Tour Elizabeth Pyne Singer’s Jubilant Carnegie Hill House

The Residing Room: “I needed to beg my mom for them,” says Elizabeth Pyne Singer of the confetti-print slipper chairs by the fireside from Les Puces in Paris. (Her mom, Ann Pyne, for the file, worries that the orange lambrequins over the home windows name an excessive amount of consideration to themselves.) The carpet is by Federica Tondato.
Picture: Ngoc Minh Ngo

Inside design runs in Elizabeth Pyne Singer’s household. In 2009, after seven years at Sotheby’s, she joined McMillen, Inc., the venerable adorning agency. The corporate was based in 1924 by Eleanor Brown when she was often known as “Mrs. Drury McMillen” (although she later divorced McMillen and remarried, her agency retained his title). Designers Mark Hampton and Albert Hadley labored at McMillen earlier than setting out on their very own. However extra to the purpose, Singer’s late grandmother Betty Sherrill had reigned for 40 years as McMillen’s chairman, till 2002, and Singer’s mom, Ann Pyne, is at the moment its president. So there’s loads of historical past to reside as much as. To not point out that working together with your mom won’t be an excellent scenario for a lot of. It does, nevertheless, present the event for a vigorous give-and-take.

“I obsessed over each single element, as I do for my shoppers,” Singer says of the method of adorning the exuberant pattern-on-pattern confection of a Carnegie Hill condominium for her husband, Oliver Singer, and their two kids, Wilhelmina, 5, and Forbes, 2½.

The constructing was designed by Rosario Candela in the course of the Nice Despair however as a rental; when the Singers gutted it, they have been stunned to seek out that “the development supplies weren’t excellent,” she says. “After we wished to widen a doorway, the entire wall got here down as a result of it was simply crumbly materials.”

Ultimately, the modifications they made have been so respectful of custom and proportion the renovation left it wanting prefer it was all the time meant to be. The very last thing Singer wished to do was make it “loftlike.” The two,000-square-foot traditional six maintains its formal structure of private and non-private rooms. She nonetheless needs she hadn’t made a concession to her husband to not shut off the lounge with double doorways, as he wished it to really feel extra open, however it’s one in every of her few regrets.

“I’m now a agency believer that every one rooms ought to have the flexibility to be closed off, even when they’re open 99.99 p.c of the time. Particularly in case you have two kids underneath 5 years outdated in a New York Metropolis condominium.”

When Pyne walks into our assembly, she’s fast to go with her daughter: “I had nothing to do with the adorning, and I like the way in which all of it got here out.” Properly, principally. There’s the matter of the lambrequins over the home windows in the lounge, which “look somewhat bit flat and a bit too orange,” Pyne says. “To me, your eye goes straight to the lambrequins, so for my part they type of hijack the room while you first are available in. However all of Elizabeth’s associates love them.”

The dialog flows between the pair a lot the way in which you think about it does in the course of the workday. “I completely love working with my mother,” Singer says. “However bear in mind after I instructed you my condominium is completely me? She stated, ‘Properly, it’s quite a bit me, too!’ ” Finally, it’s a household story. Hanging above Singer’s mattress is a portrait of her paternal grandmother, Evelyn Sloane Pyne, circa 1934, by Bernard Boutet de Monvel. “My mom jogs my memory it’s on mortgage,” she says.

The Eating Room: “It might be construed as completely kooky wanting,” says Singer. The carpet is by Federica Tondato, “under-the-sea wallpaper” by Nobilis, and plaster lights by Marc Bankowsky. The desk and chairs are from Rago Arts and Public sale, and the moon art work is by Quentin Curry. Ngoc Minh Ngo.

The Eating Room: “It might be construed as completely kooky wanting,” says Singer. The carpet is by Federica Tondato, “under-the-sea wallpaper” by Nobili… extra
The Eating Room: “It might be construed as completely kooky wanting,” says Singer. The carpet is by Federica Tondato, “under-the-sea wallpaper” by Nobilis, and plaster lights by Marc Bankowsky. The desk and chairs are from Rago Arts and Public sale, and the moon art work is by Quentin Curry. Ngoc Minh Ngo.

In the lounge, the 2 work by Julian Barrow (1939–2013) to the fitting and left of the fireside are scenes of Rome, the place Singer frolicked as a scholar. The one on the left is the primary portray she ever purchased. They sit above a pair of Napoleon III gilt aspect chairs. The portray mirrored within the Samuel Marx mirror above the fireside is by Raymond Legueult (1898–1971).
Picture: Ngoc Minh Ngo

Elizabeth and Oliver Singer with their kids, Wilhelmina and Forbes. The Larsen curtains have been made by Anthony Lawrence Belfair. The low inexperienced Nineteen Fifties Italian armchair was bought at R.E. Steele Antiques in East Hampton, and the Dunbar couch was reupholstered in Knoll cloth. The ottoman had been in Pyne’s storage and is now reupholstered in Pierre Frey cloth with Houlès Bullion fringe.
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The Fundamental Bed room: The material all over the place within the room, even on the partitions, is Nina Campbell’s “Coromandel Perdana.” The mattress linens are from Anne Singer Assortment. The wood-and-brass guéridon-as-bedside-table belonged to Singer’s grandparents. The portrait is of her paternal grandmother, by Bernard Boutet de Monvel.
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Ann Pyne stands in entrance of her portrait, executed by Henry Koehler in 1973, which is now in her daughter’s lounge.
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The Visitor Powder Room: The wallpaper is “la serre aux papillons” by Pierre Frey. The hand towels are from E. Braun & Co.
Picture: Ngoc Minh Ngo