Home tour: A former Romanoff royalty’s opulent Fifth Avenue apartment in New York City

Sprawling over 4,000 sq ft, the grand neo-Renaissance duplex welcomes with majestic, open arms at the foyer entrance that exudes “a sense of purity and softness,” with polished green and white marble checkered floor underneath a brass-etched ceiling.

This sense of grandeur persists throughout the entertaining spaces on the main level, comprising the living room, dining room and kitchen.

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“I was very conscious of the formality of the space and how it was utilised historically for grand entertaining,” Saft says. “I wanted to retain that sense of joyousness while also trying to appeal to a new audience that wants to work with the stunning existing details at every turn.”

After undertaking the apartment’s first complete repainting in decades, using a neutral palette, Saft furnished the entertaining rooms with pieces from his own collection, ranging from 18th-century antiques to custom-commissioned modern pieces.

“It was clear the previous owners had a clear vision and point of view [in styling], and the initial idea was to try to blend some of the historic furnishings back into the space while giving it an aesthetic shift into modernity,” he elaborates. 

“[Throughout the process], I was consciously preserving, respecting and honouring the past, while moving firmly into the present through select art, accessories, furnishings and lighting,” he continues.

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While many things ended up going to auction, he had a few original pieces to work with, such as a stunning pair of antique Italian gilt mirrors in the living room, and the formal tables in the grand double-height foyer.  

In infusing modernity into the rooms, Saft also sourced art pieces from his available inventory, as well as commissions from some of his favourite artists, such as Josh Young, Louis Venturelli, Ron Giusti, Artstar and his go-to source for vintage art, Gillian Bryce Gallery.

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Upon ascending the staircase with intricate Art Nouveau balustrades, the shift toward more vibrant design choices is evident throughout the four bedrooms and three bathrooms with additional storage spaces.

In these private quarters, Saft celebrates the contemporary design scene, starting with the primary bedroom that drew inspiration from Athena Calderone, a celebrated interior designer deemed as “the modern girl’s Martha Stewart’ by New York Times’ T Magazine.

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“I love her mix of materiality and constant sourcing of really special vintage finds meshing with traditional design elements and architecture,” Saft praises the founder of the award-winning lifestyle platform EyeSwoon.

While it is hard for him to pick a favourite room in the richly detailed home, Saft formed an instantaneous affinity towards the intrinsic opulence of the ornate mouldings in the primary suite.

“Oddly enough, it is one of the rooms that does not face Central Park, but what it lacks in views, it makes up for in an ethereal quality that utterly captivated me,” Saft illustrates. “The intricate mouldings and the way the north-facing light hits the space is just captivating.”  

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Meanwhile, for the secondary bedroom facing the urban park, Saft turns toward his styling hero Colin King, founder of the eponymous New York-based multi-disciplinary design studio.

“Athena’s room has a very structured elegance to it while Colin’s is a bit more casual and softer to the touch,” Saft details. “Looking to our design heroes to inspire, not plagiarise, we studied their work and pulled out inspiration from their own images by incorporating pieces created by both.”

The bedroom finished in India yellow is a personal tribute to the Sicilian princess that used to reside in the home. A prominent figure in New York society, Princess Maria was known for her love of interiors, fashion and hosting parties, as well as her costume jewellery collection that was all the rage in the 1970s and 1980s. 

“I saw hundreds of photos of her, and what vivacious woman she was; I wanted to translate that feeling into the design scheme of the room,” Saft says. “While working on the home, I uncovered some of her vibrant jewellery pieces and I used the gold colour in her creations as the foundation for this room.”

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The adjacent sitting den awash in a deep brinjal provides a sophisticated contrast in hue to the resplendent room. Inspired by fashion designer and stylist Jenna Chused of the Brooklyn-based design studio Chused & Co, the rich and moody tone of the space offers a formal yet relaxed counterpoint to the home’s lighter spaces.

“I always go back to this idea of jewels and jewel tones as a nod to the Princess, and I love the way the gold and purple work together and infuse the space with a sense of richness,” Saft concludes.

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