Behind the Blue Door

The décor of entrepreneur John Demsey's six-story townhouse on the Upper East Side of Manhattan is an explosion of color, pattern, and art

The décor of entrepreneur John Demsey’s six-story townhouse on the Upper East Side of Manhattan is an explosion of color, pattern, and art.

The muted, understated exterior of the townhouse on a tree-lined New York City street belies the sumptuous feast for the eyes that hits you upon opening its blue front door. Every room of its five main floors has its own saturated colour scheme, filled with a David Hicks-inspired geometrically patterned rug, vibrant fabrics, new and vintage furniture, art and photographs covering walls, and sculptures and knick-knacks topping tables and filling shelves. For the owner, John Demsey, the starting point was a pair of multicoloured Louboutin boots, which inspired the palette of the living room rug. Working with interior decorator and friend Bibi Monnahan, he carefully chose and positioned each piece of furniture, work of art, and decorative object, and mounted his enormous photography collection. The result is a tour de force of maximalist design, now captured for all to see in Douglas Friedman’s luminous photographs and with journalist Alina Cho as our eyewitness guide.