Photographs by Read McKendree

Perched above the High Line in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood, with glittering views stretching toward Hudson Yards, this pied-à-terre by Lucy Harris reads like a study in cultivated contrast. It is at once urbane and enveloping, exuberant yet composed—a domestic landscape articulated with the precision of a Dutch still life and the confidence of modern eclecticism.

The apartment’s open plan unfolds as a calibrated sequence of moods. In the primary living area, a custom rug by Joseph Carini establishes a tactile foundation beneath the voluptuous 280 sofa by Pierre Augustin Rose, upholstered in Pierre Frey’s Teddy Mohair Nacre. A Concho coffee table in limestone and oak by Yucca Stuff and a matte beige USM credenza introduce material counterpoint, while a Bishop floor lamp by Coil & Drift casts a soft architectural glow. Nearby, olive chenille Camaleonda chairs by Mario Bellini for B&B Italia converse with a satin mustard Tobi-Ishi table—its sculptural mass both anchor and threshold, subtly buffering the kitchen beyond. Above the dining area, a Bocci 86.4 suspension light punctuates the space with suspended luminosity, joined by Gestalt dining chairs and a Diiva stool by Grazia & Co. Every element answers a singular brief from the homeowner: it must be beautiful, and it must be “nappable.” Comfort here is not compromise; it is ethos.

Harris, who grew up in a modernist New England house and honed her sensibility between Rome and Milan, orchestrates color like an “impossible bouquet.” Ochre and terracotta temper the communal spaces, while the private rooms surrender to saturation. The primary bedroom is swathed in deep indigo, wrapped in the Flora duck mural from Pattern Collective. A cane Mae bed by Radnor Made rests beneath Apparatus Talisman pendants in aged brass and stone, their glow softened by a Suhanna rug from The Citizenry and a felt tapestry by Liam Lee layered against the mural.

In the guest bedroom, Kufri Girardo’s terracotta wallcovering and Zak+Fox’s Tail of Heaven drapery evoke the romance of a boutique hotel—so much so that, during construction, the clients temporarily relocated there and found it difficult to leave.

The study, however, is the apartment’s most daring gesture: emerald custom millwork dissolves into Fornasetti’s Malachite wallcovering for Cole & Son, forming a total work of color—immersive, cerebral, and quietly theatrical. A Shogun table lamp by Mario Botta and a custom Aelfie rug complete the chromatic crescendo.

This was a true collaboration. So inspired by the process, the homeowner—formerly a practicing lawyer—enrolled at Parsons to study interior design. Revealed in time for the couple’s wedding brunch, the apartment became both stage and sanctuary: an escape from the city that somehow distills its very essence.