Decorating This East Village Apartment Was a Labor of Love

Although it looks small, the teal Minotti love seat in the living room actually has extra soft cushions that make it Philip’s favorite nap spot. The patterned sectional is another prime place to relax. “My absolute favorite spot in my apartment is sitting on my sofa facing the city north with a view of the Empire State Building with its ever-changing colors. I sit there every night enjoying my view,” he says. Anchored above the love seat are seven bull-head baskets, a unique take on a gallery wall. They originate from the Basque region on the border of France and Spain, Philip says. “I don’t know why, but I’m obsessed with them!”

The designer's treasured Christian Astuguevieille coffee table, another item he can never part with, holds several vibrant pieces from his malachite collection.

Philip loves entertaining, so the apartment’s spacious dining room was a big plus. The yellow table is a custom design and the metal-and-leather chairs by Michel Cadestin and Georges Laurent were decommissioned from the Pompidou Center in Paris.

Philip first met artist Pixote when he was working on a project for a client. He loved his work, so when he found his new apartment, he thought it would be the perfect place for them to work together again. As the story goes, Philip left for a weekend and gave Pixote the keys and free rein—and the designer returned to find his dining room wall transformed.

“Don’t be shy about repainting or even wallpapering part of your apartment, even if you have a yearlong rental,” says Philip. “It’s easy to repaint a space, and the enjoyment [of] a year of living with color and patterns that make you happy easily outweighs the small hassle of having to repaint, or remove a small amount of wallpaper for a landlord. Who knows, they may even like it!” Here, a bit of wallpaper, from the designer's own line at Holland & Sherry, adds texture to the ceiling of the dove gray hallway.

The hallway's walls host an array of pieces with stories to tell. Among those is one of Philip's most cherished, a self-portrait of the Italian artist Gabbiano. He purchased the gouache several years ago from the antiques dealer Robertaebasta. “Gabbiano has a timeless quality to him, from his stylish taste in clothes to [his] pensive look—and he's so full of life. Is he looking into the future or thinking about his next painting?” Philip wonders.

The spacious master bedroom is adorned in several fabrics Philip designed. The series above the bed is by Ronnie Hughes. “I love his work, and he is from Sligo, like the rest of my father’s family,” he says. The cherry red chair is one of two Spoleto chairs he owns.

In the bathroom, guests leave messages tucked into in the wooden hands that Philip purchased in South Kensington Farmers' Market when he lived in London. Strings of prayer beads hang above. “The common thread amongst them all is they offer protection, and I think I’ve got just about every major religion represented last I looked," he says.