The living room of Jay Jeffers’s West Village residence features Jorge Zalszupin chairs and works by (from left) Stanton Schmid, Su Xinping, and Gonzalo Fuenmayor.
Photo: Frank Frances
Designer Jay Jeffers Devises His Own Cinematic New York Residence
The West Coast creative brings a personal touch to a West Village gem, embracing a rich palette and a layered approach imbued with a sumptuous, clubby vibe
Anyone who visits Manhattan regularly understands the feeling: You know the place, but you don’t feel entirely of the place. For interior designer Jay Jeffers, whose bicoastal practice had him anchored in San Francisco and making monthly trips to the Big Apple for three decades, a desire to become a bonafide New Yorker put him on the hunt for an apartment last year. “I wanted to have my ‘places’: my bodega where I was recognized, easy meetups with my friends, a seat at the bar at the corner restaurant,” he says.
As if it were meant to be, his anticipated six-month search shrunk to a week when Jeffers found a quintessential city apartment in the West Village only two viewings in. He remained poker-faced as he took in the one-bedroom on a high floor: prewar with good bones, windows on three sides, views north and east, a working fireplace, and storage. “I asked the agent what was wrong with it,” he says. “I couldn’t believe it was still available.”
In his Lower Manhattan apartment, designer Jay Jeffers pairs textural pieces such as a vintage Paul Kingma cocktail table and a Coup Studio chair and ottoman with rich paint hues such as Benjamin Moore's Spicy Mustard on the ceiling and Dragon's Breath on the bookcase. Photo: Frank Frances
A Catherine Wagner artwork surmounts a fireplace flanked by a pair of vintage sconces. Photo: Frank Frances
With the real estate hurdle cleared, the designer, whose clients choose him and his 15-person firm for soulful interiors that reflect who they are, turned his discerning eye toward his own new home. “I went for a sexy men’s club,” says Jeffers of the moody makeover he gave the place, bathing the white walls in shades of tobacco, whiskey, and Merlot. Light floods the space during the day, contrasting with the boozy hues as if Jeffers had employed chiaroscuro to amp up the drama.
But it is when the sun goes down that the designer’s gift for the cinematic really shines. “I knew this could be one of those places that take on a new life in, say, the fall at dusk,” he says. “All candles and low light.”
“I will walk right past a piece of art 25 times a day, and other days it stops me in my tracks”
Jay Jeffers
Achieving that new life, however, takes more than flickering flames and lights on dimmers. Jeffers sees every one of his design projects as an exercise in layering—texture, color, objects, art, periods. From a modern mountaintop home and an urban loft to a historic city residence and a ranch house in the country, Jeffers leaves no layring opportunity unexplored. The Madrona, the late 19th-century hotel in Healdsburg, California, that he co-owns, found the designer paying homage to the aesthetic movement, in which beauty is created for its own sake.
At home, his love for piling it on is evident upon walking through the front door. The printed grass cloth wall covering goes the extra mile, with jubilant figures swinging, playing guitar, and sipping cocktails. “These people are really enjoying themselves,” he says.
In the living room, Jorge Zalszupin chairs face works by (from left) Stanton Schmid, Su Xinping, and Gonzalo Fuenmayor, among others. Photo: Frank Frances
And so did Jeffers as he filled the apartment with character. Sisal shows up in practically every room, because he “loves the way it frays as it ages.” Some of his favorite artworks from a former home in Napa now reside here, where he has discovered them anew. “I will walk right past a piece of art 25 times a day, and other days it stops me in my tracks. I just love this about collecting,” he says.
Portraiture is a passion, provenance not a primary concern. The designer just wants to have fun, displaying pieces for maximum enjoyment. “I love a low-hanging painting next to the bedside table,” he says—it is the last thing he sees before turning out the light. Every surface is considered, from the whimsically carved chest of drawers in the bedroom to the plumb link of the two-tone walls.
An expressive mural by Look Walls & Interiors in the entry is topped by a mirror Jeffers conceived for Arteriors. Photo: Frank Frances
Other selections from designer's collection of art are displayed above the Soho Home bed in the primary suite. Photo: Frank Frances
Fully ensconced, Jeffers feels like a New Yorker. Corner deli? Seat at the bar? Casual coffee dates? Check, check, and check. But it is perhaps the simple act of walking Royal, his King Charles spaniel (whose coat of ruby fur is apartment appropriate), to the park that has this designer besotted with his official resident status. “On the way home, I bought a silver dog bowl and stopped for oysters. Where else in the world can I do that so easily?”
A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2024 Collectors Issue under the headline “Local Factor.” Subscribe to the magazine.
Cover: The living room of Jay Jeffers’s West Village residence features Jorge Zalszupin chairs and works by (from left) Stanton Schmid, Su Xinping, and Gonzalo Fuenmayor.
Photo: Frank Frances
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