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Margaret Costello did not make her Greenwich Village apartment feel Parisian by decorating it with a theme. She repaired a neglected prewar home around the way she wanted to live: a real kitchen, useful storage, a defined entrance and rooms that could absorb the visual noise of New York. Paint and reflective surfaces then gave the practical changes a quiet, cohesive envelope.
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Architectural Digest reported that Costello, founder of Margaret Costello Interiors and Design Studio, bought the Fifth Avenue apartment in 2020 after it had reportedly been neglected for 40 years. The finished home shows how a restrained palette can feel rich when it is supported by texture, artwork, wood, brass and carefully chosen vintage pieces.
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The property had good winter sunlight and enough potential for Costello to look past its condition. Its shortcomings were more consequential than dated finishes: there was no foyer, the kitchen was so cramped she compared it with a closet, storage was limited, and the bedroom was larger than the living room. Those proportions made the apartment difficult to use even before questions of color or furniture arose.
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Costello described the project as a response to those specific faults rather than a cosmetic makeover. “I think that was one of the things that attracted me to it. I just saw so much potential,” she told Architectural Digest. Her account is personal, and the feature does not provide a measured floor plan, renovation budget, project duration or quantified increase in storage.
A foyer where there had been a pass-through
The entrance gained a custom wall-mounted cabinet created with designer Patrick Darzcuk. It gives coats and everyday objects a landing place while establishing a visual pause between the hallway and the main rooms. A Henri Cartier-Bresson photograph hangs above it, so the first view is composed as a small gallery rather than treated as leftover circulation space.
Paris Ceramics supplied flooring described as running through the foyer and the house, while Farrow & Ball supplied the wall paint. Keeping the floor and wall treatment continuous helps the new entry read as part of the apartment instead of a separate vestibule. For a painter, the lesson is practical: when a home lacks architectural separation, a consistent floor and a deliberate wall finish can create an implied room boundary.
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Function set the brief for the kitchen
Costello’s priorities were unusually explicit. She wanted a full-size kitchen and full-size appliances, a floor-to-ceiling pantry and wine storage. “I love to cook and a full-size kitchen with full-size appliances, a floor-to-ceiling pantry, and wine storage were all priorities for me,” she said. The article calls that combination rare for an apartment of this size, but it does not give a measured kitchen area or a market-wide statistic.
B&B Construction built custom wood cabinets. Dekton by Cosentino clad the counter and walls, creating a hard-wearing, continuous-looking surface. The ceiling received high-gloss paint; Architectural Digest says the finish reflects light. That is one of the project’s clearest examples of paint doing architectural work: instead of adding another color, the ceiling helps return the available daylight into a compact room.
What to copy in a smaller kitchen
- Measure the appliance clearances and pantry depth before choosing cabinet fronts. The feature establishes Costello’s priorities but does not establish the room’s dimensions or capacity.
- Use a full-height storage element where a short cabinet would leave unusable space above it.
- Treat the ceiling as a surface with a job. A reflective finish can be part of the lighting strategy, provided the existing ceiling is smooth enough to show sheen cleanly.
- Coordinate the wall, counter and cabinet samples under the actual daylight the room receives. Costello’s apartment benefited from winter sun; another orientation may make the same materials appear different.
Neutral walls are the backdrop, not the whole design
The apartment uses hushed tones and simple finishes, but it is not visually empty. Costello explained her preference in personal terms: “Life in New York is full of color and stimulation, and I work with color all day long, so for me it’s calming to arrive home to a neutral palette.” Her statement explains this home; it is not evidence that neutral rooms calm everyone.
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Against the quiet envelope, the designers varied surface and object. Wood and brass introduce warmth. Linen appears in the draperies and sofa upholstery. Leather covers barrel chairs, while pillows bring wool, cashmere and alpaca into the seating area. These changes are small in color but large in touch and reflectivity. A matte textile beside polished metal, or a nubby pillow beside smooth painted walls, gives a neutral room the contrast that a brighter color scheme might otherwise provide.
How to build a layered neutral scheme
- Choose the wall family first. Test the proposed paint with the room’s permanent flooring and the largest upholstered piece, not against a white sample card alone.
- Assign each material a role. Let wood carry warmth, brass carry a small highlight and linen or wool soften large surfaces.
- Vary sheen carefully. The project pairs painted walls with a high-gloss ceiling and more reflective hard finishes in the kitchen and bath. Repeating gloss everywhere would erase the contrast.
- Add collected objects last. Art, lamps and vintage furniture keep a restrained palette from looking like a showroom, but they work best after circulation and storage are settled.
The living room uses art and scale to correct the awkward plan
The living room includes black-and-white photographs curated with Holden Luntz Gallery, a seven-foot-long Maison de Vacances sofa, petrified-wood tables by Walker Zabriskie and a Vitsoe bookshelf. Vintage finds include a mercury ball lamp and a small wood side table. None of those objects depends on a bright wall color to be noticed; their shapes, grain, patina and tonal differences do the work.
The seven-foot sofa is a useful reminder that “small apartment” does not automatically mean “smallest furniture.” A properly sized anchor can make a room feel intentional, while a collection of undersized pieces can emphasize the lack of space. The article does not provide the living room’s dimensions, so the sofa’s fit cannot be generalized. Measure the wall, walking route and door swings before translating the idea to another home.
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Dining room: modern table, vintage light
The dining room pairs a modern Miduny table with Baumann bistro chairs and a French vintage chandelier. This mix avoids a single-period set while preserving the restrained palette. A vintage fixture also adds a point of history above a simple table, much as the Cartier-Bresson photograph gives the entry a focal point.
For a painting plan, keep the dining room’s wall color quiet enough for the chandelier and artwork to cast readable shadows and silhouettes. The feature does not identify a specific paint color, so choosing an exact match would go beyond the evidence. The transferable idea is the relationship between a calm backdrop and objects with stronger shape or provenance.
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The bedroom turns storage into part of the furniture
The bedroom is described as light and airy, with a Nest Storage Bed from Design Within Reach. Scandinavian floating shelves from 1stDibs, custom blinds in Otis fabric, a bedspread from Parachute Home, a blanket from Sferra and a long pillow from The Citizenry complete the room.
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The storage bed addresses the apartment’s limited storage without adding a separate chest or forcing more tall cabinetry into the room. Floating shelves keep the floor visually open, while blinds control light without introducing a heavy curtain wall. Those choices support the airy effect more directly than a pale paint color alone.
Painting around built-in and freestanding storage
- Paint the wall behind floating shelves before installation so cut lines do not interrupt the finish.
- Bring fabric and wood samples into the room at morning and evening; “light and airy” depends on both daylight and the amount of visual mass.
- Keep the storage bed’s openings accessible. A beautiful bed that cannot be opened because of a rug, bench or tight clearance has not solved the storage problem.
- Use the wall color to connect the bed, shelves and blinds rather than matching every item exactly.
The bathroom shows why renovation decisions are sometimes irreversible
The bathroom was the most difficult part of the project, according to Costello. She hoped to keep an old rolled-edge porcelain tub, but replacement pipes left no scope to move it. The tub was ultimately removed. That sequence matters: the loss was driven by plumbing constraints, not by a preference for a more contemporary look.
The renovated room uses Spanish ceramic glazed tiles from Paris Ceramics, a marble-finish floor, brass Waterworks fixtures, a high-gloss ceiling and a vintage 1960s Swedish mirror sourced from 1stDibs. A vintage grape-cage light throws shadows onto the wall. Here again, the palette remains controlled while texture, metal and shadow create the interest.
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A decision check before you retain an old fixture
- Have the plumbing routes and replacement requirements assessed before assuming an existing tub or sink can stay.
- Record the fixture’s dimensions and the clearances required for access, cleaning and repairs.
- Decide whether the item is valuable because of its function, its material, or its history. Those are different reasons to preserve it.
- If the infrastructure makes retention impossible, carry the character forward through another element—such as a vintage mirror, light or hardware—rather than forcing an unsafe layout.
How to adapt the apartment’s method to your own renovation
Costello’s home offers a sequence that is more useful than a shopping list. Start with the problems that prevent the apartment from working, then use paint and objects to make the solution feel coherent.
- Survey the existing advantages. Note dependable daylight, good views, sound flooring and any element with genuine character. Costello began with abundant winter sunlight and the possibility she saw in the neglected rooms.
- Write the functional brief. List the appliances, pantry, wine storage, coats, linens and books that must fit. Do not select a palette until the storage and circulation requirements are visible.
- Create an arrival point. If there is no foyer, use a cabinet, mirror or artwork and a consistent floor or wall treatment to mark the entrance.
- Reserve reflective finishes for a purpose. Costello’s high-gloss ceilings in the kitchen and bathroom are reported as light-reflecting details. Use sheen where it supports light or emphasis, and prepare the surface carefully because gloss reveals defects.
- Build the neutral palette in layers. Combine the wall paint with wood, brass, linen, leather and varied fibers. Neutral does not mean every surface has the same undertone or sheen.
- Choose one or two strong anchors per room. A long sofa, a large photograph, a vintage chandelier or a distinctive mirror can organize the room without requiring many decorative objects.
- Check what must be sacrificed. The removed tub demonstrates that hidden infrastructure can outweigh sentiment. Make that decision before final paint and finish selections.
- Finish with collected pieces. Vintage lamps, tables, mirrors and art supply the irregularity that keeps a restrained renovation personal.
What this project establishes—and what it does not
The Architectural Digest feature documents Costello’s account of the apartment, the named suppliers and the design decisions visible in the finished rooms. It establishes a reported purchase in 2020, a period of roughly 40 years during which the apartment had been neglected, a seven-foot living-room sofa and a mirror identified as dating from the 1960s.
It does not establish the apartment’s square footage, renovation cost, schedule, measured storage gain, paint colors, product prices, current stock or comparative durability. Those omissions matter if you are budgeting or specifying materials. The strongest takeaway is therefore a method: repair the plan, make storage intentional, preserve or redirect light, and let a quiet painted envelope support richer materials and objects.
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