Inside stylist Colin King's layered prewar apartment in Chelsea, Manhattan

Colin King made his name with restraint: his former Tribeca loft, with its limewashed walls and sparse furniture, was the cover of his 2023 book, Arranging Things. But he told AD he had been "placed in a beige box", and because the loft doubled as his office it never quite felt like home. His new place, on the 11th floor of a 1930 building in Chelsea, is the opposite brief: a prewar warren of snug rooms with a fireplace, a terrace over the rooftops and work kept firmly elsewhere.

The layering began underfoot, with rugs from Beni's new Chelsea collection, hand-knotted by Moroccan artisans in a dense technique once kept for royal palaces. Art came next. Over two years, with adviser Joe Sheftel, King gathered dark contemporary paintings alongside a circa 1890 Fantin-Latour of three nymphs in the den. The furniture moves between eras: a Pierre Jeanneret desk, Italian commodes, a black satin Chesterfield, a coromandel screen, a Fortuny lantern over the dining table, and his own pieces for Zara Home and Audo Copenhagen.

The beige hasn't vanished entirely: walls are Farrow & Ball's Slipper Satin or sisal paper. This is a private home, so it's one to enjoy on the page, best for anyone curious how a minimalist learns to collect.

Our summary of a story from Architectural Digest, published 16 October 2026. Read the original

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