Vibrant Jewel Tones Enrich This Parisian-Chic Condo In Manhattan

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colorful living room with red...

The colorful living room caters to family fun. A pedestal table by Dualoy Leather is built for puzzles and board games and paired with Gregorius Pineo chairs. An Edward Wormley wingback chair and ottoman offers a comfortable perch for spectators.

gray-blue family room with ombre...

Designer Kevin Dumais drenched the family room in rich tones. Benjamin Moore’s Millstone Gray coats the walls, joined by a Ravar Kerman rug in shades of blue, orange Jean de Merry armchair and drapes of ombré teal Holly Hunt Great Plains linen.

dusty rose pink velvet sectional...

A custom sectional fabricated by J&P Custom Upholstery covered in a pink Christopher Hyland mohair velvet pairs with a sculptural maple-slab coffee table from BDDW. Dumais collaborated with Chestman Art to select the Nir Hod painting above.

dining room with long coffee...

Clean lines dominate the dining room, where Sergio Rodrigues chairs from Espasso surround a Thomas Hayes Studio table beneath a Studio Van den Akker chandelier. An Ian Davenport etching hangs above the fireplace. The rug is from ALT for Living.

living room by Kevin Dumais...

The living room’s custom sofa of Holland & Sherry twill and Charlotte Perriand coffee table cater to family game nights and formal entertaining. The rug is Fort Street Studio and the jewel-like sconces above the fireplace are Giopato & Coombes.

kitchen with green cabinetry, marble...

At the butcher-block-topped kitchen island are a pair of walnut-and-leather stools found on 1stdibs and outfitted with custom back slipcovers. Black accents on the three-cone chandelier from Two Enlighten tie to the limited-edition, matte-black Viking range.

kitchen with green cabinetry, gold...

For this family who loves to cook, Dumais conceived all-new kitchen cabinetry painted Benjamin Moore’s Backwoods Green and appointed with Buster + Punch hardware. The honed Danby marble composing the counter and backsplash is from Stone Source.

bedroom with blue headboard, white...

The same room is set to scale with a wall-to-wall, channel-tufted headboard in blue Élitis velvet, walnut-and-brass nightstands by Ian Ingersoll and a graphic rug by Woven. The globe pendant is by Workstead.

bedroom with green velvet lounge...

A velvet lounge chair and ottoman from Avenue Road alongside a 1930s Paavo Tynell wicker-wrapped floor lamp create a reading nook in the primary bedroom. A lavender-gray Phillip Jeffries silk grass cloth envelops the space.

bedroom with pink rug, bright...

Tasseled bedding from RH Teen dresses the beds, between which stands a hand-crafted, paper-and-metal table lamp by Ieva Kalēja for Mammalampa. Benjamin Moore’s Tree Moss dresses up the ceiling along with an Arteriors chandelier.

children's bedroom with brown desk,...

The children’s bedroom palette was pulled from the Pierre Frey drapery fabric. Bookshelf backs are painted Benjamin Moore’s Claret to tie to the Sacco Carpet area rug. The desk chair is a 1stdibs find and the sconces are Horne.

“I would say their primary request was just to have a lot of color and personality,” shares Kevin Dumais, the designer of this artful Greenwich Village residence. Dumais’ clients—a couple with two young children—had outgrown their former white-on-white apartment in both space and style and were seeking something “cheerful, fun and a little more unique,” he notes. Their wishes fell upon him like pixie dust. The result is a jewel-toned, Parisian-inspired condo that deftly mixes new sculptural pieces with fine antiques, contemporary art and statement lighting, achieving, undeniably, a certain je ne sais quoi.

Set within a boutique, new-construction building, the condo had many enticing assets upon purchase. See: a gracious foyer leading off the central elevator bank, a sensible layout of common areas to the south and private quarters to the north, and expansive windows running the length of the living, dining, and family rooms. Still, certain improvements would align it better with the aesthetic and functional goals. In collaboration with general contractor Zach Rockhill, Dumais reimagined the kitchen with forest-green cabinetry, brass hardware, creamy marble countertops and an oak-topped eat-in island. Additionally, the residence was given a fresh lighting program and new millwork throughout, from sleek, recessed bookshelves in the family room to built-ins in the bedrooms.

Dumais began his ensuing decorative efforts underfoot, selecting rugs to create intimacy within the grand floor plan and ground the vibrant milieu to come. Take the living room, where an enormous celery-silk number with a watercolor-like band of purple down the center echoes the similarly sinuous lines of a Vladimir Kagan-inspired sofa joined by vintage Scandinavian club chairs. Or the primary bedroom, where a patterned shag-and-flat-weave rug provides a nubby, neutral counterpoint to a blue tufted headboard that runs the length of the space. Texture and color enrich the family room as well, with its enveloping, smoky-green walls, pink-mohair sectional and tangerine-leather reading chair. Hints of persimmon continue into the children’s bedroom, where a palette of orange, soft aqua and sage is drawn from the graphic-print curtains with Picasso-like faces.

That fabric was chosen to celebrate the siblings’ love of art projects and underscores Dumais’ commitment to crafting a fun, freewheeling family home, despite its fancier attributes. The living room’s thoughtful floor plan offers another example with its fireside games table and cuddled up sitting area, which were chosen not for the sake of formal entertaining but because “this is a ‘games and puzzles’ family” the designer says. “When you walk into our apartment, you might not immediately think, ‘Oh, this is family friendly,’” shares the wife. “But everything is low-maintenance and very comfortable. Every chair is a cozy place to put a kid in your lap and read to them.”

Throughout, a Parisian sensibility—refined, collected, composed with ease—imbues the design, but in a subtle fashion that feels thoroughly apropos for a modern family at home in Manhattan. In Dumais’ view, it’s “the scale and soft curvature of everything” that lends this flavor, as well as the exacting eclecticism of the mix. “We strove to pick pieces that don’t quite go together in theory yet somehow do, perhaps because the scale works or because the composition of materials is complementary,” Dumais explains. Thanks to this approach, the entirely new interiors feel “curated and not one-note,” he adds.

“When you envision a Parisian apartment, it doesn’t look like your grandmother’s house, and it’s not white-box-modern either,” the husband elaborates. “It looks like a place where you could throw an elegant dinner party or just be sitting around reading together, which is the balance we wanted.” Now settled into their new home, the family delights in the versatility of their environs, not to mention their aesthetic appeal. “I remember my reaction when we first saw Kevin’s design,” the wife says, “and it’s the same thing I say to myself all the time: I can’t believe we get to live in this beautiful place.”