detail oriented

In a grand 1920s building on New York City's Upper East Side, designer Alyssa Kapíto crafts a refined home for her young family

- DAVID FOXLEY

Among the most cherished items in Alyssa Kapito's Upper East Side apartment are a pair of vintage cane chairs that she picked up years ago in Barcelona “for a song.” Yet instead of expounding on their silhouette or pedigree—which would not be unexpected from an interior designer with a master’s degree in art history from Columbia and a seat on the Yale School of Architecture board—she homes in on their endearing imperfections. “My kids stick their fingers in the wicker seats, but it doesn’t bother me,” Kapito, sitting in her softly lit living room within a 1925 neo-Italian Renaissance–style edifice, admits with a smile. “I find it charming—it gives character to them and they still work.”

THE DAUGHTERS' ROOM FEATURES CUSTOM BEDS AND A CUSTOM BRASS-ANDLACQUERED DRESSER, ALL BY ALYSSA KAPITO INTERIORS. A PAINTING BY HUNT SLONEM HANGS ABOVE THE DRESSER. TAKASHI MURAKAMI PILLOWS FROM STOCKX; PENDANT LIGHT FROM THE URBAN ELECTRIC CO.; WOOL RUG FROM STARK CARPET.

This could be a surprising refrain by someone whose projects—and own well-noted personal style, for that matter—epitomize polished tailoring. Though upon closer inspection, a level of patina is another component of the larger Alyssa Kapito Interiors package. Hers is an aesthetic that’s elegant but not overly precious. “Taking a piece of furniture into your home—you’re giving it the provenance, you’re giving it the extra life, then you pass it on to somebody else and they give it the same, and by the end it has all these stories,” the New York native, who launched her namesake decorating practice in 2013, says of her approach. “So yeah, we live here.”