This article originally appeared in the March 2015 issue of Architectural Digest.
This has been the year of everything,” actor David Burtka says of the past 12 months with his husband, actor Neil Patrick Harris. He’s not kidding: In 2014 Harris wrapped the ninth and final season of the CBS hit show How I Met Your Mother and earned a Tony Award for his Broadway star turn in the lead role of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. And the couple, their four-year-old twins, Gideon and Harper, and their two dogs moved from Los Angeles to New York City, settling into a townhouse they spent more than a year renovating. As if that weren’t enough, they also got married this past September in Italy, where the festivities included a performance by their pal Elton John. “Getting married, moving, new jobs—we did all the things they say can ruin a relationship,” jokes Burtka.
“The funny thing is, we’ve never gotten along better!” Harris adds, laughing. Things show no sign of slowing down either: A few weeks after Harris tackles Hollywood’s highest-profile one-night gig, hosting this year’s Oscars, Burtka starts previews of the Broadway musical It Shoulda Been You, a comedy directed by David Hyde Pierce. Oh, and Harris is busy developing a variety show he’ll host on NBC, expected to debut later in the year.
Harris and Burtka first met in New York more than a decade ago, and they moved to L.A. together when Harris landed the role of wisecracking ladies’ man Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother. “I assumed the show would be a short chapter,” Harris says. The sitcom was a smash, though, and they stayed in California for nearly ten years. “But the plan was always to come back to New York when the show ended and raise our family.”
Once the series entered its final season in fall 2013, the couple’s search for a New York home began in earnest. They had kept a pied-à-terre near Columbia University, in Harlem, while living on the West Coast, and though they explored options all across the city, they ended up staying in that neighborhood. Burtka says he “just had that feeling” when he first entered the five-story, late-19th-century townhouse, which needed a bit of structural work but had tons of character and featured sufficient street-level space for Harris’s production-company offices and a screening room.
Overseen by L.A.–based interior designer Trace Lehnhoff, in collaboration with New York architect Jeffery Povero, the renovation took about 14 months. The building had previously been used as a bed-and-breakfast, so most changes had to do with creating a single-family flow to the interiors. That included dramatically reconfiguring the kitchen—expanding the cooking space, adding a large island, and outfitting it to Burtka’s standards. Trained as a chef at Le Cordon Bleu, he worked at Mario Batali’s Greenwich Village restaurant Babbo and was a founder of the L.A. catering company Gourmet M.D. At home Burtka cooks when he can—“everything from homemade pasta to standing rib roasts,” he says. Bragging about his husband’s breakfasts, Harris quips, “Real men cook quiche.”
Avid entertainers, Burtka and Harris threw frequent dinner parties in L.A., and they are eager to bring a bit of that social spark to the East Coast. They specifically devised the parlor floor for fun and relaxing with friends. The convivial, elegantly furnished space—which includes a music room in front and a salon in back—boasts dark-wood wainscoting and a richly carved mantelpiece. “I never understood a formal room that isn’t used,” Harris says. In that spirit the couple installed a bar salvaged from a Connecticut hotel and a player piano that connects to online music stations and plays whatever songs are streamed. There’s also an animatronic parrot and, positioned near the front door, a custom-made apothecary cabinet whose numerous drawers are filled with puckish parting gifts (a hand buzzer or 25-cent ring, say) for guests. Harris’s favorite element in the bar area is the light fixture, designed by Carolina Fontoura Alzaga using bicycle chains draped like elegant mesh. “That’s a juxtaposition I love,” he says. “A fancy chandelier made with old bike chains, in a New York townhouse.”
Displayed prominently throughout the home is the pair’s burgeoning collection of contemporary art, encompassing works by Mike Kelley, Jennifer Steinkamp, Kehinde Wiley, and a number of emerging artists. Equally captivating is the magic and sideshow memorabilia, particularly in the cozy den. “David wanted this room to feel kind of like an adventurers’ club, filled with oddities and random things, which fits right into my world because I love magic and carnival freaks,” says Harris, who has performed his own tricks since he was a kid and has directed magic shows around the world. The den is also where the family’s days typically wind down, with the fathers reading to the children. “After the kids go to bed we come back here and threaten to watch a film,” Harris says. “But we usually fall asleep before the opening credits.”
Opposite the den is the couple’s bedroom, a sumptuously refined refuge, with velvety upholstery, brass lamps, and a hypnotic expanse of marbleized wallpaper. Arguably, the room’s masterstroke is its hyper-organized walk-in closet. (Labels are specific—t-shirts: black, white, and gray, for instance.) “We share,” Burtka explains. “There’s no separation between his and mine because we can both wear everything.”
On the top floor is perhaps the most unique room of all: Harris’s office, which is concealed behind a trick door that opens when the eyeball of a magician on a vintage poster is pressed. “I come from a Scooby-Doo mentality, where there are secret doors and the eyes on pictures move,” says Harris. Arrayed inside the space are prized possessions such as original art from the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland and more magic posters and props.
The duo notes that their respective design strengths made the renovation process efficient. “I’m emotional, so if I see something I like, that’s it and I want it,” Burtka says. Harris is more pragmatic. “You have to weigh the value of things when you have two dogs who slobber and two kids who love to finger-paint,” he says. Referring to the limited reach of the children, he adds, “The top half of the walls is where we put everything that’s valuable.”
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