Taking a tour round a Manhattan town house that costs $20 million

Never hurts to dream

Tori Golub brings 'Winter Solstice' to the townhouse's entrance hall (Alan Barry)

What if you could snoop inside a Manhattan town house on the market for around $20 million, chat with renowned interior designers and maybe even get a glimpse of Iris Apfel, all in the name of charity?

The annual Holiday House project is back in New York until January, showcasing the best interior designs inside two newly-developed town houses in the West Village to raise money for breast cancer research.

For a densely populated city of overpriced rooms in shared apartments, it feels good to wander round, dreaming of all the better ways you could paint your own bathroom.

There are certain standouts. The Oscar Wilde-inspired study, designed by Yorgos Scarpidis, is a book-lover's delight with its gold-trimmed desk, green chair and pyramid table lamps. It will make the visitor want to pound out their best-seller on an typewriter, appreciating the good sense of style and lack of fancy wallpaper, which Mr Wilde famously said he hated.

Inside the junior master bedroom of Juan Carretero, you will be forgiven for wanting to curl up under the duvet and admire the sleek, masculine furnishings and the eccentric artwork - and marvel the mosaic on the ensuite bathroom ceiling.

Straight edges and chic simplicity shine through upstairs in the master suite, designed by Tina Ramchandani.

Styles vary immensely - as you'd imagine with more than a dozen designers crammed into two houses.

In Geoffrey Bradfield and Roric Tobin’s living room, it is all about large parrot heads and Noguchi-style, glass-topped coffee tables.

Savour the light-up birthday cake in Meredith Ostrom’s kitchen, or be overwhelmed by the fabulously garish pink dining room of Sasha Bikoff, complete with flamingos and a champagne bubble-style chandelier.

Or perhaps step into another era of velvet, jazz music and fluffy robes in the Lady’s Boudoir from Patrick Mele, and allow thoughts of Zelda and F Scott Fitzgerald to waft into your subconscious.

And, a good hour later, when you’ve tired yourself out by traipsing multiple flights of stairs across two town houses, don’t forget the rooftop garden. Joyce Silerman's Alice in Wonderland-themed garden, complete with a Cheshire Cat in a hammock, is worth the trip alone.

But don’t get too excited. One of the Sullivan Street houses, designed by architect Montroy Andersen DeMarco, has already been bought for at least $17 million, the broker told The Independent.

Look out for fashion icon and legendary New Yorker Iris Apfel, an honorary member of the Holiday House project.

The showhouse will run through the first week of January and over its nine-year history has raised more than $1 million for charity.