As one famous fictional columnist and fashionista said, “Anything is possible. This is New York.” And if Francis Toumbakaris—Greek immigrant, former ballet dancer, handyman, general contractor, and now founder and lead interior designer of his own firm, Francis Interiors—proves anything with his latest project, a five-story West Village town house, it’s that Carrie Bradshaw was right.
The total makeover he gave the 1861 “forever home” of his client, a tech company’s chief marketing officer, is a fantasy composed of abundant, sumptuous de Gournay and Phillip Jeffries wall coverings, Murano fixtures, Scalamandré velvets, and marble mantles. It’s also one of the speediest renovations imaginable for Manhattan, having taken place in a mere 11 months, including a down-to-the-studs rejiggering of the house and custom everything. “I practically slept there,” says Toumbakaris, the AD PRO Directory member.
The interior designer was thrilled to do that for a beloved client with whom this is his fifth collaboration in close to as many years. For their first project together in 2018, Toumbakaris says, “everything came straight off the shelf.” This time it was the exact opposite: She handed him a signed checkbook. “I always say for this particular client I speak her soul. The synergy between us is something really magical.” It took them two vintage shopping trips and fewer than 10 design meetings, thanks in part to the homeowner being an ultradecisive, type A maximalist who trusts Toumbakaris implicitly. “Not much is decided without my input,” she says, “but we speak the same design language.”
