New York-based architect and interior designer Garrow Kedigian spent five years searching for the right apartment. The moment he saw this one, he knew it was the one.  A classic seven on Park Avenue on the fashionable Upper East Side.  It wasn’t immediate.  It needed much work, but its potential was clear.  For our design inspiration today, we’re taking a look at the home the architect and designer created after six months of renovations and just in time to host 125 guests for a black-tie affair to celebrate his 40th birthday.  This is the designer’s personal residence showcasing his streamlined Classic style.

Kedigian was born and grew up in Montreal, Canada.  After completing his formal education at the McGill School of Architecture, he moved to Boston, MA where he worked for the renowned interior designer William Hodgins for six years.  In 2000, he relocated to New York City and started his firm soon after that.  His classically trained architectural background and time spent working with Hodgins, one of the Deans of American Interior Design, shaped his personal style which he describes as “Streamlined Classic.”

The apartment is located within one of the oldest remaining luxury residential buildings on Park Avenue, built in 1908.   The Neoclassical building with Beaux-Arts detailing is full of prewar charm and includes gracious windows and high ceilings.  It is a well maintained, full-service co-op with a total of twelve floors, his being the ninth.  An additional detail of note, his L-shaped corner unit was occupied by Fred Astaire for twelve years during the late 1940s and early 1950s.  What he liked most about the apartment were its balance and proper proportions.  What he liked least was the fact that the place hadn’t been renovated since the 1950s and was in poor condition.  He decided that was OK, though.  He could envision what he wanted to do with the place, so he bought it and began the process of executing his vision.

STREAMLINED CLASSIC DESIGN INSPIRATION

Kedigian reconfigured some of the rooms a bit to create an entertaining enfilade along the south side of the apartment. The living room, dining/music room, and a library each open one to another for an open flow.  A fireplace in the living room and the fireplace in the library punctuates each end.  The designer paneled the walls here in the living room and added deep cove crown molding to accentuate the ceilings heights. Moldings also frame the ceiling beams.  The walls finish with a high-gloss and each panel highlighted with a single gilded line around its perimeter.  The fireplace mantle is French antique marble.  Kedigian decided to use a Persian rug up-side-down to mute the tones.

Lee Jofa’s Spectrum Velvet with bullion trim covers the exceptional custom, tufted, upholstered banquet that anchors one corner.

Custom pillows made with a collection of fabrics from Holland and Sherry and Clarence House rest on the banquet.  A digital blow-up of an Old Masters Renaissance fresco painting hangs behind it.  Kedigian took a picture to a print shop and had them print it on canvas for him.  A small set of side tables serve as a coffee table.  At the end of the banquet, an 18th-century Dutch table holds a collection of mementos.  A lantern purchased at Marche’ aux Puces suspends above.

An antique chair upholstered with a Hinson and Company Suede, along with one of the 19th-century dining chairs from the group that surrounds the table in the dining room gather with an English 19th-century pedestal table topped with an ebonized column lamp and other collectibles.  An additional black frame added to the original frame enlarges the antique mirror above the mantle.  A clever idea!

A bespoke designed sofa made by Albert Vitiello Decorators and upholstered in Chelsea Edition’s Diamonds anchors the room opposite the fireplace.  Clarence House’s Neisha Crosland Fleuret Chevron upholsters the club chair.   Both the living and adjoining music/dining room include multiple sets of French doors that open onto the buildings one and only Juliet Balcony.

A framed art project painted by Kedigian himself while in architecture school hangs above a vintage Tommy Parzinger campaign chair.

Fabric from Chelsea Editions with large-scale nail head trimming cover the walls in the dining/music room.  The molding and wood trim is finished in ebony with a bit of brown.  The display cabinets are original to the apartment.  A velvet banquet trimmed with bullion fringe anchors one side of the dining area.  The Mecox dining table with its gold finished wooden base gathers with 19th-century chairs upholstered in Schumacher’s Shock Wave.

The grand piano, a gift from Kedigian’s parents when he was young, stands on the opposite side of the room to leave a clear passage through.  Its central location allows the music to filter through the entire enfilade of entertaining rooms.  The passage way into the library was made a foot smaller than the passage from the living room.  The difference creates a perspective and tricks the eye making the dining/music room appear deeper and the library appear further away.

Kedigian always wanted a library.  To create one here, he converted a bedroom to complete the entertaining enfilade.  He wanted to make sure it felt of contemporary and vibrant.  After days of analyzing samples in the sunlight at various times of day, a custom palette of blue for the walls and a caramel/orange shade for the ceiling were created in a Fine Paints of Europe Brilliant finish.  Embroidered fabric from Etro forms the curtains.   A bergere covered in Pierre Frey’s Dune sits before the Mid-Century Modern desk.  The lovely Louis XV fauteuil is dressed in its original blue velvet.  The rug is custom from Stark.   The painting above the fireplace is by Kedigian of an ocean scene in Maine.

Scalamandre’s Variegation Herringbone covers the sofa. Glant’s Liquid Leather gives the Neoclassical side chair a fresh look.  Collections of old books and collectibles fill the library shelves except for one area where faux books mask a cabinet holding a television.

New crown and foot moldings line the main gallery hall along with custom storage, all painted in high-gloss black.  Antelope-pattered carpet from Stark covers the floor.

In the master bedroom, a canopy bed holds center stage.  To create a greater sense of height, the bed draperies, in Schumacher’s Malandros Stripe, attach directly to the bedroom ceiling above the French 19th-century antique bed.

The bedroom feels very much like New Orleans to me.  This entire apartment feels familiar to me in that sense, being from the great Southern city originally myself.  It’s very much like an apartment one would find in the French Quarter.  Kedigian is of French descent in fact, and he sites his grandmother’s home in Paris as inspiration when putting together his apartment.  So, of course they are similar and seem familiar.

That concludes our design inspiration for today, my friend.

For more residences completed with streamlined Classic style, be sure to see:

Theatrical Design: Manhattan Loft Residence

Contemporary Classic Design: Sophie Paterson

GARROW KEDIGIAN’S STREAMLINED CLASSIC APARTMENT

This Park Avenue residence was featured in House Beautiful Magazine. Garrow has honed the classic elegance of this prewar apartment, while restoring it to a former glory era, and was able to simultaneously infuse a contemporary undertone.  The designer established his own design firm in 2001.  He presides over multiple interior design endeavors around the world. His distinctive style is rooted in tradition but characterized by a contemporary flair. 

Architect and Interior Design:  Garrow Kedigian 

Photography provided by Garrow Kedigian: an assortment of photos by Fred Hatt, Christopher Sturman, and others.

House Beautiful Magazine

Thank you so much for reading along with me. I hope you enjoyed this tour of Garrow Kedigian’s personal Park Avenue residence with his signature streamlined classic design.

Have a great day!