Bruno, the aesthete-cum-tech mogul (and admitted Paris flea-market addict), has made a fortune from helping others live stylishly. So it should come as no surprise that the founder of the recently launched design app Housepad practices—nay, personifies—his own lofty domestic dogma.
Bruno, the subject of a profile in DuJour’s spring issue, warmly welcomed us into two of his four assiduously curated residences to take a peek around. Both featured properties—a drool-worthy West Village townhouse and his primary pile, a 14,000-square-foot Regency style mansion, situated on 14,000 acres in Tuxedo Park, NY—exemplify Bruno’s urbane-bucolic lifestyle.
“Bank Street is my favorite street in New York,” Bruno says of his city address. “It feels like living in Sag Harbor in Manhattan—no high-rises and many historically protected buildings. Add to that having the Waverly Inn [restaurant] across the street and it just doesn’t get any better.”
“The townhouse I live in—or should I say, ‘stay at,’ as I really only stay over one or two nights a month—functions as an office and meeting place for a number of projects I am working on, and is a fun place to have old-school parties,” he adds. “Last year, we had 500 people show up to see a small show of works by Gloria Vanderbilt, with a bar set up at the curb for guests flowing out and onto the street, and several hundred another night for my dear friend and designer Kathryn Ireland.”
Asked about his nearby country estate, Bruno says, “Tuxedo Park is only a 45-to-60-minute trip from the New York City, but you feel like you are in a different world. Most of my friends say it feels otherworldly when they come for the first time. It’s one of those places you just have to see for yourself. The real estate is so reasonable—historic mansions on cliffs overlooking lakes, mixed with carriage houses converted to perfect weekend homes,” he explains. “I could not help myself and have purchased several homes and more than a 100 acres. We are opening a real estate office in March, Tuxedo Hudson Realty, because I love it so much and want to get all of my friends to come up and look and buy houses.”
