This Old House?

Design’s PRINCE CHARMING breathes new life into some old bones, proving that a historical mansion doesn’t have to be a period piece.

- Olivia Martin

Behind the stately front door of a classic Upper East Side townhouse, a little black spaniel named Winnie skitters across terrazzo floors. Like a well-trained uptown hostess, she is surveying the premises before a visit from T&C, and she is pleased with her view: fluted walls, a mirrored foyer, a marvelous brass staircase ripe for a regal entrance, hers or her masters’.

When they moved in a few years ago, the couple—she a fashion and beauty executive, he a financier from a New York family with a proud lineage—found a dignified grande dame dating from 1899. They enlisted the help of French architect and interior designer Jean-Louis Deniot to modernize the four-story, 20-room historical treasure and turn it into a home fit for kids running around, not to mention Winnie, and entertaining.

“We demolished literally everything except for the façade, which was landmarked. You could see through the entire house from here,” Deniot says as he looks out from the entrance hall. He took particular care to devise a floor plan that put a premium on high ceilings and pulled natural light into the heart of the building.