I grew up in palm beach,” says Jacquie Tractenberg, by way of explaining why her apartment in the Village has always looked so Floridian. But when she decided to renovate, the Palm Beach look her new designer (and old college friend) Jonathan Adler had in mind was quite different from the stuffier Palm Beach aesthetic a designer had given it before. “This is more Palm Beach in the sixties and seventies,” says Tractenberg, who owns a PR agency. “It was very familiar to me,” even if it’s not at all what her parents’ house looked like. “But . . . ”—her voice trails off—“I was nervous to do it.

“I mean, I am not really kitschy and wacky. I’m very matchy-matchy—that’s just my style. When I first saw that each lamp by the bed in the master bedroom is different, that pained me. But that is the stuff I have to give in to.” Adler soothed her nerves and talked her down from the pain with his bold patterns and relentlessly cheerful resolve. His new book, My Prescription for Anti-Depressive Living, is out this fall. Among his advice: “Don’t be afraid to live in squishy splendor—hotelish comfort is hip.” And mix periods. Here he zapped classical furnishings with eye-popping color. “Before, it was a different iteration of Palm Beach. It’s much more crisp and graphic now.”

(Photo: Richard Barnes)

The Second-Floor Landing
An often overlooked space in duplexes, this landing has become a kids’ playroom—and a graphic ode to Adler’s design heroes, Alexander Girard and Bonnie Cashin.

(1) The mirrored map
From Jonathan Adler (just like the sofa, the pillows, the rug, etc.).

(2) The Bertoia chairs
They’re vintage.

(3) The beanbags
From beanbag.com.