Known for his candy-colored jewelry and equally vibrant clothing style, jewelry designer Mish Tworkowski likes to immerse his universe in color. Not surprisingly, the newly renovated Greenwich Village apartment he shares with his life and business partner, architect Joseph Singer, reflects the same playfulness and joie de vivre. “We’re not afraid of color,” says the designer, whose brand is Mish Fine Jewelry.
Tworkowski bought the pre-war apartment in 2004. “It was love at first sight,” he says of the two-bedroom apartment in a building described as neo-Renaissance in style. He loved the peculiar character of the space, which has high, double-height rooms with coffered ceilings and a narrow staircase leading up to the bedrooms. “It felt like a miniature version of a large English apartment,” he says.
He and Singer lived there until 2021, when they moved to Palm Beach and relocated the Mish store, formerly located in Downtown Manhattan, into a 1920s Addison-Mizner building. He enlisted his longtime friend, ELLE DECOR A-list interior designer Katie Ridder, to transform the store into a very Mish-like setting. Now painted in his signature lavender and covered in patterns, the space is a cheery showcase for Tworkowski’s nature-inspired jewelry, like gold sea urchin earrings with turquoise drops and gold bark-textured cuffs sprinkled with diamonds.
The dining room in Mish Tworkowski and Joseph Singer’s New York duplex apartment, which they renovated with interior designer Katie Ridder. The table is by Founders Furniture, the walls are painted in Farrow & Ball’s Pink Cup, and the diptych is by William Dunlap.
Palm Beach was great, but he and Singer weren’t ready to give up New York. The move south gave them the opportunity to transform their Manhattan apartment into a unique second home that they use for their frequent trips from Florida. Once again, they turned to Ridder, a kindred spirit the jeweler describes as an “extraordinary colorist.” She worked with Singer, who oversaw the architectural design. A new powder room (clad in a pastel pineapple print) was created, a dumbwaiter was removed to expand the bar and pantry area, and a guest bedroom was converted into a lavish dressing room.
Step into this vibrant Greenwich Village apartment
As soon as you enter the tortoiseshell-patterned foyer, the couple’s quirky style is evident. “The apartment is so clearly a reflection of them,” says Ridder, who considered their vast collections of art, furniture and antiques when choosing colors and fabrics. In the living room, the starting point was a newly acquired Donald Sultan painting of red roses, which hangs on dreamy blue walls. There is art everywhere, from Alexis Rockman’s Paris under water Canvas hanging above the fireplace, to Harry Watrous’ Egyptian vase Artworks and an oil painting of a cactus by Matt Smith. The couple have amassed their collection over decades at auctions, antique shops and while traveling, and it is anything but eclectic, ranging from Old Masters to Hawaiian floral and landscape paintings by Shirley Russell.
In the master bathroom, the walls are clad in Gioia Venatino marble, the towels are by Matouk and the artwork is by Jessye McDowell.
The couple loves gardening: They tend the plants and flowers at their weekend home in Millbrook, New York, and both serve on public garden councils. Their passion for nature is evident throughout their New York apartment, where botanical artworks – by Cecil Beaton and Jean Cocteau, as well as pieces from the estate of Bunny Mellon – hang in nearly every room.
Since they rarely host formal dinner parties, Singer says it made sense to transform the dining room into a “cozy and pleasant place to eat, read, and relax.” The space’s imaginative design includes salmon-colored walls, a custom cobalt-blue leather banquette, a vintage metal bookcase originally from a French library, and two Jansen-style bergères. The kitchen is more functional and streamlined, with white subway-style walls and stainless steel appliances, but cabinets in two shades of purple and a black-and-purple linoleum floor add plenty of flair.
A former bedroom was converted into a dressing room for Tworkowski. The desk is a stainless steel restaurant work table, the bamboo shade is from Shade Store and the rug is from Mark Nelson Designs.
Nothing pleases Tworkowski more than his new bedroom-sized dressing room filled with his colorful wardrobe (including several floral-print jackets). A stainless steel restaurant table in the center displays personal treasures, from vintage boxes and miniature watering cans to a large seashell that Singer found on the beach on their first vacation together and gave to Tworkowski as a gift. Later, the jeweler made a pair of cufflinks for Singer from his own collected seashells. “Nature and all its colors,” he says, “inspire my jewelry and my world.”
This story originally appeared in the September 2024 issue of ELLE DECOR. SUBSCRIBE
