“I wanted my home to feel like an extension of New York City’s nightlife,” interior designer Alvin Wayne says and then chuckles. “As you look out the windows, it’s all right there. The city is the backdrop.”

As Alvin describes what he hoped his Long Island City, Queens, apartment could be, it’s almost like listening to the best parts of a party the day after it happened. When he moved into this nondescript one-bedroom apartment a little over a year ago, with its standard finishes, he saw nothing but a blank canvas primed for a good time. There would be moments built for photos, he says, and furniture set for conversation. People could flip through curated books over cocktails, dance in the kitchen, or simply admire the views.

The sofa, chairs, coffee table, and barstools are all from Bartlett and Bergen.

The sofa, chairs, coffee table, and barstools are all from Bartlett and Bergen. “I love that nod to midcentury modern, and I love the channelling in the sofa,” he says. “If you notice, I repeated that pattern in the buffets.” The mango wood buffets are by West Elm, and the concrete-looking wallpaper was sourced on Amazon.

“You know when you’re out with friends, and you’re ready to leave the bar and head back to someone’s place?” he asks. “I was looking to make that my place.”

Alvin liked that the neighborhood was mostly a new construction and widely accessible, since that aided in the plan to have his spot become a social hub. “I live in a high-rise that looks over the East River and makes it so I can see almost all of Manhattan,” he says. “And given that the apartment had zero personality, I knew I could do a lot to make it mine.”

Alvin found the vibrant banana leaf wallpaper on Etsy, and paired it with a custom banquette from Bergen.

Alvin found the vibrant banana leaf wallpaper on Etsy, and paired it with a custom banquette from Bergen. The chairs are also from Bergen, and he got the pedestal at Bartlett.

“I really wanted the entryway to have a pop,” Alvin says.

“I really wanted the entryway to have a pop,” Alvin says. “This is unexpected, and I like having the vibrant, neon color because the rest of the home has so many neutrals.”

In the living area, Alvin switched his attention from tone to scale. “I needed the furniture to be low enough to not obstruct the windows, but still cozy,” he says. “The ceilings are actually 10 feet tall, so the size of the pieces also make the room feel larger.” He picked out the sofa, coffee table, and chairs from CB2 to all have the same slight form, and placed the television above two West Elm buffets that extend the full length of the wall. “It’s another visual trick. One buffet would’ve made the room seem condensed,” he says. “I also use the second buffet for storage, and we all know you can never have too much of that.”

Like any good party, loads of planning went into this apartment behind the scenes. Alvin lived with a furniture piece for a while before deciding to either change or keep it—as was the case with the buffet tables—and researched the details before landing on the right ones. He switched out the light fixture in the kitchen and painted an accent wall in the bedroom, always sticking to a neutral-yet-textured mosaic. He applied wallpaper in the living room for more contrast, and did the same in the bathroom, even cutting out the black lines in the pattern individually with a steady hand and several patient hours.

“I wanted the bedroom to be moodier than the rest of the apartment,” Alvin says.

“I wanted the bedroom to be moodier than the rest of the apartment,” Alvin says. He paired a coat of Behr’s Broadway with a CB2 bed and an Amazon rug, and set up the opposing wall as an office.

“The bathroom was so boring before,” he says. “I love graphic art, and I had this idea to apply a black-and-white wallpaper. I loved the print but hated the background, so I used an X-Acto knife to cut it all out. It took two weeks, but it was worth it.”

“The bathroom was so boring before,” he says. “I love graphic art, and I had this idea to apply a black-and-white wallpaper. I loved the print but hated the background, so I used an X-Acto knife to cut it all out. It took two weeks, but it was worth it.”

“I kept thinking about when I would visit different hotel rooms and admire how beautiful they were,” he says. “My apartment basically has the same amount of real estate, and so it’s all about creating a feeling. When you put a space together that’s functional yet beautiful, that’s an experience.”

Alvin finished his work on this apartment last summer, and is just beginning to host parties as a nightcap to the city’s endless possibilities. “I’ve had this idea in my mind for well over a year,” he says. “This home is a love letter to myself, to how I gravitate toward neutral and organic materials, but it’s also an invitation for others to get comfortable and feel free to be themselves.”