Interior Designer in Manhattan, NY
Studios and one-bedrooms make up 54% of Manhattan's 927,000 housing units, according to the 2023 New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey.
Cityzen Designs plans Manhattan apartments and lofts around how you live, with built-in cabinetry, daylight, and storage drawn into the layout. Our Manhattan portfolio runs from a 950 sq ft Chelsea apartment to a 3,000 sq ft NoHo loft.
Tell us about the apartment you have and the one you want to live in.
Plan your Manhattan apartment Consultations are confidential.
Key Highlights
Studios and one-bedrooms make up 54% of Manhattan's housing units, and two-bedrooms another 30% (NYC Housing and Vacancy Survey, 2023).
The Alikhani-Petroulas Residence is a 3,000 sq ft NoHo loft with a stainless-steel stair that doubles as cabinetry and countertop.
Cityzen's Manhattan projects include lofts and apartments in NoHo, SoHo, Chelsea, the Lower East Side, and the Upper East Side.
New York State treats "Certified Interior Designer" as a protected title, and anyone may use the title "Interior Designer."
Azin Valy, a graduate of The Cooper Union School of Architecture, has more than two decades of design and architecture experience.
Interior design services for Manhattan apartments and lofts
Cityzen Designs offers full interior renovations for Manhattan apartments and lofts, from the floor plan and built-in cabinetry to materials, color, and the art on the walls.
Each row below starts from something a client asked for and ends at a finished Manhattan project from our residential interior design portfolio.
| What you want in the apartment | What the design work involves | Who else is involved | Where we have done it |
|---|---|---|---|
| An open plan in place of a divided two-bedroom | Removing walls and regrouping living, working, and sleeping areas | A registered architect or licensed engineer for any permit drawings, plus your contractor | Lazzaro Residence, Lower East Side, 1,000 sq ft |
| More storage without more rooms | Built-in cabinetry that also serves as desks, seating, shelving, and counters | Your contractor and cabinetmaker | Colp-Haber Residence, Upper East Side, 2,200 sq ft |
| Daylight reaching interior rooms | Translucent walls and liquid-crystal glass that switches from clear to opaque | Your contractor and glass fabricator | Alikhani-Petroulas Residence, NoHo, 3,000 sq ft |
| A home built around a collection | Layout and cabinetry planned around furniture or art you already own | Your contractor and cabinetmaker | McFarland Residence, Chelsea, 950 sq ft (I-Beam Design) |
| A kitchen at the center of family life | A long island for meals and a buffet for larger gatherings, linked to living and screening rooms | Your contractor | Neshat Residence, SoHo, 3,000 sq ft (I-Beam Design) |
Who Manhattan interior design is for
Manhattan interior design serves households in compact apartments, where one room has to cover two or three jobs.
The 2023 Housing and Vacancy Survey counts 504,600 studios and one-bedrooms in the borough, 54% of its housing units. Two-bedroom units add 278,100, or 30%. Only 16% of Manhattan units have three or more bedrooms.
A well-planned Manhattan apartment works like a ship's cabin. Every surface earns a second use: the bench hides files, the bookcase screens the bed, and the stair holds the pots.
Take a couple in a one-bedroom who both work from home three days a week. A single run of built-in cabinetry along the longest wall can start as a desk, step down into a window seat, and finish as kitchen storage. The bedroom stays a bedroom, and neither person works from the sofa.
Is a Manhattan apartment too small to need an interior designer?
A small apartment leaves less room for mistakes, so planning matters more as square footage drops. The Lazzaro Residence on the Lower East Side covers 1,000 sq ft, and the design turned a conventional two-bedroom into an open loft with desks, counters, and window seats built from maple-veneer plywood. Compact layouts reward careful design.
What does an interior designer do in a Manhattan apartment?
In general terms, interior designers make indoor spaces functional, safe, and beautiful, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The job covers how a space will be used, layout sketches, materials and furnishings, cost estimates, and coordination with contractors. In a Manhattan apartment, that work centers on plan, storage, and light.
What our Manhattan interior design service includes
Our Manhattan interior design service covers the whole apartment, and the scope below comes from finished projects in our portfolio.
Full interior renovations of apartments and lofts
Open-plan reconfiguration, including removing walls between rooms
Custom built-in cabinetry and shelving
Custom furniture that doubles as architecture, such as platforms, seating, and bookcases
Material and color palettes
Refinishing existing floors
Designing around the furniture and art you already own
Translucent and smart-glass partitions that let light pass between rooms
Interior and exterior work on some projects, such as the roof garden at the Alikhani-Petroulas Residence
Where a new layout needs permit drawings, a registered architect or licensed engineer prepares and files them. We coordinate with that architect, the engineer, and your contractor so the built rooms match the design.
Services such as single-room decorating or furniture purchasing terms are best raised at the consultation, where Azin Valy can say what fits your project.
Can an interior designer add storage without making the apartment feel smaller?
Yes, when the storage takes over jobs that walls and loose furniture used to do. At the Colp-Haber Residence, one continuous band of birch cabinetry topped in yellow becomes a desk, storage, seating, bookshelves, and a powder-room vanity. Built-in elements define each activity, so the 2,200 sq ft apartment reads as one open space.
Alikhani-Petroulas Residence, a 3,000 sq ft NoHo loft
The Alikhani-Petroulas Residence is a 3,000 sq ft interior and exterior renovation of a NoHo loft, designed by Cityzen Designs for Nasim Alikhani and Ted Petroulas.
A sculptural stainless-steel stair connects the kitchen to the children's playroom and the roof garden. Along the way, the stair doubles as cabinetry and countertop, and a removable section rolls away as a ladder. Slip-resistant glass steps float above the kitchen.
Elsewhere in the loft, a mahogany fireplace surround holds storage and display shelves. Between the primary bathroom and the entry, a liquid-crystal glass wall changes from transparent to opaque.
Nasim Alikhani, chef and owner of Sofreh, said: "The end product far surpassed my expectations (which were very high to begin with)."
The New York Times covered the loft in an article by Elaine Louie, "Economy of Function and Art on a Grand Scale," and Domino featured it as well. Other coverage of the studio's work appears on our press and publications page.
Most of our residential portfolio sits in Manhattan. The range includes:
The Lazzaro Residence, a 1,000 sq ft apartment in the landmark Amalgamated building on the Lower East Side, opened into a loft around the client's Eames furniture
The Neshat Residence, a 3,000 sq ft SoHo loft for artist Shirin Neshat, designed by I-Beam Design
The McFarland Residence, a 950 sq ft Chelsea apartment where I-Beam Design built a cabinetry wall around a red and pink painting
The Colp-Haber Residence, a 2,200 sq ft Upper East Side apartment reworked for living and working
Have a loft or apartment that needs a stair, a wall, or a kitchen to do more?
Talk through your loft with Azin Valy
How a Manhattan interior design project with Cityzen runs
A Manhattan project with Cityzen starts with a confidential consultation about how your household lives, then moves into design shaped by that conversation.
Our design approach puts context first: how you live, what you value, and the character of the building you live in. From there, rooms and built-ins are planned to adapt and serve more than one purpose. Azin Valy also encourages clients to dream beyond the usual apartment layout.
Client testimonials describe how projects run day to day. One client, G.L., said the renovation finished on time and on budget and that "I-Beam over-delivered on every aspect of the project." Another, T.P., described a renovation that grew larger and longer than planned and was handled with diligence throughout.
Recommended: For the first consultation, bring a floor plan, a few photos of each room, and a list of the furniture and art you plan to keep.
Will the design still feel current in ten years?
One client, N.A., wrote that a renovation finished 11 years earlier still looks modern. Our design starts from how a household lives and the character of its building, and a plan based on daily habits keeps working as the years pass. Built-in cabinetry, stainless steel, and solid wood also hold up to daily use in a busy apartment.
Azin Valy leads every Cityzen Designs project
Azin Valy, founder of Cityzen Designs, leads each project and brings more than two decades of work in design, interiors, and architecture.
A graduate of The Cooper Union School of Architecture, she co-founded the architecture and design practice I-Beam Design in New York. Her projects have ranged from 250,000 sf of international headquarters to 250 sf of refugee housing. She has served as a guest critic at Parsons School of Design, Pratt Institute, Columbia University, the Maryland Institute College of Art, Ball State University, and City College of New York.
New York Magazine's Design Hunting featured the studio's work in 2014, 2015, and 2016, as listed on our awards page. For Manhattan clients, that background means one designer who can read a floor plan as closely as a fabric sample.
Commercial and hospitality interior design in Manhattan
Manhattan is where most of Cityzen's commercial and hospitality work sits, from offices and showrooms to restaurants and bars.
Our commercial interior design projects include the 7,000 sq ft Andrew Davidson & Co. offices, which I-Beam Design, the practice Azin Valy co-founded, planned around a circular conference room inside Louis Sullivan's Bayard-Condict Building. Inc. and Architizer named the space one of the World's Coolest Offices in 2011. The commercial work also includes a 9,000 sq ft bridal showroom and offices on Fifth Avenue for designer Reem Acra, completed with I-Beam Design. The plan leads clients through the collections, then into smaller rooms for consultations and fittings.
Our hospitality interior design includes the Macao Trading Co. restaurant in Tribeca, a 4,000 sq ft I-Beam Design project with an 82-seat dining room under a mezzanine. Salvaged teak lattice screens divide the room into smaller zones, and custom light fixtures reuse antique bicycles, boats, and rickshaws.
Offices, restaurants, and apartments in the city share one problem, too much to fit in too little space, and the same answer of built-ins that do several jobs.
Key Takeaways
Studios and one-bedrooms make up 54% of Manhattan's 927,000 housing units (NYC Housing and Vacancy Survey, 2023).
Cityzen's Manhattan service covers full renovations, open-plan reconfiguration, built-in cabinetry, custom furniture, materials, and color.
The Alikhani-Petroulas Residence is a 3,000 sq ft NoHo loft whose stair doubles as cabinetry, countertop, and rolling ladder.
New York protects the title "Certified Interior Designer," and architectural or engineering drawings come from a registered architect or licensed engineer.
Ready to plan how your apartment works, room by room?
FAQ
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In a renovation, an interior designer plans how the rooms work and then designs what fills them: layout, built-in cabinetry, materials, color, and finishes. At Cityzen Designs, Azin Valy also coordinates with the architect, engineer, and contractor, so the apartment that gets built matches the design agreed at the start.
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Many Manhattan renovations need both. New York State calls interior design certification a title law only, and interior design work cannot include architectural or engineering services. When walls, plumbing, or structure change, a registered architect or licensed engineer prepares the drawings, and the interior designer shapes the rooms around them.
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Yes. Several Manhattan projects in our portfolio began with what the client already owned. The Lazzaro Residence was planned around a collection of mid-century Eames furniture. At the McFarland Residence, I-Beam Design built a wall of cabinetry around a red and pink painting, and the painting also works as a concealed door.
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Our published Manhattan projects are full renovations, from a 950 sq ft Chelsea apartment to a 3,000 sq ft NoHo loft. The studio works on newly purchased homes and existing residences alike. If your project is a single room, describe it at the consultation, and Azin Valy will say whether the scope fits.
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The first consultation is a confidential conversation about your home, how your household uses it, and what you want it to do. A floor plan, photos, and a list of pieces you plan to keep make the meeting more useful.