We all love a bit of theater in our lives, but it’s got to be the right kind. For New York–based interior designer Casey Kenyon, the best spaces mix drama with comfort. So it was fitting that one of his first clients, Stephen Sposito, was a theater director who commissioned Kenyon to design his studio in Hell’s Kitchen.
In the four years since the designer founded his firm, Studio Kenyon, he has swiftly gained a reputation for creating layered interiors with equal parts showmanship and sensitivity. He developed his eye first by working as an assistant to Marc Jacobs, helping the fashion designer while he was decorating his Greenwich Village home. “Casey is supportive, agile, and empathetic,” Jacobs says. “He absorbed my appreciation for things, researched them, and went further. He’s like a sponge.”
Eventually, Kenyon set out on a design path, working initially for elle decor A-List firm Gachot Studios and then as design director at the trendsetting New York lighting and furniture studio Apparatus. Sposito, who has been an assistant director on such Broadway shows as Wicked and The Book of Mormon and has directed operas, was a fan of Apparatus’s and noticed Kenyon’s work with the brand on Instagram. He reached out via direct message, and soon Kenyon had one of his firm’s earliest projects.
The brief was to squeeze the most out of the studio apartment Sposito shares with his partner, Michael Brandley, and make it sing. But given the vagaries of his profession, he also needed Kenyon to be flexible. “We hadto pause every so often and wait until I made a bit more money,” says Sposito, whose industry was hard hit during the pandemic. “And Casey was great about that.”
Located in a 1911 building, the 1,000-square-foot studio had gained a small bedroom with a windowed wall in its previous iteration. Kenyon swapped out its frosted glass wall for clear, adding corduroy curtains that can be closed for privacy. When the draperies are drawn, “it’s like a warm cocoon,” Sposito says.
For Kenyon, every project starts with an image. After gently dissuading Sposito from a quieter country aesthetic (think tiny stools and George Nakashima–esque furniture), the designer steered him in the polar-opposite direction toward a slick 1970s New York vibe. “In the city you need something that feels like a little city,” Kenyon says. He showed Sposito and Brandley a picture from a 1970s magazine story on the late philanthropist B. Gerald Cantor’s Manhattan apartment. Awash in browns and reds, that space had reflective surfaces and luscious textiles and a lighting scheme designed to be universally flattering.
While he gave it his own spin, Kenyon stayed quite faithful to the slick and sensual 1970s palette. In the living room, a vintage Jean Prouvé daybed upholstered in an inky velvet now separates the living and dining areas; nearby, a metal sculpture by Val Bertoia (Harry Bertoia’s son) adds delicate balance; an Apparatus light above the burl-wood table speaks the same dynamic sculptural language. Meanwhile, in a corner, a monumental Rick Owens vessel makes a statement of its own.
Design heavy hitters abound in the apartment, even if they are not front and center, like the Charlotte Perriand sconces scattered throughout the living and sleeping areas. Indeed, Kenyon endeavored not just to decorate, but also to help Sposito achieve his dream of becoming a collector. “I’ve always wanted to own great art and good furniture and antiques, but it seemed so out of reach for someone without tremendous wealth,” Sposito says. “Casey taught me that if you are passionate and into the hunt, deals can be found.”
The de Sede sofa in the living area is just one of many examples of the thrill of the chase. Purchased from one of Kenyon’s friends, the piece was in shreds, so Sposito was able to buy it at a great price; it now looks brand new in its buttery suede upholstery.
At the end of the day, this is still a compact studio apartment. But in Kenyon’s world, size doesn’t matter. To him, even a small space can be a stage for excitement. All it needs is the perfect plot.
This story originally appeared in the May 2023 issue of ELLE DECOR. SUBSCRIBE
