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"View Slideshow\n\nChances are, if you've ever had a manicure or pedicure, you're familiar with the work of Essie Weingarten. Her eponymous line of nail polishes\u2014beloved for its rainbow palette\u2014has long been a vibrant, ubiquitous presence in the cosmetics world. Which is why it might come as a shock to enter her Manhattan apartment and encounter a space that is quite calm and subdued. \"Home is my blank canvas,\" says Weingarten, who shares the three-bedroom residence with her husband, Max Sortino, an entrepreneur. \"I've been around bright colors every single day of my life for 31 years. Here, I need some Zen.\"\n\nLocated high up in a postwar Upper East Side building, the apartment is a rhapsody of modern furnishings, neutral fabrics, and warm finishes. \"I see all of these textures and materials as their own spectrum,\" says Weingarten, who sold her company to L'Or\u00E9al in 2010 but continues to serve as its global creative director. \"There's a world of possibility between gray and beige\u2014you know, like greige.\" She, of course, is well practiced at identifying a particular shade, having cleverly named all of Essie's offerings for more than three decades. One of her favorites is a sprightly bubble gum\u2013pink she dubbed Madison Ave-hue.\n\nThe couple's residence, which totals nearly 5,000 square feet, combines what had once been two separate apartments. Weingarten and Sortino bought the first nearly 30 years ago and often toyed with the idea of snatching up an adjacent unit. When the duplex next door came on the market in 2009, they finally pounced.\n\nTo merge, rethink, and decorate the properties, they called on Manhattan-based architect and designer Russell Groves, who had previously done their house in Wainscott, New York. According to Groves, the pair wanted their Manhattan place to be three things: \"quiet, clean, and serene.\" Construction in pursuit of those ideals lasted nine months, during which time the couple moved just blocks away into the studio that Weingarten bought when she was living as a single girl in the city.\n\nA sense of airiness was also crucial. \"They wanted to open up the space as much as possible,\" Groves says, explaining that by removing walls they were able to capitalize on vistas up and down Park Avenue and west toward Central Park. The apartment's main floor is devoted to the common spaces\u2014a living room and a loftlike sequence with a dining area, media corner, kitchen, and breakfast alcove\u2014plus two guest chambers. Weingarten, who entertains and cooks often, made sure there was ample room to do so. Recalls Groves, \"When we were drawing up the kitchen she kept asking, \u2018Do you think it's big enough?' I told her it was the biggest I'd ever built\u2014and we still put a butler's pantry behind it.\"\n\nGroves replaced the duplex's imposing statement staircase with a minimalist flight of walnut treads concealed by a zebrawood partition. The upper level contains the sprawling master suite, which includes not only a bedroom and spacious bath but also an office and his-and-her dressing areas. In the bath, where twin travertine-top vanities are paired with walnut surfaces, a working hearth was re-moved to make way for a wide window\u2014frosted except for a section at eye height. \"We'd rather have a shower with a view than a fireplace,\" Weingarten remarks.\n\nThe office was originally Sortino's domain, because Weingarten was operating out of the Essie headquarters, in Queens, and later the L'Or\u00E9al building, in Manhattan. After deciding to work from home, however, she pushed a second desk directly up against his. \"Now we feel like Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn,\" she teases. The room, like much of the residence, is appointed with custom-made wood built-ins, in this case bamboo cabinetry matching that of the dining area.\n\nThe apartment's color palette was a frequent topic of conversation between the couple and Groves, who largely furnished the rooms with an array of clean-lined upholstered pieces. \"When we started this project it was very important for me to introduce a little bit of color,\" the architect says. He pushed Weingarten to experiment with an occasional lively touch, in particular blue accents such as Murano-glass vases, an upholstered stool from Maison Gerard, and a photographic work by Eileen Quinlan.\n\nIn the end, Weingarten was delighted by the carefully balanced scheme. After all, the right hue can complete a room\u2014just as the right shade of nail polish can tie an outfit together.\n\nTour beauty maven Essie Weingarten's sleek and serene Manhattan apartment."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/russell-groves-essie-weingarten-manhattan-apartment-article>