Douglas brenner: It's nice to see a white-glove Park Avenue duplex that's so warm and inviting. BRUCE SHOSTAK: On our first visit here, we found just the sort of old-school showplace you would expect. The entry was glacial, with a polished marble floor, French furniture, and white walls hung with gilt mirrors and Old Masters-type paintings. The rooms beyond had strict formal arrangements of European antiques and Coroman-del screens, chintz and toile, swags and jabots. Beautifully done, but inappropriate for a young couple in jeans, with two little girls and a rambunctious bulldog. Is there a backstory to this stylistic mismatch? They basically swapped apartments with the wife's parents, who, after living here for years, wanted a smaller pied-a-terre in Manhattan. Our directive was a total change from stuffy tradition to relaxed, comfortable, uncluttered modernity-though we still had to preserve architectural details that two generations of the family felt attached to. For a fresh start, nearly everything went to auction, and the clients encouraged us to have fun with color. They travel everywhere, and their images of Mexican tiles and tropical buildings inspired our palette.
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