Our client’s Georgian townhouse on the Upper East Side is filled with light, good architecture, and comfortable spaces. Its tall windows and clean classic lines form the perfect backdrop for rooms that feel richly decorated yet still possess a sense of refinement and repose. The living room scheme sets off an array of colors found in the carpet – maize yellow, rust and green – against a soft white background and animates them further with touches of deep blue on the upholstery. Adding a meditative quality to the mix is a muted gold leaf Chinese landscape painting above the sofa that lends a sense of calm to the room. The dining room was planned around a unique set of antique Chinese wallpaper panels filled with flowering trees and exotic birds. The room’s architecture was specially designed to frame the wallpaper in vertical sections of paneling and to promote its idea of the garden with features such as French doors leading to a terrace. The furnishings include an important Victorian buffet by Talbot, unexpected in its weight and heft. Its sense of gravity compliments the similarly detailed mahogany dining table and chairs and contrasts with the lightness of the wallpaper. The play of light and heavy ultimately works, achieving a sense of balance with stylish effect. The Master Bedroom’s original mantel posed an interesting challenge. Its blue and white porcelain face is a strong feature of the room but needed to be less of a forceful presence. We decided to deliberately combine it with other strong patterned elements but made sure they were grounded in neutral colors such as beige, brown or black to allow the patterns to assert themselves. Note the chair and bed fabric with large pink flowers and foliage on beige grounds, walls covered in beige on beige scattered leaf designs, and the needlepoint area carpet in front of the chairs with a dense assortment of Victorian scrolls and flowers set on black. By highly controlling the color, the strong patterns remained in check but created a subtle dialogue with the mantel.