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Read it and weep....

Ok, I just came across this article in House and Garden UK magazine. An apartment in NY's famed Dakota, circa 1996, owned by Graydon Carter and his second wife, Cynthia. This photo, a question, what do y'all think?


I googled "Graydon Carter's children." They are all still living.

On another note, this photo of the kitchen:


Looks like it was done last week. The article states that the designer "preserved the original glass-fronted cupboards." You want timeless? This is it.


Comments (35)

  • PRO
    last year

    The bunk beds are pretty cool.

    Diana Bier Interiors, LLC thanked Norwood Architects
  • last year
    last modified: last year

    Oh I love those bunk beds, with the curtain it would be such a comfy hidey hole space 😍

    I LOVE glass cabs - we did all glass uppers in our old house kitchen, copied out of a UK kitchen design book circa 1995, literally everyone tried to talk me out of them lol

    the crowded counters get on my nerves but I can appreciate the charm for sure


    looks like a happy home ❤️

    Diana Bier Interiors, LLC thanked la_la Girl
  • last year

    Diana, you and I share a love for House and Garden magazine. I read it religiously. :)

    Article:

    https://www.houseandgarden.co.uk/gallery/graydon-carter-new-york-apartment-dakota-building

    That kitchen is wonderful. It reminds me of the Nancy Myers aesthetic, which is another fav of mine.

    What do you think of the living room? Slipcovered chairs (and floral patterns) will always be a style I like:




    I just want to curl up with a cup of tea and good book. It’s so pretty, warm, and inviting. Not a room I’d be afraid to touch anything, or so sterile you could see an eyelash on the floor.

    Diana Bier Interiors, LLC thanked Jilly
  • last year

    And none of that narrow minded idea that all art has to be at eye level!

    If you have high ceilings and you have extra art ... use the art and the walls!

    Diana Bier Interiors, LLC thanked chispa
  • last year

    Bunk beds picture shared:

    We don't need no stinking bed rails. Safety third!

    Diana Bier Interiors, LLC thanked just_janni
  • last year

    oh my gosh @Sigrid - that would put me off bunks as well!

    Diana Bier Interiors, LLC thanked la_la Girl
  • last year

    @Jilly - there is something so special about floral slipcovers - I love 'em! - there was an incredible armchair slipcovered in a vintage Ralph Lauren floral slipcover on my local FB Marketplace - I stalked it for weeks and scoured my house trying to find a spot for it but had to let is go - still think about it 😅

    Diana Bier Interiors, LLC thanked la_la Girl
  • last year

    House and Garden website is a daily read for me. I love it.


    The bunk beds remind me of the Muppet Show and I expect to see Waldorf and Statler yucking it up in the corner. Love the kitchen. Such a real lived in home.

    Diana Bier Interiors, LLC thanked Kendrah
  • last year

    la la girl, I’d love to find a chair like that! Vintage Ralph Lauren … swoon. :)

    Chispa, amen. Art doesn’t have to match a rug, be only at eye level, be huge to fill a space above a sofa, buffet, etc. And mirrors can be art, can be used to reflect light, can be used to bring depth and movement to a room.

    Diana Bier Interiors, LLC thanked Jilly
  • PRO
    last year

    My reaction to the bunk beds was like justjanni's--I can't believe there are no guard rails, especially on the top one! But they are very nice looking!

    As for the decor, it's fabulous! Love florals, lots of books, family photos everywhere, the yellow-ish kitchen cabinets with gray carrara marble (who says that cool and warm colors can't co-exist?), dark wood furniture, toile, the bike in the living room, and just that family actually LIVING in the apartment! So cozy and inviting.

  • last year

    Intellectually I get the desire for guard rails on bunk beds, but practically, unless you make a habit of falling out of bed (which I can’t recall ever doing), does it make any difference? You don’t have guard rails on beds which sit on the floor. I know it’s no big deal if you fall out of one of those, but if you don’t fall out of beds as a rule, it doesn’t matter if the bed is on the floor or six feet up in practical terms.

    Diana Bier Interiors, LLC thanked colleenoz
  • PRO
    last year

    Kids do fall out of beds, and I remember doing so as a child. I wouldn't want to take the chance. Heck up until my kids and grandkids were about 4 or 5, we had guardrails on all their beds, most of which were not bunk beds. And how do you even change the sheets on those kinds of beds????

  • PRO
    last year

    Things I have fallen off of: a ladder, a bike, my high horse. Things I have not fallen off of: a bed, a chair or sofa, a toilet.

    Diana Bier Interiors, LLC thanked User
  • PRO
    last year

    But are you a child?

  • last year

    Look like those kids got trained on those bunks gradually ... you start out on the lower one and graduate to higher ones as your parents had more kids! Last child has the least self-preservation instincts as he never got to take risks as a child! ;-)

    Diana Bier Interiors, LLC thanked chispa
  • PRO
    last year

    However you feel about it, if you're in the US, it is required by law to have guardrails on BOTH sides of a bunk bed where the bottom of the mattress is more than 30" from the floor.

    https://www.cpsc.gov/Business--Manufacturing/Business-Education/Business-Guidance/Bunk-Beds

  • last year

    Love the kitchen! (But I'd have to clear the counters to use it.) I like the bunks, too, but I wouldn't want to change the sheets on the top bunk, that's for sure! But I'm sure the kids loved the beds, at least when they were small enough to fit.

    After he outgrew his Little Tykes race car bed, my son had bunk beds in his childhood room until he reached middle school and outgrew those as well. (He's now 6'6" so no more twin size for him!) I can't tell you how many times I hit my head changing the sheets on the lower bunk.

    Diana Bier Interiors, LLC thanked chicagoans
  • PRO
    last year

    I pulled my younger sister off a bed. My mom said I thought we were going to leave her. Maybe that's why she's gay now.

    Diana Bier Interiors, LLC thanked Joseph Corlett, LLC
  • last year

    A word or two about safety rails on beds. Make sure opening is less than 3.5" or more than 9" and/or matterss can't be compressed in way that makes rail opening fall between those measurments. It's known as "head entrapment" and can be more deadly than a fall from top bunk.


    Now about this business of only kids are apt to fall out of bed. Shortly before dawn following a late night party at fish camp I swung my legs off the bed and s-t-o-o-d--u-p on the floor 5 feet below. Idk if that's considered falling out of bed but it certainly felt that way.

    Diana Bier Interiors, LLC thanked klem1
  • PRO
    last year

    @Diana I used to be, but eventually grew out of it.

    Diana Bier Interiors, LLC thanked User
  • PRO
    last year
    last modified: last year

    Funny.........thirty years ago I might have longed to live in that living room, especially in winter.. God knows I translated the look for enough clients, but that much stuff in a room reminds me it will need to be dusted, that there's barely a clear surface. I need a lot less these days, though I will die wit my down filled needlepoint pillows! They're really my only floral's now!

    Those who made fortunes from the look? Mario Buatta, Charlotte Moss, and of course Mark Hampton.

    I often curl up and re read "Mark Hampton on Decorating" just because he was SO darn witty- his stories for House and Garden took you right with him, and into to a clients home. I save a sealed unopened copy :)

    I DO still love so many Lee Jofa, Brunschwig - Colefax chintz and too the linen.....But ? You can't get 99% of 1000 clients to even nibble,let alone "bite" ! Ewwww It's too pretty, as if pretty was an awful concept!

    Truth is? To look as " collected over time" as these images takes a lot of time and life lived, and most have no patience, no books, they have kaka from the discy, even in high end homes.

    To that end? This ( link).......You'll love it



    https://laurelberninteriors.com/dont-be-seduced-by-chintz-a-personal-story/

  • PRO
    last year
    last modified: last year

    I wouldn't wring a hand on those bunkies. Mom may even shove a guard rail under that top mattress. It was a photo shoot......: )

    Can Not Have those kitchen counters!!! Noooooo! lol too much s.t u'.f. f

    Diana Bier Interiors, LLC thanked JAN MOYER
  • PRO
    last year
    last modified: last year

    I get it, Jan, but think about it. It was an apartment in NYC, in the 90s, even in the Dakota, it was probably fairly small. And the whole place is packed with stuff, lots of books, what with 4 kids, and a Dad who was a book-ish guy. He was editor of Vanity Fair, after all.

  • PRO
    last year

    Oh I absolutely get it! But I have been in PRUNE mode for ages! I'm no minimalist!But......It feels better with less: )

    I can't tell you how many design tomes left. My bookcases breathed a sigh of relief!

    Diana Bier Interiors, LLC thanked JAN MOYER
  • PRO
    last year

    I totally agree, and that's another discussion! I love an empty drawer!

  • PRO
    last year
    last modified: last year

    I have two, and one more possible, as of a "purge fit escapade" during the very dreary yesterday!

    Diana Bier Interiors, LLC thanked JAN MOYER
  • last year

    It's not lovely at all to me. Too much cr*p in that apartment. Everywhere in that living room there is STUFF -- the room is stuffed with stuff. My eye can't register the furniture because it's lost in a sea of stuff. Which piece of art am I supposed to admire? Who knows...there's too many, even the walls are a cluttered mess. The kitchen counter looks like no one did the dishes in a couple days. Honestly? I'm surprised that made a magazine. It would probably be quite nice with 3/4 of the junk removed.

    Diana Bier Interiors, LLC thanked porkchop_z5b_MI
  • PRO
    last year

    True, porkchop, but have you ever lived in a small apartment? And it made a magazine because the dad is a famous editor.

  • last year

    I have a sneaking suspicion Mrs. Graydon Carter didn't spend her mornings making her children's beds.

    Diana Bier Interiors, LLC thanked awm03
  • PRO
    last year

    haha, probably not!

  • last year

    I just clicked through to see more pictures. I love the map wall.

    Diana Bier Interiors, LLC thanked chicagoans
  • last year

    My brain could not tolerate the stuff. I did have kitchen cabinets similar to that in an old apartment building. That kitchen was phenomenal.

    Diana Bier Interiors, LLC thanked Anne Duke
  • last year

    Changing those sheets would be a real work out.


    The bunk bed comments and stories makes me smile. My family's hunting camp has bunk beds and it was the highlight of summer vacations to sleep in the top bunk. I only fell out once.


    I love the kitchen cabinets. The counter clutter makes me twitch.


  • last year

    I know what you mean pennfire about bunks stirring memories with family at camp. I lost count of how many nights I spent as a kid and never fell off once. I doubt I would have that time when I was 30 had I laid off the sprites earlier that night.