This Over-the-Top NYC Apartment Mixes Hip and Luxe

As the lead designer for his own company, Traders Haven Design, New York-based designer Anthony Dunning is responsible for the creation of beautiful spaces in many homes and businesses. His own home, a two-story apartment in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, is a living portfolio of his design ideas, and a design-lover's dream.

It was only a year ago that Anthony Dunning first set eyes on his new home. The 1,600+ square foot duplex was a completely new building with none of the issues associated with long use and multiple owners, and all the promise of a blank canvas. It was exactly what the designer had been looking for. “Finding a new build let me come in and customize many of the details to make sure that the apartment fit my lifestyle,” he says.

Anthony wasted no time in putting his stamp on the new home. “All of the modifications were done at once and completed in a two-month span,” he recalls. “Initially the apartment was four bedrooms. There was an additional bedroom on the upper level of the townhouse next to the living room, which was modified to expand the living room area. Doing that doubled the size of the living room.”

New Yorkers are known for getting the most out of small spaces. So for Anthony Dunning, doubling the living room size presented the novel problem of filling it up. “The living room was definitely the hardest area to design,” he reveals. “I wanted to have as much seating as possible so I selected two identical ten foot sofas and placed them across from one another on the dominant walls. It worked out extremely well and it doubled my seating capacity.”