Inside an Elegantly Eclectic New York Town House
Mounted atop the living room paneling at designer Caterina Heil Stewart’s Manhattan town house is a painting of a young skier barreling downslope amid flurries of snow or perhaps, more fantastically, across a starry cosmos.
It’s a memorable early Yoshitomo Nara work, rendered in the Japanese artist’s signature cartoonish style, the child’s expression a mix of innocence and rebellion.
That frolicsome spirit runs throughout the elegantly eclectic home that Heil Stewart has composed for her family of five. In the living room, works by Latin American artists Alberto Baraya, Ernesto Ballesteros, and Marcelo Silveira join in presiding over a dashing array of vintage Italian furnishings, among them mohair-clad Giuseppe Scapinelli seating, svelte Ico Parisi tables, and Art Deco–inflected Osvaldo Borsani armchairs that she paired with a Louis XIV games table. “I like mixing pieces from different eras that talk to each other,” says Heil Stewart, whose confident combinations favor furnishings that showcase craftsmanship and artistry.
“Caterina’s vision is not just decorative—she’s really got a collector’s eye,” says her husband, Sotheby’s CEO Charles Stewart. “She’s thinking about timeless beauty, timeless design.”
Heil Stewart grew up surrounded by design in São Paulo, where her grandfather and mother were both architects. Ultimately, she followed in her father’s footsteps and became a lawyer, but several years into her career, she sought a new path. After taking classes at Parsons School of Design and working as a fashion buyer, she began pursuing interiors projects, steadily building up her practice before founding her firm, StudioCAHS, in 2013.
At her home on the Upper East Side, just steps from Central Park, Heil Stewart has offset traditional 19th-century details with touches of playful panache. In the entry, coil-like sections of a Fabio Novembre sofa for Cappellini frame Vik Muniz’s re-creation of a Lewis Carroll photograph of Alice Liddell, composed using thousands of colorful toys. Along the adjacent wall, Heil Stewart added groovy-chic 1970s mirrors by Luciano Bertoncini. “You can hang your coat when you come in,” she says, demonstrating how when the top of the panel is pushed in, the lower part becomes a hanger.
Upstairs in the gallery-like space between the living and dining rooms, Heil Stewart paired a vintage Angelo Mangiarotti pedestal table with a 1970s Terje Ekstrøm chair, whose twisting form is not only visually striking but also, she notes, “super comfortable.” Mounted above are Cao Guimarães photographs that represent gambiarra, a Brazilian concept that refers to “adapting things according to needs,” explains Heil Stewart. “As you can see, it’s using a potato and a toothpick to stack the bills in a bar. Or a bottle holding a window open.”
The Stewarts have been collecting together for more than two decades, starting with artists from Brazil, which is where they met. The couple later branched out to include artists from elsewhere in Latin America, as well as the US and the UK, the other countries they’ve called home. In the dining room, a geometric abstraction by the late Japanese-born Brazilian-expat Tomie Ohtake hangs above the fireplace. The cozy family room, meanwhile, displays a work British artist Tracey Emin created for the 2016 Rio Olympics. “All of the things we’ve bought have significance to us,” says Charles Stewart.
“And I love the way the art talks to the design and the space.” That interplay extends to the couple’s bedroom, where the graceful curves of their vintage iron bed reverberate with the lines and spheres of the Stilnovo light fixture overhead and the simple, vividly hued forms in the Carlito Carvalhosa canvas above the fireplace. “I wanted to wake up and have that burst of energy every day,” Heil Stewart says of the painting, adding, “It just makes me happy.”
This New York town house appears in AD’s December issue. Never miss an issue when you subscribe to AD.
Art: © Yoshitomo Nara1/11A Yoshitomo Nara artwork mingles with vintage upholstered seating by Giuseppe Scapinelli in Caterina Heil Stewart’s New York City living room.
Art: Tomie Ohtake2/11In the dining room, Pierre Jeanneret chairs surround an Angelo Mangiarotti table; artwork by Tomie Ohtake and lighting by Gio Ponti for Venini.
3/11The designer with her husband, Sotheby’s CEO Charles Stewart, in their living room.
4/11An Alberto Baraya artwork hangs above the fireplace, which is flanked by Max Ingrand for FontanaArte sconces, Gio Ponti mirrors, and Ico Parisi consoles.
5/11The kitchen pairs classic white cabinetry with vintage industrial-style open shelving.
6/11The light-filled breakfast nook; table by Piet Hein Eek, chairs by Guillerme et Chambron.
7/11A trio of Guillerme et Chambron cabinets in the dining room.
Art: Cao Guimarães.8/11A series of photographs by Cao Guimarães hang in the gallery-like space between the living and dining rooms, which is furnished with a pedestal table by Mangiarotti.
9/11Heil Stewart custom-designed the library’s sectional sofa; side and cocktail tables all by Angelo Mangiarotti.
Art: Carlito Carvalhosa.10/11A Carlito Carvalhosa painting hangs above the fireplace in the couple’s bedroom; vintage bed frame and Stilnovo chandelier.
11/11A stone-clad bathroom.
