What does a longtime Kentuckian’s dream home in New York City look like? Art-filled, funky, and colorful, according to a creative couple from Lexington who commissioned Manhattan-based Australian AD PRO Directory designer Paris Forino to decorate theirs—a 9,650-square-foot town house in Greenwich Village. Originally built in 1847, the six-story residence once belonged to millionaire financier Malcolm Forbes and played host to his many extravagant, celebrity-filled soirees. In 2012, when Forino had just begun her solo design studio in New York, developers Todd Cohen and Terrence Lowenberg hired her to complete a gut renovation of the former party palace, making its layout, finishes, and period detailing suitable for contemporary living with the help of Issac & Stern Architects. After the building sold to its new owners in 2019, they called on Forino to finish her job—designing the interiors for the couple’s own love of entertaining.

“The wife didn’t want it to be buttoned-up and stuffy,” explains the designer of her clients’ initial brief for the home, where they split their time with another in Austin. “She wanted it fun, with interesting, artful objects,” and to embrace their penchant for color, something Forino excels in. To inject the five-bedroom, six-bathroom house with a bright spirit, the designer created a sunny yellow throughline. The hue can be seen across the town house’s two floors of public gathering areas, designed to flow naturally into each other. In the dining room, a willow mural wallpaper by Fromental and the linen harlequin-print curtains sport a goldenrod colorway, while the adjacent catering kitchen has walls and cabinetry painted in another more buttery shade. The soaring double-height living room, complete with 17-foot-tall windows and a hidden bar, picks up the color as an accent—it upholsters a Jacob Kjaer wingback chair and ottoman and covers cushions on the built-in benches flanking the fireplace.

The 17-foot-tall living room’s tremendous scale is mitigated by a library overlook on the second floor and a floral-inspired, plaster-finished chandelier, but the room’s design began at the floor with a custom black-and-white Sacco rug. From there, AD PRO Directory designer Paris Forino layered on color and form through the furnishings, including a curved Ransom Culler sofa from Thayer Coggin, a Jacob Kjaer wingback chair, and a glass-and-oak cocktail table by Grzegorz Majka. The pillows wear a Dedar fabric.

Custom cushions upholstered in a poppy Jim Thompson fabric top the built-in benches flanking the fireplace in the double-height living room. The home’s yellow throughline is picked up in the bench pillows and a Jacob Kjaer wingback chair and ottoman. Artworks by Michael Scott (right) and Juergen Teller.

A willow-patterned wallpaper by Fromental wraps the sunny dining room, where the custom table is surrounded by chairs from Cassina and the curtains are made of a Paris L’après-Midi linen. The glass-and-resin sconces are by Draga & Aurel.

Adjacent to the dining room, the butter-yellow catering kitchen is decorated with a whimsical side chair by Christian Astuguevieille for Holly Hunt.

A wood-paneled powder room features an Apparatus sconce and a stone sink with a Duravit faucet.

In the sunlit main kitchen, which has access to the home’s back garden, Bright Group stools at the island wear two green fabrics by Paris L’après-Midi.

An artwork by Frank Veteran decorates the colorful breakfast area with its custom banquette with a geometric Pierre Frey linen twill backrest and Dedar-upholstered wool satin cushion, dining table by William Earle, and Bright Group armchairs covered in a Dedar floral print. The chandelier is by Gabriel Scott, and the room’s striped wallpaper is by Phillip Jeffries.

The staircase, and its bespoke blue ombré runner by Sacco, climbs three stories around a hanging light fixture by Articolo Studios.

The husband’s blue-and-green office is wrapped in an Ashanti-inspired wallpaper by Zak+Fox and decorated with a custom sleeper sofa by Dmitriy & Co, a desk and chair from Suite NY, and a rug by Sacco.

In this bold bedroom, a striped Dedar wallpaper and curtains of a blue-gray wool by Paris L’après-Midi surround the bed with its custom gray-velvet headboard and John Derian Company bedding and pillows. The custom bench at the end of the bed also wears a silver velvet, while a mustard rug enlivens the space.

The cozy family room is made for relaxing on its custom Thayer Coggin sofa covered in a silver velvet by the Sign and the plush ottoman in a raspberry bouclé by Jim Thompson. The swing-arm wall light and the Christian Astuguevieille for Pierre Frey curtains add black as an accent color.