'You can walk into a lot of beautiful spaces, but they’re not fun. That’s not the world I want to run in. Give me more fun' – inside the eclectic world of Robert Novogratz

Robert Novogratz is, at this point, an American design institution. Along with his wife Cortney, he’s been creating spaces for over 30 years, filling them with art, charm, and plenty of personality. In fact, the homes they piece together are works of art in themselves, jewel boxes of unexpected colors, beloved finds, a mix of antique heirlooms and family keepsakes, with furniture and decor sourced from brands as varied as Paul Ferrante and Pooky.

A hallmark of the Novogratz way of life is to buy a run-down home in an up-and-coming area, do it up, and flip it – the couple tends to move every two to three years. They are currently living in a loft just off Union Square, New York City, 'newly finished, which took about a year,’ Robert tells me, ‘and won’t be our forever home.’

In the first in our new series Layered Lives, I sat down with Robert and got to know the designer behind the iconic spaces. I say sat down, Robert talks to Homes & Gardens on the streets of New York, rushing between meetings, having got back from France the day before and off to the UK the day after (he had a Manhattan dentist appointment he couldn’t miss). Let’s step into Robert’s world to explore his fresh take on home and interior design. It’s a world where sculptural pieces meet secondhand treasures, and the golden rule is simple: design should make you feel something, and that thing should be fun.

You’ve had such an eclectic and inspiring career – what first drew you to the world of design?

I always had an art background, and my mom was in the antiques business. You know, she’s now 84 years old, and we were just antiquing together in France. She had a passion that has never left her. And that was instilled in me from a young age.

I was the one kid who would go to garage sales with her, and I was a collector of a lot of things: baseball cards, comic books, stamps. I guess you could say I have an addictive personality, and when I’m into something, I'm really into it. I then fell in love with art, and once I’d made a bit of money, I started collecting it.

My theory is that the more you know about something, the more you enjoy it, and so I immersed myself in the art world. People say buy what you love, but to me, it’s more than that, it’s about buying what you appreciate, what you know about.

What sort of art are you collecting at the moment?

I love modern art. I go back and forth between photography and painting, but it’s always contemporary stuff. I used to like Damien Hirst, but my tastes have changed now. I like to support young artists and Black artists, people like Glenn Ligon and Kehinde Wiley, both of whom I bought into very early in their careers.

I'm currently obsessed with the British painter Danny Fox. He is everything I love about art, he has humor, culture, a story. I will own a Fox soon! I also really like Jimmy Lee Sudduth, who is very affordable.

Was there a moment or project that made you realize this was what you were meant to do?

I started in finance, and I was pretty good at it, I was a good storyteller. I didn’t hate it, but I also didn’t love it. When I got to New York in the early '90s, there were so many interesting people doing different things that I saw there was another way to live. So I cashed my bonus check and bought a run-down townhouse in Chelsea on 19th Street. I made a lot of mistakes when doing it up, but I loved it.

Looking back, is there anything you did in the design of that home that you still do now? Can you see the early inception of the Novogratz look in it?

That’s a great question! We had a really tight budget for that place, so every cent mattered, every decision we made had to count. But it was a classic townhouse and had great bones, and that style of building has become something we gravitate towards.

I guess our love of decorating with color was evident then, too. We took that classic brown building and painted the exterior a pale yellow, which half the neighbors loved and half of them hated. We also bought a lot of vintage tiles and door knobs, and doors for it, which is something we’ve kind of gotten away from since then, but you know I’d like to get back to it.

Our approach has been about how contemporary fittings are more calm, but those vintage things have a charm of their own.

You’ve tackled some pretty ambitious renovations over the years – what’s been one of the most rewarding transformations you’ve worked on?

You want everything you do to be amazing, but sometimes the stars don’t align that way. It might be a budget issue, or something to do with the building itself. But with our Nolita house, every choice we made turned out to be the right choice. Its width was 25 feet which is big for that sort of townhouse, and made it easier to work with. We put a basketball court on the roof! I just loved it.

Have you ever taken on a space that felt too far gone to save, only to fall in love with it during the process?

The last one, the Waverly Place house in New York’s West Village, was by far the most expensive, and it took the longest, about three years.

We were doing it during Covid, and there were issues with the fact that it was landmarked, plus there was a really difficult neighbor. But I loved how it turned out, and it looked so good that the people who bought it ended up taking almost all of our furniture too, which is an endorsement that we got it right.

And why do you think that was? What makes a house right?

It’s about a vibe. An energy. A space that is so fun you don’t want to leave it, but that works if you’re with your girlfriend or your grandma, your wife, or six friends who want to party.

I reference the restaurant Balthazar a lot in my work – it has a great vibe. That buttery yellow ceiling and the pillars in the same color that support it? I love to use that color, or colors that create the same warmth and energy, whenever I can.

You and Cortney have been called 'design disruptors'. Is that a term that resonates with you?

I never went into this world wanting to be called that, but we felt like there was always going to be someone who was smarter or better than us, so to stand out, we just had to be different. We found our own aesthetic, and people seemed to respond to it, clients seem to want it.

How would you sum up that aesthetic?

Eclectic, with a mix of vintage and modern. Always happy, comfortable. And fun is a big word! You can walk into a lot of beautiful spaces, but they’re not fun, everything is white. That’s not the world I want to run in. Give me more fun.

You’ve just finished your most recent home, the loft in Union Square. Are you pleased with how it came together?

We did it in about a month! We’d sold most of our good furniture with the Waverly House, and this was just a project we could tackle quickly. It’s not my dream home – the kitchen and bathrooms are a bit dated – but I’m an optimist, and I like its energy.

I’m seeing it as a vacation, to be near Gramercy, which is cool for a little bit of time. It’s next door to what was Andy Warhol’s nightclub, The Factory, so we thought we should go heavy on decorating with art, making it a cool transitional space. It’s great at night, to sit on the terrace and look at all the lights twinkling.

Even though it’s not your dream home, are there any rituals you’ve instilled there that have helped you feel grounded?

I love vinyl, and I love jazz – I love to put on a jazz record and have a cup of coffee in the morning looking out on a view. Well, actually, at the moment I’m cutting down my coffee from three cups a day to one and a half, so with my morning jazz I’ll have a hot water and lemon. It’s really helping with my energy.

Speaking of energy, you also found time to help your son decorate his New York apartment. What was that experience like?

I guided him a little bit – it wasn’t a full project for us. He’s a musician, not a designer himself, and New York is so expensive that he didn’t have the appetite to want to do too much. But his place had great light, and I just helped enhance that by getting him some things like some lights from Pooky – you don’t always have to spend a lot to create a fun, homely space.

We talked earlier about your baseball card collections as a kid – what are you collecting at the moment?

We just finished our office, and did a great wall with a mix of our old clippings. I started making a huge mural out of them, which was fun. I’m addicted to eBay and 1stDibs, and I love to find vintage prints for under $500. Put them in a frame, and no one knows they’re not the real thing!

And lastly, what’s next for you and Cortney?

We’re designing a house that’s going to be a private club but for families in Brooklyn, kind of like a Soho House vibe, but for kids, too. I’m trying to source the art for that at the moment, and was looking out for pieces in France. It just has to feel like fun, you know?

Whether he’s renovating a brownstone, curating art in a loft, or helping his son furnish a first apartment, Robert Novogratz approaches every space with the same infectious mix of optimism, creativity, and curiosity.

His is a world where homes evolve and life changes as he moves from one space to the next. With decades of experience and fresh projects always on the horizon, Robert continues to prove that great design isn’t about perfection – it’s about personality, soul, and a little bit of fun.