How to live the Manhattan high life on a modest budget
High above the throbbing streets of Park Avenue in New York City, is a world most of us can only dream about. Bejewelled eyries of old money, new money, movie stars, dot.com brats and high-flying executives — it’s Manhattan’s high life and its interiors are nothing short of, well, fabulous (as spoken by Sex & the City’s Samantha).
Actually, it’s later scenes of Sex & the Citythat gave many of us less fortunate earners our first glimpse into the decadence common to Park Avenue living. It’s not simply the newly coiffured dens of financial iniquity but the tradition of wealth on show, baseboard to cornice, when you make it there.
West 57th Street is currently deemed ‘billionaires’ row’ if you’re in the market. Can only be bothered to rent the lifestyle? A three-bedroom, 3,500 square foot apartment in the Waldorf Astoria comes in at a cool $135,000 or (€101,000) per month.
Some of this gilded tribe are the truly old New Yorkers, from the great industrialist families — Koch, Rockefeller, Hearst, Hammer. The elder survivors flit down by bronze elevators to the public street in Jackie-O sunglasses and tailored metres of Hermes and Chanel. Spirited to their limousines by knightly chauffeurs, these high-society dames are reclusive creatures, clinging to the era of unspeakable glamour that all but died in the 1970s.
The solitude of retirement is broken only by short trips to gallery openings, shows and the soirees of their peers. Hibernating high in the penthouse cliff-face they finally break cover when it’s deemed time to escape the heat of summer at clapboard palaces in the Hamptons.
Entire rooms have been mined from the medieval castles of the old country, to be reconstructed in panelling, fireplaces and poured plaster ceilings to the whim of these moneyed would-be-royals.
Urban glamour is a perennial trend in interiors, and there’s nowhere better to start than the unfettered confidence of New York’s vertical mansions.
Just a few pointers for the mood — and let’s remember even with modest buys and using what you’ve got, interiors offer a stage set for creativity whatever your credit rating.
Favoured chic looks include Parisian salon, 1950s revivalism, modern designer, American classic (dreary), and just about any coherent, outwardly expensive genre that does not include the American rusticity of a wagon wheel coffee table. Where you can’t forget the price-tag, you can still reach for a decadent mood with colour, arrangement and some clever shopping.
Anywhere above 59th Street in an area bounded by the East River and Fifth Avenue/Central Park is something to brag about.
The quantity of affordable space is celebrated with large windows and the careful placement of only the best of furniture and fittings. In an open-plan home you can channel this feeling, with uber-modern pieces perfectly set and not sharing the floor with any clutter and banality. Add gilding or a mirror shine to lift deeper colours. Smoked glass and chrome are currently all the rage.
Either leave them lightly dressed to admit as much light as possible or treat them as full-on architectural elements, and if the view is awful, fix it where possible. Roman blinds are nicely angular but in sheer fabrics can be pulled right up and out of the way. For penthouse glamour, ideal for bedrooms and rooms not stalked by paws or four year olds, choose curtains with a flash of metropolitan sheen and pool them generously on the floor when pulled back.
* Use hard flooring for a ballroom finish with rugs to anchor individual arrangements of furniture. Porcelain, ceramic and varieties of wood and even linoleum can be sleek and sophisticated compared to wall to wall carpeting and in lighter colours will bounce light into corners and beneath furniture enhancing their airiness and line. Low backs will again expand space, especially where chair and sofa back cut across the room.
* A hallway is a key ingredient in Manhattan manners of decorating, so imply one with a glamorous console or witty coat-stand. Over-size any artwork to the point it really challenges the available room. Visit your nearest art school graduate show for courageous pieces from young creatives. Use flowers, branches and even good silk fake blossoms for showy arrangements. When accessorising, really make an effort that everything on show is rather beautiful, down to the smallest ornament on a coffee table or shelf. Nothing shabby or country twee so put an urban gloss on those second-hand buys if needs be.
White or pale floors, white walls and as much monochrome as you can enjoy is a favoured palette in the penthouse apartments of New York. A wonderful stage for sleeker vintage furniture and artwork, you can include as many shades of grey in-between as you like. Cement grey remains the foundation colour for 2015, so you really can’t go wrong.
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