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HOUSE TOUR | ROOMS & GARDENS | WORLD OF CABANA
In New York's Sleepy Hollow, interior designer Joyce Sitterly added buttery walls, caramel tones, tactile textiles, and a neo-classical spin to give layers of warmth to an impersonal new-build, turning it into an elegant home that feels both collected and characterful.
BY BUSOLA EVANS | ROOMS & GARDENS | 13 JUNE 2025
Sleepy Hollow, a quaint village located on the east bank of New York’s Hudson River, may be best known for its whispering woods and haunted folklore, but it also possesses a quieter beauty which slowly unfurls itself. The same can be said about this once-lacklustre townhouse, which sits on the riverfront, that has been transformed into an elegant home filled with texture and warmth by interior designer Joyce Sitterly.
Her client, a gentleman who works in investment, had bought the four-bed, five bathroom property and already engaged another interior designer but was underwhelmed with the results. A mutual contact connected him with Joyce in 2021 and they had an instant rapport. There was no determining brief – apart from it needing to be a comfortable space for his four children – and the house bore all the hallmarks of a new build; bland, boxy rooms which felt emotionally flat and had little sense of identity.
Joyce, well-versed in creating homes with narratives specific to each client, was unfazed, however. “The house was liveable but did not reflect the sophistication of the owner,” she recalls. “He is a very intelligent man who enjoys travelling, history, music and wine so I decided to focus on his interests and translate those design-wise.”
Joyce also had a wild card in her possession: she had worked on the home of their mutual contact, a mirror-image townhouse also in Sleepy Hollow, which gave her insider knowledge of her new project’s internal footprint even before she had stepped foot inside. There was another reason this was particularly beneficial. Joyce, who launched her eponymous studio in New York back in 2011, moved to the UK in 2018 from where she now works remotely on her largely US-based projects.
“Coming into the project knowing how it would be was such an advantage,” she says. “It meant less time spent over there getting to know the space because I already knew it.” Joyce’s approach was instinctive and layered, rooted in a genuine understanding of the client. “I know he likes history and archeology so I used a lot of classical sculpture and references because it transcends periods and styles and feels modern,” she says.
“I wanted the house to feel like a gentleman's home, not like it had been decorated by the woman in his life or an interior designer. So I made sure the pieces represented him in some way and weren't just anonymous decorative choices.” The ground floor holds the mud room and the owner’s office while the first floor has an open-plan space incorporating the living and dining rooms as well as the kitchen.
However, Joyce was keen that each area has its own pulse. “I wanted three distinct rooms, even if there weren't walls, with threads that pulled them together. I felt this had a more sophisticated feel." To that end, Joyce uses a mix of caramel and butter textures to create a grounded, yet uplifting look, enlivened with splashes of contrasting color. “The room feels tea and tobacco stained,” she notes. “It's my favourite palette because it’s so warm.”
At one far end in the living area, an existing leather sofa was balanced with a chaise from Italian makers Hebanon Fratelli Basile and collectibles such as a Laverne coffee table and a Meiji period Japanese screen, and a floor lamp by French designer Daniel Pigeon. “These pieces give him a sense of history while being just modern enough for him."
Atop a Chinese altar are fossils, believed to be millions of years old, embedded into stone and there is a prized bronze dove sculpture by artist Ilana Goor. Joyce’s confident mixing of eras can also be seen in the dining room, which features a Georgian mirror surrounded by fossilized plates, another nod to Greek and Roman history as is the coral Caesar bust displayed on a pedestal and plaster relics both in the serene main bedroom.
Living in London certainly gives Joyce’s work a more European flair than many of her US counterparts. She embraces several esteemed British brands in this project, including Rose Uniacke for the buttery curtain fabric and the dining table pendants, a hallway mirror from Jamb, and in the client’s bedroom, ionic column curtain trims from Samuel & Sons and a striking landscape mural by de Gournay. “There are British brands that are so well known in the UK, and not as much in the States, so they feel more novel. It definitely gives me an advantage when designing in the States,” she says.
For Joyce – who studied at Parsons School of Design in New York and worked in Manhattan’s New Museum as well as for auction houses prior to becoming a designer – art is central to all her projects. There is an oil painting by American artist Clarence Holbrook Carter in the client’s office, while the dining room features a large work by Mary Nelson Sinclair. An artwork by abstract expressionist Richard Andres is in the kitchen.
“Art is a very important aspect of my work,” says Joyce. “It adds so much to a space. Throughout the house, the emphasis is on tactile, honest materials that have a quiet dignity. “I wanted the home to feel like it had evolved over time,” says Joyce. “With that comes a soulfulness, sense of character and a feeling that is completely timeless.”
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