Tour the Elegant New York Home of an Acclaimed Hotelier
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As owner of the Colony Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida—an iconic, and now buzzy, 1940s property that was meticulously restored in recent years—Sarah Wetenhall spends plenty of time in palm-shaded gardens, pastel-hued verandas, and rattan-furnished salons. So, when she began renovating her apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the furthest thing from her mind was a tropical pink-and-green milieu. And yet, one feature of the home calls to mind a breezy resort: a 2,000-square-foot private terrace that brims with climbing hydrangeas and rhododendron trees, where Wetenhall hosts playdates, game nights, and cocktail parties.
“It’s an amazing experience for New York City, to be inside and outside at the same time,” Wetenhall says. “We feel so grateful to have this space.” Indoors, however, the atmosphere is decidedly urban and firmly planted in uptown Manhattan, what with its carefully calibrated combination of antique, vintage, and custom pieces—and a palette that’s both strong and sober. “I believe in embracing where you are,” says the businesswoman and mother of three. “As I go from New York to Palm Beach, I change, my wardrobe changes, and certain aspects of myself [change] too.”
When she and her husband bought the corner unit abutting their apartment to create a more spacious home for their growing family, they hired Janine Carendi MacMurray of Area Interior Design to oversee a top-to-bottom renovation. One of MacMurray’s first goals—aside from coming up with a functional layout—was to make the property’s relatively low ceilings seem loftier. “When I walked into the apartment, I felt like the ceiling was coming down at you,” says the designer, who founded her studio in 2006. “I chose cove moldings with long projections, and I made the doors higher.” Indeed, the renovated home has a sense of airy openness, not to mention 5,000 square feet of living space.
To decorate it, MacMurray worked in close collaboration with Wetenhall, who has a keen eye for design. “The apartment should be about the person living there,” MacMurray says. “And when somebody is as fabulous as Sarah, it makes the job really easy.” The duo influenced each other in different ways; Wetenhall pushed MacMurray to use more color, and MacMurray helped her client tailor the space to New York. In the living room, for example, we see the contrast of deep reds and corals in the embroidered drapes and pale blues in the slim-line custom sofa. A vintage Kalmar glass chandelier and a Lucite coffee table add a diaphanous touch of glamour. “In almost every room in the house, you have some form of lighting from Kalmar or Murano,” the designer says, referring to the famed Viennese and Venetian houses. “I love the idea of collecting.”
Another thread that runs through the home is the use of textured wallpapers and wood panels, seen in Wetenhall’s oak-lined office and in the library, which was completely painted in a striking shade of cobalt blue. “When we got the project, the space felt very dark,” MacMurray says. “And now, it’s a very happy home.”
1/13Sarah Wetenhall, the hotelier behind Palm Beach’s historic Colony Hotel, lives with her husband and three children in this 5,000-square-foot apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The property, originally three separate units, was completely overhauled by Janine Carendi MacMurray of Area Interior Design. The living room features a custom sofa upholstered in Kelly Wearstler mohair, two vintage Art Deco armchairs, and a Lucite-and-brass coffee table from ModShop.
2/13The designer paired a custom walnut table with polished brass details and Scandinavian-inspired curved Harris seat chairs from Quintus, an antique mahogany sideboard, and a Murano ribbed-glass wave chandelier.
3/13The kitchen, which overlooks the apartment’s 2,000-square-foot terrace, was covered in a magnetic linen wallpaper from Weitzner. “I can use magnets to put up recipes anywhere,” Wetenhall says. The polished-nickel Morris pendants, designed by Suzanne Kasler, are from Circa Lighting. Palmer, the family’s Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, perches in the background.
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4/13Another view of the kitchen shows vintage Gigi Lucite counter stools, found on 1stDibs and reupholstered with Holly Hunt’s Esplanade fabric. The wall paint is Benjamin Moore’s White Dove hue.
5/13“To me, a fully paneled lacquered library is so New York,” says MacMurray, a graduate of Parsons School of Design. In this library adjacent to the living room, she painted the oak paneling in a custom shade of blue from Fine Paints of Europe. An abstract painting by Heather Chontos completes the polished look.
6/13This cozy nook in Sarah Wetenhall’s office, which was paneled in oak, features Zimmer + Rohde’s Anaconda fabric. “I’m always in this room,” she says. “If I look to the left, I see treetops, and, if I look right, I see my garden with all the lush plantings.”
7/13The mostly black, white, and gray palette of the primary bedroom includes an energizing dose of yellow, seen in the armchair upholstered in the Kravet textile and in the oversized pillows fashioned out of Pierre Frey’s Nina fabric.
8/13Although the apartment was designed to match the style and energy of uptown Manhattan, this dressing room features a nod to Palm Beach, where Wetenhall’s Colony Hotel is located. MacMurray covered this custom-designed chair in Pierre Frey’s Mauritius linen fabric. The shield mirror is a French piece from the 1940s.
9/13The primary bathroom’s fixtures are from Samuel Heath’s Style Moderne collection.
10/13In this kid’s room, a set of end tables from AllModern was painted in a custom emerald green, matching the bedskirt made with a silk fabric from Brunschwig & Fils. The textured wallpaper is from Kravet.
11/13Pops of fuchsia and turquoise brighten up this children’s room. The armchairs, which already belonged to the client, were upholstered in an ikat stripe linen from Thibaut. The drapes were made with a cotton-linen blend from Scalamandré.
12/13One of the home’s four bedrooms is furnished with a custom bed covered in a Holly Hunt cotton fabric. The linens are from Matouk.
13/13This glossy guest bathroom was painted in brilliant Lac Black from Fine Paints of Europe. The alabaster sconces are French Art Deco pieces from the 1920s, purchased through 1stDibs.
