Architectural Digest has a piece on our glam neighbors Sam and Yaya:

Two years ago, the often-torturous New York City house hunt came to a close for comedian Sam Jay and interior designer Yanise Monet when they met Brownie, a multistory brownstone in Harlem. The couple had outgrown their place in Long Island City and wanted a space where they could properly entertain friends; somewhere with a guest room, a big living room, and, crucially, a large kitchen. “I’m from the South, so I have Southern hospitality. I want people to walk in and feel like they’re getting a big hug,” Yanise says. “So hosting is important to me and part of my love language to let people know how much I care about them. I love to feed people.”

“For me, your home is where you get the most freedom of self-expression,” Sam shares. “I find that when people come into a home it gives more of a window, it’s actually who we are and not the impression of who we are. Other layers of us as people get revealed.”

The couple’s cat, Fancy, curls up by the window with a view of the neighborhood. “Harlem is just everybody; Black people with money, middle class people, people who are down and out and down bad,” Sam says. “You don’t get to disconnect from the reality that everybody isn’t quite living like you.”

While friends are always welcome, Yanise felt it was important to craft a home that felt like a refuge for both of them (Sam largely and happily deferred to her design expertise). With Sam often on the road and Yanise shifting her professional focus from commercial to residential spaces, the brownstone really reflects who they are and how they share the home. While the colors and wall coverings are all Yanise (“I was born in the ’80s, so, baby, wallpaper me up,” she says), the more muted tones in the primary bedroom bring some of Sam’s taste into the shared environment. “Normally, in the other spaces I wouldn’t have out Legos or Star Wars pieces, but I tried to implement my baby in more,” Yanise adds. The big couch in the living room is perfect for hosting, but it’s also Sam’s spot when she comes home from tour—where she can sit and relax and take in the home they’ve made together.

“The vintage marble fireplace was the first and main purchase for the living room from OfferUp. It had to travel almost two hours from upstate New York,” Yanise explains. “It was important to me to have it installed so as to bring back the historical charm of a Harlem brownstone.”

Brownie is full of carefully selected pieces, from the largely secondhand furniture to their growing art collection. Yanise loves thrift shopping and clearly has an eye for putting pieces together, but she also wanted to reduce their carbon footprint. She acknowledges that it can be slow, painstakingly slow sometimes, to fill a space, but it’s ultimately worth it. “She’s really into it,” Sam says. “But [Yanise] really knows what she’s looking for and that helps her find stuff.” The couple worked closely with art consultant Anwarii Musa on building a collection of vibrant contemporary art, primarily by Black artists.

As Seen In Harlem