All products featured on Architectural Digest are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.It appeared to be the perfect apartment. Nannette Browns repeat clients, a Wall Street couple with five older children and a primary home in Connecticut, were seeking a city base and found it in an iconic Upper West Side building known for its Beaux Arts style, embellished with French windows, ornate ironwork balconies, and Louis XVI-style grilles and scrollwork. The only issue? The apartment was rife with asbestos. We thought we were inheriting one thing but we had to drill it down to its essence, shares Brown, an AD PRO Directory designer. The unwanted discovery meant starting from scratch. By the end of the asbestos process, the entire apartment had been stripped down to concrete, and you felt like you were standing in a hole.Yet optimism prevailedand the early disappointment paved the way for a far more relevant floor plan. Like many older apartments, the familys new place featured what Brown describes as a warren of rooms: room on room on room. The original floor plan was essentially a centrifuge for both the dining and kitchen areas, the living room, and also the primary bedroom. And nobody wants a primary bedroom off of the heart of the house, says the designer. So the first objective was to make a space that was more rational.The rotunda echoes the curvilinear theme present throughout the apartment. Brown commissioned the ceiling art, calling for a bold momentand this bit of whimsy. A 19th-century Swedish oak center table from Jonathan Swire Antiques sits at center, a pottery jug, sourced at the Paris flea market and from the same era, atop it. Above hangs the Plateau pendant by Giancarlo Valle. The metal and fluted glass doors were custom designed by Brown.The nearly yearlong abatement process also allowed the extremely health-minded family to envision an entirely new space, sprawling at 4,000 square feet, with a focus on wellness and a restoration of the architectural details theyd originally been sold on. (As Brown points out, Every single wall came down in the apartment in the end.) The designer collaborated with environmental biologists and electricians as well as other pros hired to advise on sustainable, health-grade products.From a design perspective, the edict was a layered home respectful of the buildings storied roots. Sourcing visits spanned the globe from Pariss treasure-filled flea markets to Stockholms Bukowskis auction house. The wife, says Brown, didnt want to feel like the apartment was born yesterday. She wanted it to feel like she was enjoying the architectural elements of an old apartment, whether it be in New York or Paris. Consider the original 18-to-20-inch base moldings in the living room, an element the client had first fallen in love with but that were all but wiped out. We tried to be as authentic as possible, all while affording us the license to interpret something different, like the moldings [appearing to be] pouring onto the wall, says Brown of her technique, a more modern interpretation of all the formal moldings that had been there.Custom is the name of the game in the polished living room. A custom Rosedale pattern rug by Patterson Flynn, custom Erato sofa covered in Rose Uniacke mohair by Dmitriy & Co, and custom-etched, resin-and-lacquer coffee table designed by Brown and crafted by Carlos Q Design Studio all stand out. The dark brown club chair, an Italian Art Deco piece, is upholstered in de le Cuonas Viena velvet. Above, the bronzed, gilt metal candelabra was sourced via Pariss March Puce.Browns considered approachreferencing the apartments architectural forebears while starting, quite literally, from the ground uptook hold and drove the process. It was both a science project as well as this historical replication model, reflects the designer, citing the many current interpretations on the very details that had to be sacrificed. As we built back the apartment, she affirms, we built back better.Art: Stanley Twardowicz/Hirschl & Adler Modern1/11Holding court at left in the living room is an artworkStanley Twardowiczs No. 2 that the clients had considered placing in another of their properties, but ultimately found its home here. Its a large piece, impossible to hang on a flat wall because every single corner is radiused, notes Brown. She fashioned a suspension system for the piece using customized metal rods via the ceiling and floor. On the coffee table is a piece of pottery by Normandy Alden, while, on the tiled side table, a pair of bronze vases by Just Andersen, acquired at Bernd Goeckler Antiques, sit. The drapery fabric is Designer Guilds Haldon Ryeland Chalk with a Lelivre border. The sofa pillows are rendered in Marly floral by Scalamandr, while the chartreuse rounds are in Lelivre fabric, matched to the drapery border. The midcentury French oak armchairs are upholstered in Loro Pianas Incas Biancore and Chivassos The Touch fabrics.2/11The wife, somewhat of a Francophile, wanted to draw on European influence. She loves to spend time in Paris, says Brown, and always loved a checkerboard floor. For the designers own interpretation, she drew on three different marble slabs (Breccia Vagli Viola, Bianco Portogallo, and Bordeaux Elegance) to create a hybrid plaid informed by old Italian floor patterns. The island is crafted of Bianco Portogallo marble.3/11The dining room was totally transformed, says Brown. The table was designed by Brown and built by Seamus Fairtlough, while the rooms array of seating includes 1960s dining chairs purchased in Paris; a pair of Swedish Lvo chairs by Axel Einar Hjorth, at the ends of the table, and 1930s Hjorth chairs discovered at Bukowskis auction house in Stockholm. Hanging above the table is a Paavo Tynell pendant, Model 1092, rendered in amber glass.4/11The kitchen and dining room feature a hand-blocked marble slab floor. Cast bronze conical wall lights by Henry Wilson light the space. The Dual Universal faucets are by Waterworks.5/11In the den, Brown aimed for snug, soft, and sleek. Underfoot is the wool-and-sisal Sketched Stripe carpet by Patterson Flynn. Purchased in Paris, a 1970s French oak coffee table features raised stanchions and complements the Italian brass/black lacquer extending wall light with custom silk shade and braid, also discovered in the City of Light. A Flemming Lassen lounge chair from JenMod (not pictured) and a Pierre Jeanneret V armchair in cowhide from Gallery BR complete the scene.6/11The sinuous primary bedroom features an inset bed as well as newly created closets. In New York City, space is at a premium. If there was a space in the wall, we used it! A custom built fireplace, with a mantel by Brown (and Josef Frank bronze mirror atop it) and an electric fire by Chesneys, parallels the one that had previously existed there. The bed wall, drapes, and primary bed are rendered in Holly Hunts New Cotton Carrera, and the walls feature hand-troweled Tadelakt plaster, custom-matched to the color of the upholstery. The integrated bedside tables were designed by Brown and feature Palisandro Classico marble tops. The 1930s Italian wall sconces along with a small Italian bronze and opal glass lamp by Vincenzo Caffarella light the sensual space.7/11The vanity room, in the primary bath, has cleverly conceived millwork hiding medicine cabinets, while a sleek glass wallimplemented for architectural interestis designed to be both functional and dramatic, says the designer. I didnt want you to just walk into the bathroom.8/11A dramatic solid marble tub was custom built by From Europe to You. The marble wall slabs are honed Breccia Capraia while the floor slabs are honed and sandblasted Paonazzo. The plumbing and plumbing accessories are from Waterworks Bond Collection in polished nickel. The marble stool is by Stephane Parmentier, and the glazed mottled pottery vase is by Romulus Craft.9/11In the radius-walled guest room, a Murphy bed is integrated into the millwork. The draperies are all very French-y in their design. They dont reach the floor, sort of like an elongated cafe curtain, Brown says. The walls are covered in Pindlers Manning Seaglass and the millwork is painted in Benjamin Moores Revere Pewter, while the drapes are De La Cuonas velvet in Tango. The custom oak bed was designed by Brown, with a fabric inset that matches the drapes.10/11A custom wall in the guest room was built out for storage. I love materiality, says Brown. We had seen this fabulous apartment in Paris where, on these cupboard doors, had been inlaid tiles. We had to create architectural interest. Inset tiles are from the Echo Collection by Waterworks. The Axel Larsson armchair is upholstered in Pindler Plush Pine.11/11In the powder room, a 19th-century sink features time-worn markings. [The sink] has this almost residue-smoke-soot that has sort of just settled into the marble, says Brown, who designed plinths of pebble, concrete, and charcoal pea stone to support it. The moldings were a common theme throughout the apartment. Instead of doing moldings, all the plaster walls pour onto the ceiling[the client] wanted the gravitas of it feeling like the old world, but I didnt want to do classic ceiling moldings, the designer explains.