The headboard was custom-designed by Charles H. Beckley. The bed linens are from D. Porthault, and the wallpaper is from Twigs in Los Angeles.    (Photo: The Selby)

Sometimes, Rita Konig thinks, it does seem “rather daft” to live in such an English way in New York. There are moments when she feels the Manhattan House winking at her or briefly mulls the appeal of a “modern box” way up in the sky. But Konig, who is an interior designer and the author of two books on how to live and eat (she also blogs for the Times’ T consortium and was an editor-at-large at the late Domino), has stayed true to some of the very best British decorating traditions; her rooms look like places you might actually want to plonk down in with a book or cleverly self-deprecating friends. Konig, who grew up in London and is the daughter of decorator Nina Campbell, simply has a knack for creating comfort—and she’s especially good at replicating that slightly messy, piled-on British look within the confines of a small New York apartment.

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