Designers Own Homes Photos Architectural Digest

By Tania Melissa
last updated February 10, 2025
Contributions sourced from
31 Living Room Ideas from the Homes of Top Designers
The worlds famed designers create exquisite interiors for their clients, but what about the spaces they fashion for themselves? For these sought-after professionals, their own homes are places to express their personal tastes and experiment with new trends, showcase bold patterns, and display treasured art and antiques. Weve gathered a selection of the elegant and inspiring living rooms of decorators and architects whose residences have appeared in the pages of AD, each filled with smart and stylish ideas for your own design project. From over-the-top grandeur to sleek modernism, see the stunning spaces where the worlds top talents entertain and relax.
Inside the Homes of Tommy Hilfiger, Isaac Mizrahi, and 8 Other Fashion Designers
The life of a fashion designer isnt exactly housebound. Between runway shows located around the world and the work of actually designing, it wouldnt be surprising if a creative directors own residential abode became an afterthought. But, of course, designers are people who care deeply about color, texture, and aesthetics writ large, so drab interiors would never do. Below, weve selected 11 of our favorite homes that belong to fashion designerseach of which showcases its owners unique aesthetic sensibility.
The bed, custom-made in India, features silk taffeta tenting and linens by Lippes for Yves Delorme. Circa-1905 Austrian lamp atop vintage Aldo Tura bar cart; Gustavian chair; 18th-century Venetian bookcase.
Photo by Stephen Kent JohnsonLippes perches on a balustrade.
Photo: Stephen Kent Johnson; Styling: Carlos MotaModern stuff I just dont understand, fashion designer Adam Lippes says over coffee in the sun-splashed living room of his Brooklyn Heights apartment. Its just ugly. So, defiantly, he surrounds himself with the atmospheric opposite.
A Victorian-style borne settee centers the space, like a white-and-blue water lily, and a Russian Empire mahogany bookcase stretches across one wall and nearly to the ceiling. The master bedrooms main event is a custom-made canopy bed that channels the nutty Chinese Chippendale pagoda daybeds at Englands Stanway House, and Gustavian chairs ring a Biedermeier pedestal dining table. A Kentia palman arboreal accent beloved by another boldface fashion designer, namely Christian Diorsprouts from a ceramic cachepot in the living room, its luxuriance, underscored by lacy wicker furnishings, evoking an old-fashioned jardin dhiver, albeit one painted the palest shade of pink.
The designers dedication to old-school style comes naturally. His mother was an interior decorator with a similar aesthetic point of view, and his father has long collected Biedermeier furniture and contemporary art. Im obsessed with furniture, obsessed, more than with clothes any day of the week, Lippes says, adding that his treasures always end up influencing his fashions. Mitchell Owens
Mizrahi (seated on an antique French armchair upholstered in a linen from his collection for S. Harris) with his husband, Arnold Germer, in the den; the painting is by Tomory Dodge.
Photo: Jason SchmidtAn armchair and a pair of George Smith ottomans in the den are clad in Isaac Mizrahi for S. Harris fabrics.
Photo: Jason SchmidtMy mother always told me, If you want to stay young, live in the Village!" Brooklyn-born fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi says, standing in the living room of his 4,000-square-foot apartment in the storied Manhattan neighborhood. Outside, a sweeping terrace looks out over rooftops toward the citys southern tip.
The home, set in a historic 1931 building just off Sixth Avenue, looks perfectly proportioned and brand new, but it is actually an amalgamation of three apartments that was 20 years in the making. Mizrahi (who on the day we meet has livened up his standard all-black ensemble with sparkly silver toenail polish) bought the first installment more than two decades ago, a few years before Unzipped, the 1995 documentary about his work, made him a star. Since that time his rsum has expanded beyond apparel and accessories to include serving as a judge on Project Runway All Stars, hosting the weekly QVC show Isaac Mizrahi Live!, and creating a line of upholstery fabrics.
Though Mizrahi would never consider hiring a professional designerI am the decorator! he cackleshis decisions are not made in isolation. He lives with his husband of three years, Arnold Germer, who also has big opinions, Mizrahi notes, before adding, but in the end he usually gives in. (The couple share the home with their beloved mutts, Harry and Dean.) Architect David Bers played a key role in planning the layout. He and Mizrahi are good friends and work seamlessly together. Bers describes his client as a functionalist, not a minimalist, and jointly they were set on leaving the apartments bones exposed: They would never drop a ceiling or hide a gloriously rusted radiator. Lynn Yaeger
Johnson inthe garden, wearing one of her own designs, the shibori-dyed indigo sylvan dress.
Photo: Pernille Loof; Styling: Martin BourneVintage outdoor lounges, a Tuuci umbrella, a Walter Lamb rocker, and a Willy Guhlside table sit by the pool, which is flanked by a willow hedge on three sides.
Photo: Pernille Loof; Styling: Martin BourneUlla Johnson and Zach Miner cant stop talking about their garden. Its a spring bounty every weekend with new things in bloom, says the fashion designer. Her verdant surroundings, after four years of work with landscape guru Miranda Brooks, are finally coming intotheir own. Bulbs planted last fall are pushing up through the soil. Magnolia trees are blossoming. A flash of pinkthe petals of a flowering cherry treeis visible just outside the living room window.
Designers Homes on the Market
STATS
4 bedrooms
3 baths
3,877 sq. ft.
$1.195 million
PEDIGREE: Washington, D.C.s premier midcentury architect, Charles M. Goodman, purchased a 100-year-old farmhouse in 1952, gutted the inside, and created this modernist home for his own residence. The focal point is the enormous great room, with soaring 10-foot-high glass walls, natural stone floors, and a cantilevered concrete fireplace.
PROPERTY VALUES: Designed for entertaining, there are 2,000 square feet of outdoor stone patios, courtyards, terraces, and walkways surrounded by bright-red Japanese Maples.
TALKING POINT: Three floating hardwood steps at the back of the great room lead to a 38-foot-long narrow gallery space, perfect for displaying art.
CONTACT: Long & Foster Real Estate; 703-244-4155; longandfoster.com
Ralph Lauren's Refined Houses and Chic Madison Avenue Office
In the world of Ralph Lauren, the private and business spheres are so tightly aligned as to be virtually indistinguishable. Hes living out the fantasy hes marketing, with all the trappings: a minimalist Manhattan apartment, a rustic-modern Long Island beach house, a ranch in Colorado, a tropical retreat in Jamaica, and a stone manse in Bedford, New York. Each home is its own distinct vision of the good life, and each tells a different but complementary storystories that directly shape his collections. I think its the eye, the taste, and the spirit of the dream, he says when asked what links it all together.
Lauren is the first to admit hes not an interior designer. But he can, as he puts it, visualize how youd live in a particular environment. In the same way he pictures what people might wear at a seaside villa in Round Hill, Jamaica, he also imagines the rattan chair where theyd relax with a good book, the blue-and-cream china theyd use for lunch on the terrace, the handblown tumbler from which theyd sip their afternoon rum cocktail. I felt like just creating the clothes wasnt enough, says Lauren, adding, Its all an extension of something I wanted in my lifeor my dream life.
Some of Laurens earliest fashion successes were his interpretations of traditional British sportswear (riding clothes, hunting tweeds, Scottish tartans), and that style remains one of his hallmarks. Its also an aesthetic that strongly influences the interiors of his dramatic Norman-style house in Bedford. I wanted something that was a little more English than my other homes, but I still wanted it to feel young, says Lauren, who purchased the property in the late 80s. Much of the furniture and art came from buying excursions to England and France, and while the decor is undoubtedly the most formal of his homes, its also both playful and eclectic in a way that is uniquely Ralph Lauren. Tartans and timeworn Persian carpets mix with quirky objects and brawny overstuffed upholstery that everywhere entreats guests to, please, take a seat. True to Laurens penchant for using his own life as design inspiration, several of the dwellings furnishings helped shape signature pieces in the home collection. For example, the 19th-century Dutch brass fixture that illuminates the entrance hall gave rise to the Lillianne chandelier, and a pair of Louis XVstyle wing chairs in the living room led to the Spencer chair.
Related: See More Celebrity Homes in AD
Designers' Own Homes: Timothy Corrigan
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Some of the most interesting interior designers come to their careers by unorthodox paths. Until 1996 Timothy Corrigan was a Mad Men-like dynamo advertising executive at Saatchi & Saatchi who, while based in Paris and later in New York, liked to fix up places in his spare time. Little by little, friends began asking him for help. He had no training in the field, but he had a good eye, and he learned fast. Some of his design work was published. Soon he was being engaged to take on entire projects. Before he quite knew what was happening, he had a day job and a night job, both enormously demanding.
"Then my father died quite suddenly," Corrigan recalls. "I was traveling all the time for my advertising job and working nights and weekends on the design projects. I had to ask myself what made me truly happy. And the answer was easy."
From the polish Corrigan brings to his design work, it's not easy to tell that he is a relative newcomer to the fieldand a fearless one at that: While he was living in Paris, Corrigan took on the restoration of first a manor house, Le Thuit in Normandy, and then a chteau, the Chteau de Gallerande in the Loire Valley (see Architectural Digest, September 2005). Now he has completed the Chteau du Grand-Luc, his most ambitious project by far.
No one would ever accuse Timothy Corrigan of being afraid of a challenge. When he submitted an application to buy the Chteau du Grand-Luc from the French government, the custodian of the building and its resplendent gardens, he went up against developers and hoteliers; he was the only private applicant, and certainly the only American, among them. L' Architecte des Btiments de France, the institution that protects historic French monuments, declared that the chteau was a precious example of French Enlightenment architecture and they didn't want it reconfigured. "American though I was," says Corrigan, "it became mine."
Designed by Mathieu de Bayeux for Jacques Pineau de Viennay, baron de Luc, it was built between 1760 and 1764. De Viennay, who directed its design from afar by correspondence, is said to have been so overwhelmed by its beauty that he died of a heart attack the day he came to see it in person. Because his daughter and heir was such a benevolent landowner, the chteau was spared during the Revolution; in fact, its salon, painted by Jean Baptiste Pillement, is one of only two of his interiors to survive intact anywhere in France. Enlightenment visitors included Voltaire, Rousseau and Diderot. Later, during World War II, paintings from the Louvre were hidden under the stage of the theater, and for a period it was used as a hospital for wounded British soldiers.
The chteau was transferred from descendants to the government in 1948. Over the years the state replaced its roof, but its focus was on the gardens. The house Corrigan bought needed everything: electrical systems, baths, a kitchen. Centuries of old paint had to be removed. There were cavernous, and numerous, empty rooms to restore and furnish. "No one in my world supported me. Not my associates at work, not my partner, Kathleen [Scheinfeld]," says Corrigan, "They all thought I was mad. I, however, thought I had a spectacular opportunity."
All the Homes Bethenny Frankel Has Bought and Sold
Fans of the Real Housewives of New York City will remember the time not so long ago that Bethenny Frankel and Ramona Singer squabbled about an investment property of Frankels that was situated on Montauk Highway in the Hamptons. Since then, Frankel has left the show, but she hasnt slowed down when it comes to buying and renovating properties all throughout the East Coast. I was always broke and ripped out inspiration[al] pics, simply as a fantasy, she tells Architectural Digest of her early interest in real estate and decor. I didnt think that having my own home would ever be a reality. [But] when I renovated my first home in Tribeca, I was mesmerized by the ability to customize every detail.
Frankel admits to being drawn to properties that already have a solid foundation to build upon, whether it is good quality flooring or tile or existing cabinetry. I never waste, as a person or as a home renovator, she says. So many people love to just spend other peoples money and rip things out. I am very frugal in that sense. If a house has potential and needs creativity and a partial gut, thats my specialty. Here, we take a closer look at the homes that Frankel has bought, sold, and renovated over the years, upgrading them with her trademark functional, clean style.
2011
Frankels first property garnered a lot of media attention for some not-so-great reasons. She purchased the 3,725-square-foot Tribeca loft for $4.995 million through a trust when she was still married to businessman Jason Hoppy, and sank an additional half a million into renovating and furnishing the chic four-bedroom, three-bathroom home. The corner unit featured 12-foot ceilings, hardwood floors, and a 180-bottle wine fridge, as well as a main suite with a walk-in closet and massive en suite bathroom with a double vanity, soaking tub, and separate steam shower. When the pair got divorced, the loft became a point of contention in their long legal battle, according to the Wall Street Journal, but ultimately, Frankel came out on top: She listed the dwelling for $6.95 million in 2016, and it sold in one day at full asking price.
2014
In 2014, Frankel put down $4.2 million for a sweet two-bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom condo on Mercer Street, hoping for a fresh start. The most eye-catching part of the airy 2,392-square-foot loft was undoubtedly the 25-foot-wide sunken great room, which boasted tall, arched windows and 14-foot ceilings, as well as a wood-burning fireplace. The kitchen had a white marble center island and stainless steel appliances; both bedrooms had unique floor-to-ceiling walls of glass overlooking an atrium. Frankel put the home on the market for $5.25 million in 2017, but to no avail. It finally sold for $3.65 million in 2020 after several price cuts.
2015
The year following her SoHo purchase, Frankel put down $2.675 million for a calm retreat in the Hamptons, a place she still maintains and lives in to this day. The Real Housewives star once told People that she considered the Bridgehampton pad the first real home I have ever had my whole entire life. The significantly renovated five-bedroom house features quaint shingles on the outside as well as a front door and gate, both painted an eye-catching red. A pool and gardens surround both the main house and a one-bedroom guest cottage, and are ideal for entertaining. I love outdoor moments because they create such incredible seasonal memories, she tells AD.