WITH SOMETHING AS SUBJECTIVE AS DESIGN, finding a common
vocabulary with a client is one of the primary challenges. That’s
why New York–based interior designer Jennifer Post begins every
project by nailing down a key buzzword or two. “You talk to your
client and you see: Are they sporty? Is she a Bergdorf Goodman
lady or is she Calvin Klein? That tells you a lot about a person,”
Post says of her process. For a spacious Upper East Side duplex
just a few blocks from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Post
came up with “chic sophistication” and “soft sophistication” as
the touchstones for describing her clients’ style. To telegraph her
vision, she honed in on a variety of visual references like fashion
designer Tom Ford—whose luxe style is reflected in the home’s
silvery gray color palette and pieces like a blackened steel
bench from Holly Hunt upholstered in a rich Kyle Bunting hair-on
hide—and by sprinkling aphorisms like “sophistication is smoky
black glass” into conversation.
The apartment is located in a new, Studio Sofield–designed
building with a traditional prewar look that pays homage to the
surrounding architecture with its hand-laid brick and limestone
facade, hand-carved stone pear trees at the entrance, and
interior details like richly embellished elevators and inlaid marble
floors. Rather than play up the home’s more conservative
tendencies, Post looked for ways to streamline the design.
The clients were reluctant to engage in any architectural
interventions, but she convinced them to stain the “dark, dark,
dark, ugly brown” floors for a soft cashmere gray and to finish the
walls with Venetian plaster, which, combined with the residents’
stellar collection of modern furniture and art, balances out any
old-fashioned connotations while still leaving a sense of texture
and depth. “If we just had drywall and modern furniture it would
have been a very cold apartment,” Post says.
