A tiny Upper East Side flat marries old-school New York elegance with modern flair

If this apartment was a person, it would manifest as – imagination willing – one of Truman Capote's socialite ‘Swans’. Indeed, like those doyennes of New York society, this ‘classic seven’ apartment (New York realtor-ese for a pre-war, two-bedroom apartment) is timeless and glamorous, with one foot firmly in the elegant 1960s. Nestled on Manhattan's chic and storied Upper East Side, the flat perfectly encapsulates the neighbourhood's impossible allure and cosmopolitan spirit. The flat's designer, Lilse McKenna, agrees: “I like to think this apartment is a nice blend of a modern sensibility and a nod to the traditional Upper East Side aesthetic.”

Sprawled across 1,200 square feet (111 square metres), the flat was the first major property purchase for Lilse's client, a single woman in her 30s who grew up on the Upper East Side. “The apartment had good bones,” says Lilse, owing it to the previous owner's “amazing renovation” of the space. That owner reconfigured the apartment from its original layout, as Lilse explains, "while still maintaining all of the good things that come with a pre-war apartment,” including a generous living space within a more traditional layout that is not entirely open-plan.

As for where to take the redecoration, Lilse's client had only a few requests: first, the client wanted her puppy, Ziggy, to be “welcome to jump on any piece of furniture”; second, she wanted some of her family's antiques (of which she maintains a detailed catalogue) to be incorporated into the design and, lastly, she wanted ample space and flexibility to host dinner parties, the latter being “a real challenge with every New York apartment,” according to Lilse.

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Factoring in her client's wishes, Lilse immediately took the lead and began working on her scheme. Firstly, she wanted to maintain an eclectic mix of modern elements with the pre-existing traditional details. "I'm always trying to create schemes – with all materials, but especially textiles – that they look like they've been collected over time,” she says. “I want the client to be able to come back from Paris or India with something beautiful and not feel like it's out of place.” Lilse draws this philosophy directly from English interior designers including Geoffrey Bennison and H&G Top 100 designers Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, whose interiors are intrinsically “layered and collected”.

Given the rich architectural heritage of the neighbourhood, Lilse was also keen to incorporate some “very Upper East Side” details and furnishings, including the velvet Breck sofa in the living room and the Gracie wallcovering panels in the kitchen: “it would have felt like a major departure if we [had] leaned into making this space super modern and contemporary,” she says.

The apartment's other decorative details and furnishings were mostly sourced from the client's vast collection of antiques, including the Ushak runner in the entry hall. One of the first pieces Lilse selected for the flat, the rug was the “perfect starting point” for the flat's colour palette. Artworks, including the Japanese lithographs in the entrance hall, were also mostly derived from the client's collection. Other pieces, however, came from a myriad of stockists and sellers including Etsy and 1stDibs, as well as American manufacturers like the Connecticut-based RT Facts, which custom-built the dining table; all upholstery was done locally. The sky blue banquette which edges a bank of the flat's large, north-facing windows, is one of the other key furnishings sourced for the flat, added by Lilse to maximise the amount of space available for dinner or cocktail parties, as well as adding an area for her client to work from home “that's not in the kitchen”. (For inquiring minds, puppy Ziggy is allowed on nearly all furnishings).

Once Lilse was happy with her marrying of the classical and more contemporary elements of her scheme, the designer moved onto the next task on her design to-do list: to hone the colour palette even further and keep it relatively neutral ("for me!", she laughs). “I wanted this palette to feel sophisticated and irreverent,” she says, adding that it was important for the apartment to “feel cool, not overly feminine, but a good balance of both.” Indeed, the apartment is filled with natural materials which exude a sense of calm, as well as other “textures and elements, including snakeskin and metal, which give great variation,” as well as a subtle “industrial” look; pops of colour, like the hallway's powdery sky blue paint or the master bedroom's more muted French blue, add a playful youthfulness to the spaces.

The “more masculine, olive-y, army green” colour of the Breck sofa and footstool worked well with the main palette of greens, blues and browns. This was originally dictated by the Ushak runner in the front hall and exuded the coveted ‘cool’ look Lilse wanted. The metal legs of the custom-made dining table further add to the flat's more industrial, masculine side. The bedroom, conversely, Lilse kept more feminine; its blue walls are not painted, but are instead lined with Mosca silk, which allows for the colour to read differently depending on the angle. There are also subtle glimmers of pink throughout the room, playing off the suzani-style Robert Kime fabric which lines the headboard.

Reflecting on the design process, Lilse feels that she “really hit the note [she] was trying to achieve: the blending of the traditional and the more contemporary elements.” Indeed, like a consummate socialite, this Upper East Side apartment gracefully maintains its chic, playful nature whilst still honouring its traditional roots; we'd be willing to wager that, if they were around and invited to dinner, Truman Capote and his ‘Swans’ would approve.