Muriel always does what you least expect her to do. She has an extraordinary sense of color, and I have never seen anyone mix damask and burlap the way she does. Our apartment is in an old Candela building, and she embraced that history while reinventing our way of living in it. Instead of ripping up the bathrooms, all she did was to paint the walls black and add a dash of color, and they became very contemporary. The coup de grace is the blackboard wall in the media room, out of which Murphy beds descend. I believe that we taught her to approach the design of our apartment in a different way because of the furniture we already owned.

Designing the apartment was always exciting with Muriel. She insists on making you a participant in the process, and we were partners the whole way. You don’t often find in an individual that combination of creativity and structure, but she is extremely organized and focused. She is a relentless negotiator; when we were shopping in Europe, there were times when I wanted to blend into the furniture from embarrassment, but the outcome is always to one’s own benefit. I would say that Muriel is not for wimps. In her field of expertise, it is best to tread softly. The secret is to sometimes tell her the opposite of what you would like, and this way the end result will please you both.