This Fabulous Upper-East-Side Apartment Was Home to Royalty (Really!)
On New York City’s Upper East Side, a four-bedroom home facing Central Park was in need of a little love before hitting the market. But the home wasn’t just any property — the over-4,000-square-foot home is located in a building constructed in 1925 and was designed personally by the building’s chief architect, George F. Pelham, Jr., as his own residence. Even juicier? Most recently, it was owned by members of European royalty: Sicilian Princess Maria Niscemi Romanoff and her husband, Russian Prince Alexander Nikitich Romonoff, for over 50 years.
The home had a lot of history — but when it went on the market for the first time in five decades, it needed to be updated for modern buyers.
“Period homes sit on the market for a long time,” Jason Saft, founder of Staged To Sell Home, explained. “This project took a solid month of planning. We wanted to think about what would attract someone who is of a different age range — something that looks and feels more modern, but with keeping in mind the tradition of the space.”
The client ended up spending about $50,000 on the staging, which included the design consultation, furniture rental, installation, delivery, and removal. Jason staged the main floor and three of the bedrooms. About 75 percent of the furniture used for the staging belonged to his company, with a few items here and there that were property of the estate.
“I wanted to pay homage to the princess who called this castle her home for over half a century,” Jason said. “Princess Mimi created a line of costume jewelry that was on the covers of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar in the 1960s and ’70s. While working on the home, I found a box of her creations. I added a few of her pieces into the mix — the hand of a female goddess on an antique golden clock reaches out to the hand of a modern piece of art to connect the past to the present.”
Jason was also dedicated to making sure that all of the coloring had to match a giraffe brooch in the room. Many of the books that were used to stage belonged to the family, and Jason sorted through thousands of them to make sure that the color palette was in sync with the giraffe brooch that he found during his work on the home.
According to Jason, period homes like this typically do not transact very quickly. One of the units in the same building had sat on the market for two years, but it didn’t have the same aesthetics. So when this house listed for sale and there was immediate interest, everyone involved with the sale was pleasantly surprised.
“In the 20 years of working in this industry, I’ve never been in an apartment that tugs at your heart the way this one does,” Saft said. “When you pour your heart and soul into a project, the results just speak for themselves.”
The home listed for $5.8 million — definitely a pretty penny — and almost immediately spurred a bidding war. After hearing multiple offers, the unit went into contract after just 32 days on the market for close to $2 million over the original asking price.
“I thought a lot about the idea of reworking someone’s home that was so clearly, so deeply personal. I was in their room, making them the central theme but making it my own room,” Jason said. “I just hope I made her proud.”
Further Reading
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