Philip Gorrivan Design

Philip Gorrivan Design Interior designer and stylist, textile, wallcovering and furniture design. Based in New York City

Pattern is one of the most powerful ways to tell a room’s story. That is the thinking behind this entire collection for ...
10/08/2026

Pattern is one of the most powerful ways to tell a room’s story. That is the thinking behind this entire collection for Scalamandré, drawn from places I have travelled, architecture I have studied, and motifs that have stayed with me over the years, some classical, some organic, some completely abstract.

London Plane is one of my favorites from the group. I took the expressive, almost unpredictable grain of wood and pushed it somewhere a straight veneer never goes: moody in the deeper colorways, unexpectedly glamorous in the lighter ones, with a finish evocative of Dupioni silk. It is printed in five colors on a sisal grass cloth base, so the weave adds a texture you feel before you even register the pattern.

I wanted this collection to feel collected rather than prescribed, familiar but slightly unexpected, the kind of pattern you half remember from somewhere else. London Plane does exactly that, and it is one of the easiest ways to bring real atmosphere into a room without saying too much.

Available through Scalamandré | Luxury Fabrics & Wallcoverings Scalamandré. Reach out for details on colorways and availability.

Primary bedroom, Washington, Connecticut: the room where this whole project exhales.The most memorable interiors are nev...
10/05/2026

Primary bedroom, Washington, Connecticut: the room where this whole project exhales.

The most memorable interiors are never about the designer, they’re about the people who live within them. This recently completed home reflects clients shaped by travel and a discerning eye for art, and nowhere is that clearer than here.

A graduated plaster ceiling, pale grey deepening to charcoal at the beam line, sets the tone before you reach the bed. A brass ring pendant floats above it like sculpture rather than fixture. Behind the headboard, a hand painted landscape mural does the work most people expect from art.

As I wrote in Authentic Interiors, the best rooms tell stories. This one tells its quietly.

Thinking about a primary suite of your own? I’d love to hear what you’re working on.

Maximalism isn’t about excess; it’s about intentional layering. In our Kips Bay Decorator Show House Palm Beach project,...
10/01/2026

Maximalism isn’t about excess; it’s about intentional layering. In our Kips Bay Decorator Show House Palm Beach project, every piece, pattern, and texture is chosen to create depth, character, and personality.

The key is balance: mixing bold colors, statement furniture, and rich textures while maintaining a sense of harmony. When done thoughtfully, maximalism transforms a space into an experience: dynamic, inviting, and unapologetically personal.

It is often the smallest details that leave the most lasting impression.On the porch, glassware, pitchers and seasonal f...
09/29/2026

It is often the smallest details that leave the most lasting impression.

On the porch, glassware, pitchers and seasonal flowers come together in a palette of rich purple, my favorite color, creating an inviting backdrop for time spent with family and friends.

There is something particularly special about these quieter moments of preparation: a collection of beautiful objects, flowers gathered from the garden and thoughtful touches that make guests feel welcome before the first glass is poured.

Because creating a memorable gathering is not always about a perfectly set table. Sometimes, it is simply about the details that make people want to linger a little longer.

I picked up these 1950s wicker bullheads over many years of scouring the Paris flea markets. I’ve always loved their ecc...
09/28/2026

I picked up these 1950s wicker bullheads over many years of scouring the Paris flea markets. I’ve always loved their eccentricity: the unexpected material, the sculptural quality, and their wonderful, almost surreal nod to Picasso. Collected slowly over time, they’re exactly the kind of rare finds that give a room personality and a story.

Last summer, I visited the extraordinary Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, and found myself captiva...
09/23/2026

Last summer, I visited the extraordinary Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, and found myself captivated by a place where architecture, collection, garden and landscape come together with an almost intoxicating effect.

Created by Béatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild during the Belle Époque, the rose-colored villa is an exuberant interpretation of Italian Renaissance architecture, set high above the Mediterranean.

Inside, room after room reveals the extraordinary eye of a passionate collector: Sèvres and Vincennes porcelain, Gobelins tapestries, Savonnerie carpets, 18th-century furniture, works by Fragonard and Boucher, Tiepolo ceilings, and treasures gathered from across Europe and Asia.

It is wonderfully layered, deeply personal and unapologetically beautiful.

But then you step outside.

The gardens may be the greatest seduction of all. Nine distinct landscapes unfold across the peninsula, from French formal gardens and Florentine influences to a Spanish garden, Japanese garden, exotic plantings, roses and Provençal landscapes, each revealing glimpses of the Mediterranean beyond.
Béatrice conceived the great French garden almost like the deck of a ship sailing toward the sea.

Every turn offers another composition, another texture, another view.

What a feast for the eyes and the imagination, and a beautiful reminder of how powerfully a house and its gardens can tell a story together.

Small spaces can make a big impression.In this powder room at a recently completed project in Washington, Connecticut, m...
09/22/2026

Small spaces can make a big impression.

In this powder room at a recently completed project in Washington, Connecticut, my Desert Storm wallcovering brings depth, movement and character to the space, creating a richly layered backdrop that feels both distinctive and inviting.

Powder rooms are often the perfect opportunity to be a little more expressive with design. A smaller footprint allows for bolder choices, whether through colour, pattern or texture, transforming an otherwise overlooked space into a memorable feature of the home.

Here, Desert Storm does exactly that, adding beauty and character while giving the room its own distinct identity.

A good wallpaper does something paint rarely can: it turns a wall into a single, uninterrupted idea, with no second surf...
09/17/2026

A good wallpaper does something paint rarely can: it turns a wall into a single, uninterrupted idea, with no second surface competing for attention.

That thinking shaped my own wallcovering collection: nine designs built around the motifs I keep returning to in my work, oversized florals, palm fronds, hand-drawn latticework, each available in a range of colorways, with custom colors on request. Most patterns are in stock and ready to ship, so a room can go from idea to installed faster than people expect.

If you’re working on a project and want to see the full range, the link is in my bio, or reach out directly and we’ll help you find the right colorway.

In my Connecticut garden this past weekend, welcoming visitors as part of a tour benefiting Hollister House Garden There...
09/14/2026

In my Connecticut garden this past weekend, welcoming visitors as part of a tour benefiting Hollister House Garden There’s nothing quite like watching people wander through a space you’ve spent years building.

The whole garden runs on an idea I borrowed from Gertrude Jekyll and the English garden tradition more broadly: structure that gives way to meadow. Clipped boxwood spheres and stone walls hold the bones near the house, then the planting loosens the further out you go, nepeta, lamium and geranium doing the work at the edges, a forest of verbena rising above it all.

Morning sun gave way to rain by afternoon, and I’ll admit I was relieved the garden held its own in both. That’s the real test of a planting plan, not the best hour of the best day, but every hour.

Thank you to everyone who came out, and glad to have supported Hollister House in the process.

Twenty-five years later, I remember the morning of September 11 with a clarity that is almost impossible to describe.It ...
09/11/2026

Twenty-five years later, I remember the morning of September 11 with a clarity that is almost impossible to describe.

It was warm and sunny in New York. Not a cloud in the sky.

I worked on Wall Street, but that morning I had a meeting in Midtown. A coworker staying at the Marriott at the World Trade Center was headed straight to the conference at Windows on the World, and I convinced him to come uptown instead. He thanked me for years afterward. My wife, Lisa, was planning to attend too. She was pregnant with our son and wasn’t feeling well, so she was delayed.

I remember that conference room, though not a word of the meeting. What I remember is the television, and the disbelief that this could be happening while knowing that it was.

We walked out onto Park Avenue. The city seemed suspended, people simply walking, stunned.

I ran home to our apartment on 56th and Sutton Place, where our daughter was with her caregiver. Then came the waiting. The phones were down. I could not reach Lisa.

Hours later, she finally walked through the door. Her story is hers, not mine to tell, and I will leave it with her. What I will say is that we were terrified for the baby she was carrying.

Thankfully, our son was fine, and is grown and thriving now. I remain grateful that the four of us made it through together.

In those first days none of us was fine.

I can still smell the smoke. More than that, I can still taste it. That acrid taste hung over Manhattan for days. Even now, a certain smell takes me back to that week, and the feeling that the world we knew had changed.

And there was the grief. I lost several friends that day. People I was supposed to see at the World Trade Center, and others who simply went to work and never came home.

My experience was far from the worst of that day. Thousands of families suffered unimaginable losses. I tell it only because it is the September 11 that I lived, and the memories remain astonishingly vivid.

There will always be questions about that day. But there are some things I do not need anyone else to tell me, because we were there.

Never forgotten

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333 Park Avenue South
New York, NY
10010

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Wednesday 10am - 6pm
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