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"Nothing&amp;#039;s perfect. Not even when that something is a sunny apartment in a prime building in an extremely desirable neighborhood. In the case of a young family&amp;#039;s prewar residence on Manhattan&amp;#039;s Upper East Side, the perceived perfection was merely skin-deep. Taking up a full floor of a 1928 building by Beaux Arts architect Kenneth M. Murchison, the apartment had seen better days. Its kitchen was outmoded, its wiring outdated, and its floor plan lacked amenities, such as family-friendly common spaces, that are considered basic today. Even the neoclassical-style details that seemed so special decades ago now felt been there, done that. All of which led the apartment&amp;#039;s latest residents\u2014energetic finance executives with a shared appreciation for traditional rooms suffused with a contemporary spirit\u2014to give it a grand-gesture renovation that would live up to the sum of the property&amp;#039;s attributes. The honors went to Fairfax &amp;amp;amp; Sammons, an architecture firm that is a leading practitioner of updated neoclassicism, and Brian McCarthy, a decorator who admires the hippest modern art as much as he does a signed fauteuil \u00E0 la reine.  &amp;quot;I wanted everything stronger, younger, fresher; I don&amp;#039;t like florals or too much Louis whatever,&amp;quot; says the wife and mother of two young sons. What she got was an elegant arrangement of interlocking spaces for entertaining (entrance hall, living room, library, dining room) backed by a full contingent of private areas that range from the purely practical (a laundry room close to the children&amp;#039;s rooms, racks for the bird-hunting couple&amp;#039;s shotguns hidden behind secret panels) to the downright decadent (dressing rooms for him and her). Pilasters unexpectedly hand-painted to look like polished ebony line the white-walled living room\u2014the wife says they shape the interior like ribs\u2014and a gold-leafed barrel-vault ceiling adds uplift to the entrance hall, not to mention a sunny glow. The spatial experience is lively rather than formal, more New World Now than Old World Manqu\u00E9. Part of that up-to-date spirit is due to the aesthetic volleys between McCarthy and the clients. For example, when he came up with the idea of paving the entrance hall with tone-on-tone wood in a herringbone pattern, the wife said it &amp;quot;seemed too boring.&amp;quot; She favored black-and-white marble\u2014a suggestion that led McCarthy to install an equally graphic walnut-and-ash alternative. Likewise, the lady of the house recalls waking one night and realizing that the antique carpet she initially wanted for the living room would be too old-fashioned. As soon as she could get McCarthy on the phone she proposed sisal as a less-stuffy alternative. The decorator countered with a floor covering that would be the same color as sisal and have a similarly soothing effect but which was nowhere near as ubiquitous\u2014hand-stitched blocks of blond cowhide. &amp;quot;He knew what I was after and made a much more unusual choice,&amp;quot; the wife says of McCarthy, now a close friend. &amp;quot;That&amp;#039;s when I knew we had truly clicked.&amp;quot;  When the couple saw the library&amp;#039;s paneling polka-dotted with rounds of gold leaf, though, a touch of panic set in. &amp;quot;Don&amp;#039;t worry, we&amp;#039;ve just started,&amp;quot; explained McCarthy, who had been inspired by the Queen&amp;#039;s Antechamber at Ham House, a 17th-century English country estate, where gilded knots gleam beneath a painted faux-olive-wood finish. The decorator&amp;#039;s decision to shake up the library&amp;#039;s velvety comforts with a swamp-theme bronze bench by Claude Lalanne, however, was an instant succ\u00E8s fou. Not only does the wife declare the piece &amp;quot;one of my favorite things,&amp;quot; but the couple&amp;#039;s two-year-old son can&amp;#039;t stop tracing the toothy grin of the bench&amp;#039;s life-size bronze crocodile. The room&amp;#039;s Knole sofa was another triumph. The client had always wanted one, so McCarthy delivered\u2014but then jazzed it with the addition of gilded animal-paw feet. The shiny scarlet dining room and black-and-white master bedroom are spectacular departures from the norm too. &amp;quot;My husband looked at me like I had three heads,&amp;quot; the wife says of the bedroom&amp;#039;s suggested colors, which her spouse thought would be harsh. Instead the space is airy, buoyed by a fernlike printed linen and shots of chartreuse. (Yes, he now loves it.) The dining room, on the other hand, is full-bore 1920s glamour, with mirrored corner niches that &amp;quot;soften the rectangle,&amp;quot; McCarthy says. So far, so good\u2014then again, may\u00ADbe not. The dining furniture is too traditional, say both wife and designer, who are pondering white Deco-era chairs and pieces with cleaner lines. They&amp;#039;re also eyeing the room&amp;#039;s 19th-century neoclassical cut-glass chandelier, which they now feel is slightly staid. Perfection\u2014who says it can&amp;#039;t be improved? "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elledecor.com/design-decorate/interior-designers/tips/a3793/the-transformers-a-45154/>