The creamy living room, elegant enough for a fundraiser, also had to be comfortable, says ELLE DECOR A-List designer Josh Greene of the Park Avenue apartment he designed for clients with three young children. “We didn’t want the living room to be this overly formal room,” he says, “but dressy enough to dim the lights and have a beautiful space. I want you to be able to come home, flop your shoes off and plop down on the sofa.” This is how he wants all the spaces he shapes: “Stylish enough to be impressive and impactful, formal when needed,” he says, but also livable, usable, and warm.When the clients brought this four-bedroom apartment to Greene, it hadn’t been touched in quite some time. A previous owner had done a tasteful renovation with designer Scott Snyder, which was subsequently undone by a renovation executed by another owner (the exact date of which was unknown to Greene, though the evidence of it was clear). Greene set about accentuating the apartment’s bones, keeping what could be kept—like the “chunky” crown molding and mahogany doors—and updating the rest. The kitchen, for one, needed a complete overhaul. A wall that couldn’t be removed because of the electrical it housed was brought down to a half and turned into a banquette to serve as an informal dining area. Now, marble counters surround a custom table, and pendants by Urban Electric Co. hang over a floating island.Photography by Tim LenzIn the kitchen, an existing wall was lowered and turned into a banquette that surrounds a table.The primary bathroom was also gutted. A “stripey” slab marble went on the walls and was mirrored in matching tile on the floors. Medicine cabinets designed by Greene. This is something else Greene is known for: furniture, textiles and wallcoverings he creates and uses in clients’ homes. A collaboration with Kufri, called Chromia, launched in April, and another with with Lawson-Fenning launched in early May. Photography by Tim LenzIn the primary bathroom, stripey granite forms a mirrored grid on the floor. The medicine cabinets are by Josh Greene Design, faucets by Waterworks, and lights by Urban Electric Company.In the Park Avenue apartment, Greene’s custom touches are everywhere, from the hanging lanterns in the hallway to the nightstands in the daughter’s room to the rug in the dining room (a collaboration with Marc Philips). Even the sofa is custom. “I love a horizontal stripe,” he says. When he first found the fabric by Rosemary Hallgarten, years prior, Greene thought, “this would make a killer sofa.”In each room, art brought in primarily by advisor Sarah Stein Sapier adds its own commentary, punctuating Greene’s designs. Altogether the vision sprang from Greene’s sensibility paired with his read on the client: “Mellow and beautiful and stylish and effortless,” he says. “She and the husband are so nice and easygoing; I’m drawing inspiration from them and trying to create a unique space for them based on who I feel they are.”After a visit to Fresco Decorative Arts the client fell in love with a blue color. So it went on the dining room walls: a speciality plaster echoed by tones found in a large painting by Dashiell Manley, a vintage vase, and chandelier and sconces by Blue Green Works.See Inside the Park Avenue ApartmentGreene’s point of view is shaped by close to two decades of experience in the business. It’s also a record of his influences and the imprint of an upbringing on the West Coast. “In a sense I’m always pulling things deep out of my design vault,” he says. For example, the stripes on the primary bathroom floor: “This reminded me of the floor in the old Barney’s in Beverly Hills,” he says, which had a similar basket weave. Though it’s not always so specific. Implicit memories of place manifest in Greene’s work through his color palette, an instinct for pairing hard and soft silhouettes, and an eye toward livability.And while the Park Avenue apartment by no means shouts California, look closely and you’ll see that hint of relaxed glamour. As Greene puts it: “There is a comfort that I like to bring to the party.”