Behind the Blue Door Book

Dear John,

The book is a perfect reflection of your home, your passion, and your incredible style. I share your belief that a home should never be finished and should always evolve as we do in our experiences. 

I see my life as an unfinished canvas that will never be completed. So I live wanting to discover more. 

Curiosity is my favorite word and your home is inviting me to explore and ask questions. “Where did you find this?” “How long have you collected Fornasetti?” “Which of your mother’s paintings is your favorite?”

Your home truly is “imagination without guardrails” and is an inspirational wonderland. Tony Duquette would envy your flair, passion, and aesthetic. 

You certainly know how to do you. 

Behind the Blue Door presents the decor of pioneering beauty-industryentrepreneur John Demsey’s six-story townhouse on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, an explosion of color, pattern, and art.

“A riot of color, pattern, and art, beauty exec John Demsey’s six-story townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side bursts with exuberant life.”—Architectural Digest

The muted, understated exterior of the townhouse on a tree-lined New York City street belies the sumptuous feast for the eyes that hits you upon opening its blue front door. Every room of its five main floors has its own saturated color scheme, filled with a David Hicks-inspired geometrically patterned rug, vibrant fabrics, new and vintage furniture, art and photographs covering walls, and sculptures and knickknacks topping tables and filling shelves.

For the owner, John Demsey, the starting point was a pair of multicolored Louboutin boots, which inspired the palette of the living room rug. Working with interior decorator and friend Bibi Monnahan, he carefully chose and positioned each piece of furniture, work of art, and decorative object, and mounted his enormous photography collection. The result is a tour de force of maximalist design, now captured for all to see in Douglas Friedman’s luminous photographs and with Emmy Award-winning journalist Alina Cho as our eyewitness guide in a slipcased gift book featuring three gatefolds. Read less