowners’ request for a dramatic reimagining of the former rental unit. Having worked on hotels, high-end residences, and retail concept stores in his previous jobs, Jett has a finely tuned intuition for defining a space’s narrative arc. For this project, it was about “seduction, romance, and glamour,” he explains.

A modernist apartment that’s all about Brazilian design

When Bonobos founder Andy Dunn and his wife Manuela Zoninsein purchased their three-bedroom New York City apartment on the historic Great Jones Street, they knew that creating an open floor plan—designed by BKSK Architects—was paramount. After all, they both have big families (hers Brazilian and his American, Indian, and Scandinavian) and love to play host. Plus, after welcoming their first child, Izzo, in October of 2020, moving into a bigger home with fewer walls made sense. The couple gave their trusted friend Becky Shea—a New York interior designer—a call and, suffice to say, she delivered. “I created the layout with the sole purpose of entertaining in mind,” Shea explains. She also outfitted the pair’s previous apartment in Greenwich Village. “What was fun about working with Becky on our last home and again on this one is that she has a good sense of our aesthetic,” Zoninsein says. That aesthetic includes a deep appreciation for Brazilian modernism, which is undoubtedly evident in this second abode.

The Brooklyn town house of designer Fawn Galli

Although interior designer Fawn Galli typically designs for others, she found that the process of creating her family’s Brooklyn town house was an exercise in self-discovery. What is more, for Galli, decorating the house brought her closer to her “ultimate conquest of life,” which is “to live [my] life as closely to who [I am] as possible.” The resulting space is a melange of her varied aesthetic interests.

Inside the home, Galli juxtaposes glamorous and bohemian elements to create an interior that intentionally incorporates clashes. It was informed by her design philosophy, which she explains is based on five core elements: Nature, eclecticism, a no-rules attitude, and a resounding love of both surrealism and disco. More specifically, she drew inspiration from architect Eileen Gray, Salvador Dalí, and “odd assemblages of items that make you question where you are.”

Steve Gold’s sun-drenched SoHo loft

After touring a potential client’s penthouse loft in SoHo to discuss bringing it on the market in late 2019, Steve Gold—celebrity real estate agent and star of Bravo’s *Million Dollar Listing New York—*eventually cut to the chase. “As I left, I ended up saying, ‘I’m happy to sell it for you, but I’ll also buy it from you,’” he recalls.

The would-be client, as it turned out, was New York City gallerist Sean Kelly, who’d lived in the top-floor property for over two decades. “My girlfriend Luiza and I were pregnant with our daughter, Rose, and I was living in a really cool development in Chelsea, but had been thinking about getting a bigger space,” Gold says. “I see a lot of places—all the time—and this had incredible bones and proportions, and I saw the potential.” As penthouse lofts stack up, this particular property clocking in at around 3,400 square feet has three exposures instead of the usual two, including a nearly 50-foot wall with south-facing windows overlooking the quaint cobblestones below.

A sophisticated Upper East Side town house

Mexican architect Carlos Garciavelez and New York designer David Lawrence share a Lhasa Apso named Lolo, a background in luxury fashion, and a knack for creating unexpected and opulent spaces. And although they soft-launched their New York–based design firm Carlos David three years ago, the couple managed to keep most of their projects under wraps—that is until now.

They gut-renovated their client Nancy McCormick’s fifth-floor primary suite down to the studs, moving the bedroom to the south side of the 18-foot-wide home, cloaking the bathroom in blue-quartzite panels inspired by the garden court of the Frick Collection, and devising a show-stopping dressing room—complete with a gleaming silver leaf ceiling. The stairways and corridors of the 8,500-square-foot home were changed from a “margarine yellow” to a glamorously lacquered black-and-pearl white, a nod to Coco Chanel’s original Parisian store. Garciavelez and Lawrence reimagined the dining room as a gilded forest, papering the walls with de Gournay's handmade chinoiserie blossoms and nesting treelike candelabra atop two 1950s Maison Jansen writing desks cleverly repurposed as dining tables. “They just fit the bill in the most magical way,” Lawrence says. He explains that the desks can be separated for intimate supping or pressed together for grand entertaining—a moveable feast.