See How One Designer Approached a Historic Home Renovation in New York for Clients With Modern Style
After nearly a decade of living in a historic building on New York’s Upper West Side, designer Melissa Lee’s clients—a family of four with two young girls—were looking for more space. The couple had moved into their apartment when the wife was pregnant with their first daughter, but nine years later, the need for more room reared its head.
“As we were going through the pandemic, we spent a lot of time working from home,” says the wife. “With two growing children, it made us wonder if we wanted to move to a larger place.”
The issue was that the family loved their building. The building was designed by architect William Rouse and constructed in 1909. Some of its units, including the one owned by Lee’s clients, have sweeping views of the Hudson River. Aside from the vistas, the building’s stately presence and prewar details had initially charmed the husband and wife. “We like old buildings,” says the latter. “They have so much more character.”
In 2022, the apartment next door went up for sale, and suddenly, the prospect of a bigger home in the same building became a reality. The seller had lived in the neighboring apartment for 30 years and never modernized it.
“There were a lot of beautiful, original details,” Lee says, noting that while she had some back and forth with the clients about whether to update the unit, ultimately, everyone landed on the same page about honoring the building’s prewar roots and retaining the inherited architectural details. “When we started to talk about merging the two, we had to think about creating a vocabulary that communicates through different eras. How do we weave them back together in a way that feels coherent?” Lee, who had previously worked with the clients on their country house, also notes that they “have a modern-leaning aesthetic and gravitate towards clean lines and Scandinavian furniture. We had to figure out how to bring that into a quintessential Upper West Side space.”
Working with architect Sarah Jacoby, Lee’s firm, Bespoke Only, did a full gut of both apartments, rearranging and removing walls to connect the separate spaces and create an easy flow between rooms. The library in the neighbor’s residence, with its original wood-clad walls and intricately carved embellishments, was a jumping-off point for the project’s aesthetic, and the enlarged kitchen became the heart of the home.
“The kitchens were back-to-back in the existing apartments,” the client says. “We made that into a large central hub. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, and the kids do their homework or eat breakfast at the island.” For this room, Lee used light blue cabinetry (painted in Benjamin Moore’s Van Courtland Blue) and white subway tile as nods to the property’s historic roots. The kitchen has two separate “wings” with individual functionalities and utilities, and a central beverage station (covered in woodland-themed toile wallpaper from British designer Sian Zeng) ties them together. A door behind the island opens to the library, where Lee installed a custom, semicircular banquette upholstered in cerulean velvet. The living/dining area leans more modern with a mix of Scandinavian and custom furniture, but small details, such as a herringbone floor and plaster molding replicated from the neighbor’s apartment, help visually connect the newly unified spaces.
Aside from the kitchen, wallpaper also appears in the library and entry hall, bringing a rich elegance and British-inspired sensibility that the clients love. “It was a bit of a bargaining process with my husband!” the wife admits. Private areas such as the primary suite are more subdued, with neutral tones like gray, white, and tan taking precedence to create a serene escape at the end of the day.
The seamless transition from two apartments to one relied on careful attention to balance—knowing when to highlight original elements and where a preference for the modern would make a room shine. With an eye for color and texture, Lee was able to do both, capturing the elegance of a time gone by while crafting a home for contemporary life.
“We wanted our space to feel peaceful and warm,” says the client. “When you live in the hustle and bustle of a place like Manhattan, it’s nice to have a calm, inviting home.”
1/12Lee played up the vintage glamour in the apartment’s foyer. Stepping off the elevator, guests get a sense of what awaits inside—a grand outdoor scene adorns the Le Grand Siècle wallpaper, and a 1930s French bronze lamp sits on a CB2 side table. The floor, marble mosaic tiling, is original to the building.
2/12The foyer’s original fireplace greets guests with a dramatic flair. Combined with a CB2 table, a reupholstered vintage Danish side chair, and an antique schoolhouse milk glass pendant, it creates an interesting set of stylistic juxtapositions. “That’s a signature trait of our work,” Lee says of the mix-and-match approach. “There are so many details we want to highlight and honor when working with these historic homes.”
3/12Designer Melissa Lee retained the look and feel of the library, which was previously part of the neighbor’s apartment. The banquet is a custom piece upholstered with cerulean velvet and finished with a walnut base. Layering in old-world elegance, Lee added a gracefully curved sofa from Soho Home, balancing it with a modern-learning custom quartzite table. The bookshelf lighting is original.
4/12Although the family often gathers at the library’s banquette for breakfast, a proper dining room with built-in casework is perfect for larger groups or more formal meals. Here, the dark wood of an original fireplace and mirror balance out with white paint and a set of oak Carl Hansen & Søn dining chairs. The lighting over the casework is original.
5/12Adorned with floor-to-ceiling subway tiles reminiscent of old New York’s Gilded Age kitchens, the new culinary space has two distinct zones. In this area, the island serves as a place for the children to eat breakfast and do their homework when the client is cooking or baking. “I knew I wanted blue cabinets,” she says. The final pick was Benjamin Moore’s Van Courtland Blue.
6/12The part of the kitchen dedicated to meal prep and cooking holds a ceramic apron-front farm sink and a Gaggenau cooktop.
7/12The kitchen’s two zones connect via a beverage station embellished with woodland-themed toile wallpaper from British designer Sian Zeng. A vintage oil painting adds a sophisticated touch.
8/12A semi-hidden doorway between the library and kitchen offers easy access between the rooms. Behind the wall covered with blue-and-green Sian Zeng wallpaper sits a coffee station, and beyond that is the section dedicated to cooking. “You can see how this layout works for a modern-day setting,” Lee says. “You might have a busy evening cooking and not have time to clean everything up, but this way you can conceal what you need by just closing the door.”
9/12The primary bedroom embraces a modern aesthetic. Lee painted the walls with Benjamin Moore’s Finnie Gray and kept the furniture lines simple to minimize visual clutter. A piece of vintage art hangs on the wall.
10/12The primary bathroom continues the bedroom’s neutral palette, anchored by a custom vanity made from white oak and Carrara marble. In a nod to the original tilework seen in the building, Lee used the material to add subtle texture: The floor is Carrara and Nero Marquina marble mosaic tile, and the shower is mosaic jade marble.
11/12In the guest bathroom, Lee used the same tile options as in the primary bathroom (Carrara and Nero Marquina marble for the floor and mosaic jade marble for the tub. An industrial vanity, harkening back to the apartment’s turn-of-the-century roots, is by Stone Forest, and the fixtures are from Brizo.
12/12Simplicity reigns in the daughters’ bathroom with its gray, floor-to-ceiling tile from Waterworks. A pill-shaped mirror (also by Waterworks) hangs above the WS Bath Collections sink.
