Renowned interior designer Robert Couturier, long known for his refined and historically informed projects, is known for interiors of extraordinary elegance — but his own home tells an equally fascinating story. In 2024, after decades in his SoHo loft, and a quick stop on the upper east side, Couturier made a quiet and considered move to a historic late-19th-century brownstone in Harlem, home to many of New York’s great architectural treasures. The transition marked a new chapter — one that followed the closing of beloved homes in Connecticut and Normandy, France, and a celebrated Christie’s sale of furnishings from his French residence that offered a rare glimpse into a lifetime of exceptional collecting.
Harlem’s brownstones, built during the neighborhood’s great boom of the 1880s and 1890s, are prized for their generous proportions, richly detailed facades, and formal room sequences — precisely the kind of historic architecture and spatial structure that has always suited Couturier’s sensibility. Here, his deep appreciation for European antiques, classical furniture, and layered decorative arts finds a natural home, blending French elegance with the grand scale of New York’s residential architecture at its finest.
The house is shared with his partner, landscape designer and horticulturist Sebastian Trujillo, who brings a beautifully counterbalancing vision to the interiors. Trujillo’s work is rooted in connecting people with plants and the natural world — and within the brownstone, he has introduced greenery, lightness, and a quiet modern sensibility that creates a compelling dialogue with Couturier’s antiques and history. The result is a home that feels both deeply personal and entirely original — where tradition and modernity, collecting and nature, French elegance and New York character all coexist in perfect harmony. You’ll be inspired, informed and entertained!!
