Walking into Alex Papachristidis’s apartment, you are immediately hit by a warm blast of color and pattern. He loves books, which are now slowly spilling out of the library and taking over the whole apartment. “I love English writers like Nancy Mitford, Cecil Beaton, and style icons like Pauline de Rothschild— I got the idea of piling their books everywhere from Karl Lagerfeld’s apartment,” explains the designer.
Although in such decorating richness it is hard to discern any specific influence, Papachristidis’s family is Greek, and (surprise) is involved in shipping. His cosmopolitan background is the source for all his enthusiasms; as a small boy Papachristidis soaked up all the glamour of his parents jet-setting life. It was no surprise to discover that the family business held little excitement for the young design enthusiast. After a year at Parsons School of Design, Papachristidis found himself helping one of his three sisters with her new apartment, and a career was born.
Once past a small foyer, the apartment opens up onto a large living space, with windows along one side. Screened by a free-standing bookcase, next to a practical small kitchen, sits a long dining table covered in even more piles of books, on top of an antique suzani. The master bedroom walls are unified by a bamboo-style treillage wallpaper, and the colorfully dressed bed faces a Billy Baldwin bookcase, which holds a flat-screen TV. Vintage posters of the Beatles add a colorful punch to the walls.
In the library all the fabrics used in the room have different patterns and textures. What holds it together is the unifying red color they all share, picked up with a touch of gold; witness the bold 19th-century sunburst clock on the wall from Charlotte Moss. What’s next for this busy designer? A line of carpets—Beauvais is representing a custom line of Papachristidis carpets, available around the country. Projects in Manhattan, the Hamptons and London, and a chalet in Gstaad, are on the itinerary as well. This leaves the designer and his partner, Scott Nelson (who represents a line of luxury goods), little time to go out to the Hamptons on the weekend, where they share a house with Papachristidis’s glamorous mother and sister, and I imagine, plenty more books.
This article was featured in the Spring 2009 Home Observer.
