Ralph Lauren's Manhattan Apartment

Ralph Lauren and his wife Ricky redesigned their Fifth Avenue duplex. The outcome can best be described as clean, open and modern. And while it’s not quite what you’d expect, the apartment’s effortless style is still unmistakably Ralph Lauren. Elle Decor magazine features the apartment on the cover of its October issue. The corresponding editorial follows the renovation of the Fifth Avenue duplex, which has been in the Lauren family for more than 30 years – from the initial do-it-yourself attempt to the hiring of the late decorator, Angelo Donghia.  The open spaces, predominantly white color theme and expansive views of Central Park that bring the outdoors in, create a comfortable, simple home which Lauren likens to living in a cloud.

Three bedrooms that belonged to his now-grown children have been repurposed; spatial variety was added by incorporating steps to create different levels, making the space seem even larger. The original space had been a warren of rooms spread out on two floors overlooking Central Park. The floating feeling has been enhanced by raising the level of the living room so that you step up into it and by removing Donghia’s matchstick blinds from the windows, which wrap around the apartment and seem to bring the outdoors inside. Further streamlining was achieved by replacing the original herringbone floors, which were stained a medium-brown, with darker wood in a simpler pattern. A structural beam that had been expanded by Donghia into a round, sculptural presence was taken down to its studs; the kitchen and bathrooms are now symphonies of clean lines and glossy surfaces. The tropical bamboo tones and textures that accented the white in the apartment’s previous incarnation have been supplanted by black and chrome. The banana plants that once abounded in the dining room are gone; the accessories now tend to be reflective vases full of red roses, for example, while gleaming vintage lanterns hang overhead. Both the table and the dining chairs (which have taken the place of earlier rattan-and-canvas versions) are Lauren’s own carbon-fiber pieces, inspired by the sleek race cars he drives and collects. The one thing there is more of in the new space is art.