Design in the City

After years in a lavish house in Greenwich, Connecticut, two soon-to-be empty nesters heeded the urging of their children and decided to return to Manhattan in what their architect, Steven Learner, calls an "incredibly brave" leap of faith. "These are people with big personalities." And good timing. The house changed hands during the real-estate boom, enabling the couple to buy a 4,800-square-foot floor-through in a TriBeCa building with mammoth factory-inspired windows, 11-foot ceilings, and white-glove amenities that represented the next step for the neighborhood.

Now renovated by Steven Learner Studio, the refined three-bedroom deftly blends informality with fine architectural detail, managing more than a little intimacy despite the acreage. The wife, a fashion designer, willingly left behind the suburban floral chintz upholstery and curtains, realizing that cities are made of tougher stuff. Still, she campaigned for warmth in her new urban home. In a bit of give-and-take, she accepted Learner's advice on bypassing the developer's oak flooring in favor of honed lava stone, however bedrooms revert to wood with walnut strips. Curved shapes add softness, too.

Separating the living area from the study, there's a cozy effervescence in a divider welded together from blackened-steel rings, some containing glass rounds in a palette of watery blue and green, honeyed amber, and lemon yellow. In the master bath, the Italian 1960's chandelier's delicate cylinders of lilac crystal contrast with the espresso-dark polished marble walls and floor. A circle motif also is woven into the lichen-green rug for the office in the master suite. Chalk all those up as victories for the wife. The floor of the adjoining bedroom is mostly covered with a luminous off-white plush rug, while the headboard, a free-edge slab of black walnut, extends 25 feet to integrate a bedside shelf.

Other organic elements include two terraria by Paula Hayes, one of them on the headboard shelf and another in the living area, inches away from a vintage driftwood lamp.