View Gallery
Sixteen floors above a busy two-way street on Manhattan’s Upper East Side is a refuge of calm where blowsy florals, blue-and-white gingham, and vintage wicker make you almost expect to see a quiet English village—not the New York City skyline—outside the windows. That’s very much by design: “Living in such an industrial city, I wanted to bring a little countryside charm to the apartment,” says designer Chrissy Ritter, who shares the two-bedroom prewar co-op with her husband, Matthew.
Ritter worked closely with J2 Art Advisory to source pieces like the Karin Langova painting above the sofa. Coffee table, The Lacquer Company; rug, Lucy Doswell for L&M Carpets. Lamps and shades, Bunny Williams Home.
Francesco LagneseA Vermont native (“I’m from a county that has more cows than people,” she jokes) who opened her own firm in 2023 after six years working for Charlotte Moss, Ritter knows the value of taking a break from the city’s go-go pace. “The apartment was definitely a product of ‘slow design,’” she explains. “We spent six months in limbo waiting to see if we were approved to buy it, so I had the benefit of using that time to collect a lot of items at auction and purchase things I had my eye on for a while.” Among them: a vintage McGuire wicker sofa that, Ritter admits, wasn’t the obvious choice for a New York City apartment. “I saw two of them on LiveAuctioneers and wanted one for a client’s sunroom in the country, so I bid on both, assuming I would be outbid,” says Ritter. “Well, it turns out I was not!” The “spare” sofa now lives in Ritter’s living room, re-covered in a party-proof indoor-outdoor fabric.
“I always dreamed of having a big skirted book table in a tented foyer, so this was my chance to bring that to life,” says Ritter. Thibault wallpaper; Vaughan lantern; vintage chairs in Namay Samay fabric; Stark rug. Rollins Parker Art.
Francesco Lagnese
Designer Chrissy Ritter in her study, which is wallpapered in an Alice Sergeant stripe. Desk, Bunny Williams Home; lamp, Mecox.
Francesco LagneseFlanked by gourd lamps with pretty pleated shades and a pair of chairs in a floral chintz, the scheme could have easily veered cloying, but Ritter smartly cut down on the sweetness by taking her color cues from the wool kilim that grounds the space. “I wanted to keep the palette a little bit more masculine, so I leaned into the navy and brown of the rug,” she says; burgundy accents, like the lacquered coffee table and leather-upholstered chairs in the adjacent dining area, prove similarly grounding.
A banquette wraps around the Four Hands oval dining table. Art, Jess Allen; sconces, Matt Alford Studio; curtain fabric, Chelsea Textiles. Vintage chairs found on Chairish.
Francesco Lagnese
Ritter added a small bar for entertaining, flanked by extra dining chairs. “I have a hard time staring at white walls—hence the large chinoiserie panels hung here!” Bar, Heyday Antiques in Virginia. Vintage painted panels and tortoise lamp bought at Hayloft Auctions.
Francesco Lagnese
“We got very lucky that these bookshelves were here before we moved in,” says Ritter. “I filled them with a lot of pieces I’ve collected over time.”
Francesco LagneseIn the bedroom, Ritter leaned more unabashedly into the country charm. She began by wrapping the space in a blue-and-cream Nicholas Herbert wallpaper that radiates English-cottage chic. The same goes for Ritter’s four-poster bed, which she had reupholstered in a cozy gingham check. “I really wanted this room to feel like an oasis, a place that takes you out of the city and puts you somewhere else,” says Ritter. And if you close your eyes, you can almost hear the chirp of crickets outside.
Wrapped in Nicholas Herbert’s Ashdown wallpaper and accented by a garden’s worth of floral fabrics (including a Jasper bolster pillow and Bennison bench) and art (like the Natasha Hulse botanicals above the bed and Deborah Jones oil painting between the doors), the primary bedroom oozes English country charm.
Francesco LagneseTHIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN VOLUME 21 OF FREDERIC MAGAZINE. CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE!
