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Georgis & Mirgorodsky Reimagine a Connecticut Mansion, Staggering in Both its Scale and Glamour

Thanks to a dramatic makeover by William T. Georgis and Ily Mirgorodsky, the Tudor Revival home brims with distinctive decor and wall-to-wall personality

By Vicky Lowry Photography by David Mitchell Styled by Anita Sarsidi
Spacious living room with a fireplace, large windows, elegant furniture, and a unique chandelier.
The living room of a Greenwich, Connecticut, home renovated by designer and architect William T. Georgis and architect Ilya Mirgorodsky incorporates classical elements, such as the antique stone mantelpiece and the 18th-century Baroque mirror above it as well as a pair of Jansen Louis XVI–style lounge chairs. A Bavarian antler chandelier from Cedric DuPont Antiques is suspended above a Georgis & Mirgorodsky sofa. Situated near the windows is a bronze sculpture by Tracey Emin.

William T. Georgis is one of the most adroit designers working today, but even he was a bit cowed by a commission to renovate a 12,500-square-foot, 1990s Tudor Revival mansion with 14- to 22-foot-high ceilings and six bedrooms in Greenwich, Connecticut. “The first time I walked in, I was overwhelmed,” Georgis admits. “Everything about it was a little ersatz, lacking any kind of character or detail. It was daunting, as there was nothing to salvage.”

A trained architect and art historian, Georgis is a consummate tastemaker with a special touch for integrating art and design into his striking interiors. With his firm, Georgis & Mirgorodsky, he has handled every imaginable type of space, from landmarks such as the Seagram Building’s soigné Grill and Pool restaurants and the lobby of the Lever House in Manhattan to sprawling estates in the Hamptons and a rustic lodge in Big Sky, Montana. Yet this cavernous Sheetrock shell offered no initial clues of its potential when he laid eyes on it in 2022.

Elegant interior with high ceilings, checkered floor, lush plants, and a central fountain, creating a serene and inviting atmosphere.
The revamped conservatory features checkerboard limestone flooring with an early 20th-century French limestone fountain at the center. A pair of Joy de Rohan Chabot bronze chairs is installed along the windows.

Georgis did have some aces up his sleeve. He and his business partner, architect Ilya Mirgorodsky, have ample experience infusing homes with personality and razzle-dazzle, and they had already designed a New York apartment for these clients, an art-collecting couple with three children. Also, by fortuitous coincidence, the mansion’s original builder, Jim Xhema, had been the contractor for the renovation of their city dwelling. “He wanted to revitalize the house and make it what it should have been,” Georgis recalls.

They approached the project “as if the couple had inherited their grandmother’s house and wanted to make their own mark,” says Georgis. “It’s psychological always, intuiting what they may want but aren’t able to articulate.”

Living room with green chairs, brown sofa, large blue artwork, and decorative accents.
An Alex Katz painting presides over a living room sitting area, where a Georgis & Mirgorodsky sofa, framed by antique Blanc de Chine lamps, is grouped with an English Gothic Revival chair upholstered in a Clarence House leopard-print silk velvet and a pair of green 1940s chauffeuses by Baptistin Spade from Maison Gerard. The blue Murano mosaic table is by Edward Wormley for Dunbar.
Elegant interior with archway, hanging plants, checkered floor, modern art, and classic bench in a well-lit room.
Georgis and Mirgorodsky, along with their firm’s senior interior designer, Carly Frey, tackled significant structural changes, including introducing English country details such as brawny moldings and archways in the conservatory.

“It also means 2,000 paint choices,” Mirgorodsky adds with a laugh. “This renovation required bold moves that may be grand but inevitably made it more unique.”

First off, Georgis and Mirgorodsky, along with their firm’s senior interior designer, Carly Frey, tackled significant structural changes, including introducing English country details such as brawny moldings and archways in the conservatory, which previously had been used as a nondescript passageway. They also reconfigured the kitchen and primary suite, among other rooms, to make them both suitable for a modern young family and inviting for weekends in the country.

Modern kitchen with wooden cabinets, island, and green backsplash; open doorway to sunlit plant-filled hallway.
The kitchen features walls clad in a Cowtan & Tout grass cloth, custom cabinetry in white rift oak with glass panels of laminated fabric, a backsplash of Ann Sacks tiles, and Bianco Polare countertops by Lapitec.
Cozy library with a lit fireplace, wooden shelves filled with books, and eclectic furniture, including a zebra-patterned stool.
In the oak-paneled library, an Ed Clark painting mounted above the Victorian cast-iron mantelpiece overlooks a Georgis & Mirgorodsky sofa and ottoman. The Jane Hallworth chandelier is from Blackman Cruz, as are the sconces over the fireplace, while 19th-century Swiss Black Forest chairs surround the Karl Springer game table.

Adding sumptuous yet toned-down surfaces to the interiors helped to amp up the distinctiveness and lend more of an old-world look. Handmade Barkskin paper that recalls ancient stone wraps the entry foyer, the living room walls were sheathed in hand-troweled plaster the color of warm clay, and a de Gournay silk damask wall covering with an Ottoman tulip motif now envelops the dining room.

The decor is intentionally “all over the map,” says Georgis. “It’s Eurocentric with an American inflection.” He peppered Gothic Revival pieces throughout, layering in 18th- and 19th-century antiques as well as modern designs with a robust, sculptural quality.

Elegant bedroom with a modern four-poster bed, blue dressers, chandelier, abstract art, and a round table with green plants.
A Phillip Jeffries abaca wall covering lines the owners’ bedroom, where a custom Georgis & Mirgorodsky oak canopy bed is dressed in E. Braun & Co. linens, with silver-gilt mirrors and Gustavian-style nightstands topped with Chinese temple jar lamps on either side. A Sarah Crowner artwork enlivens the space, as does a Jansen brushed-steel table with a lacquered glass top by Luigi Saccardo and a 19th-century Swedish neoclassical chandelier from Guy Regal.

Collecting contemporary art is a passion for the clients, who have assembled their spirited trove over the past two decades. Often a notable work ignited the design scheme for a room. In the atmospheric entry, a Richard Serra drawing made with sweeps of ink and silica hangs above a 20th-century Italian console in iron and smoked glass. A vivid blue painting of a tree by Alex Katz informs one area of the living room, joining 1940s Baptistin Spade slipper chairs in lime-green upholstery and a colorful Murano mosaic cocktail table by Edward Wormley for Dunbar.

By the fireplace, a sensuous curved sofa of Georgis & Mirgorodsky’s design, covered in a tobacco-brown Pierre Frey mohair, wraps around a seating area like a hug, joining Jansen Louis XVI–style chairs and a Jean-Luc Le Mounier cocktail table in bronze and dark oak. Tucked in another corner, a colorful mosaic painting by Rashid Johnson tops a gleaming Aldo Tura console draped with an installation of glass lamps by artist Jorge Pardo. It’s an electrifying vignette that is pure Georgis.

Modern dining room with colorful abstract art, round table, chairs, large window, and hanging paper lantern.
A striking canvas by Stanley Whitney anchors the breakfast area, enveloped in a tactile grass cloth wall covering by Cowtan & Tout.
Elegant room with a striped armchair, modern art, and decorative plant on a metal table in a softly lit interior.
In the entry foyer, Barkskin wallpaper by Caba Company recalls ashlar masonry, the woodwork was painted a stony hue, and the floors were washed with a gray stain. A canvas by Sarah Morris, an Italian iron and Murano glass console, a 19th-century stone crocket fragment, and a Lalique lamp complete the mise-en-scène.

The owners are cerebral and deliberate in their approach to acquiring art. “We see a lot of works from an artist before we buy—we don’t do spur-of-the-moment purchases,” the wife says. “Luckily, our tastes are very similar. Maybe it’s our love language.”

Several works were bought specifically for the house, including one that was commissioned—a signature “sewn” abstraction by Sarah Crowner that’s stitched together from segments of blue- and white-painted canvas—for their palatial bedroom suite. To tame the scale, the firm came up with custom creations such as the towering tester bed and a daybed, the latter more than 12 feet in length, and infused the space with dreamy shades of blue that play off the painting’s vibrant hue.

Elegant room with a wooden table, floral decor, lamps, and framed botanical artwork on the wall.
For the powder room, 1932 photogravures by the German artist Karl Blossfeldt “are doleful and emotive especially against the silk wallpaper by Fromental, which conjures Chinese mountain paintings.”
Elegant living room with earthy tones, patterned chairs, wooden coffee table, large windows, and modern light fixtures.
In the family room, Gothic Revival furniture mixes with antique wicker, contemporary lighting, and a B&B Italia sofa.

“The modernity of the painting liberates the interior from being overly tasteful,” Georgis explains. “My clients are very elegant and understated. The art is the edgiest thing in there.”

A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2026 Spring Issue under the headline “Getting Into Character.” Subscribe to the magazine.