With Happy Pinks, Greens, and Blues, a Designer Totally Transformed a Quirky Colonial Revival
We know Litchfield County, Connecticut as the land of mallard decoys, worn wicker, and faded chintz. But that bastion of American prep is home to fresher pastures, most recently in the form of a cultured family’s home designed by Clive Lonstein. The New York-based designer worked for the legendary William Sofield for 13 years, eventually becoming the design director, before opening his own studio in 2016. When these clients approached him only a few years later, their directive was simple and clear: they wanted bold color, comfort, and an interesting canvas for their burgeoning art collection—“something bespoke that is just for them,” Lonstein says.
The house itself offered plenty of possibilities. It was designed in the late 1800s by Ehrick Rossiter, an architect known for his whimsical country homes, and came complete with a turret. “For me it’s really important that a project is contextual,” says Lonstein. “Every location has something unique about it – I love infusing that subtly through the design.”
For a house with so much architectural personality, it can be difficult to impose a new perspective. So Lonstein worked with the space’s natural quirks rather than against them. “This project was a departure for me,” Lonstein says. “Most of my projects require more interior architecture and structure, but I didn’t make many architectural changes here. This was a decorating project—and that proved to be very liberating for me.”
Entry
In the entry Lonstein painted the front door red and the staircase a Benjamin Moore purple. “These clients wanted to have a lot of color, like what you would see in an English country house,” explains Lonstein. The chair is by Carlos Motta.
Living Room
“I wanted to keep the palette pretty neutra in the living and dining rooms,” says Lonstein. “The art is very strong in those rooms, so I didn’t want to add more color."
Armchairs and a sofa by Sergio Rodrigues congregate around an Yves Klein cocktail table. The game table and chairs in the corner of the room are by George Nakashima. A painting by Sophie Larrimore hangs to the left and a painting by Caitlin Keogh hangs to the right. A painting by Mary Grigoriadis hangs between the Nakashima suite and the sofa.
Kitchen
Rather than renovating the kitchen, Lonstein and his clients chose to give it new life with a sweet pink hue on the cabinets.
Study
The curved walls of this study-cum-sitting room are covered in Farrow and Ball's Bancha. A Joaquim Tenreiro chair from the 1950s and a Carlo Hauner chair for Forma from the 1960s sit on either side of a Luigi Scremin cabinet the clients already had in their collection. The coffee table was designed by Greta Magnusson-Grossman in 1972.
Library
The clients spend a lot of time reading and working in the library, where Lonstein covered the walls in Benjamin Moore's Liberty Park green.
Library
In the library, vintage Viggo Boesen chair upholstered in sheepskin sits in front of the sofa. The table lamps are from Bitossi. The desk and chair are by Mira Nakashima.
Clive Lonstein
The designer, photographed in the library.
Library
The other end of the library is finished by a Fornasetti folding screen designed in the 1950s.
Dining Room
Benjamin Moore's White Dove paint covers the walls in the dining room, where an Isamu Noguchi Akari light hangs over the dining table. The chairs are vintage Eero Saarinen upholstered in sheepskin. A Vik Muniz photograph hangs above a Martin Eisler credenza from the 1950s.
Rotunda
In the womb-like rotunda an antique chair upholstered in a Rogers and Goffigon fabric sits in front of a Vik Muniz photograph.
Primary Bedroom
Peace is prevalent in the primary bedroom where Sergio Rodriguez and Ib Kofod-Larsen chairs face the bed. Lonstein used De Le Cuona fabric in the window seat and American Silk Mills' Brussels Oyster fabric for the curtains. The bedding is from Stella Tribeca Home and is topped with pillows in a Fortuny fabric.
Bathroom
One bathroom is covered in Benjamin Moore's Potpourri green.
The fun begins as soon as you step in through the candy apple-red front door. Here, on the lower level, you’ll encounter an aubergine stair and a bubblegum pink kitchen. In the sitting room, moss-hued paint covers the walls. “These clients wanted to have a lot of color, like what you would see in an English country house,” explains Lonstein. In fact, the only rooms with a white base are the living and dining rooms, where a wild array of art and furniture took over.
Lonstein had the challenge many designers hate: a client with their own collection of furniture, but for him that was an opportunity. “The clients had some wonderful furniture. It was my job to incorporate those pieces, reupholstering things, adding things,” Lonstein says. In the living room, for instance, paintings by Sophie Larrimore, Caitlin Keogh, and Mary Grigoriadis join a reupholstered ‘50s-era sofa and chairs by Sergio Rodrigues and a game table and chairs by George Nakashima.
Upstairs, the color returns. Lonstein added a chartreuse bathroom and a collegiate blue bedroom (the same hue as an Yves Klein table in the living room downstairs). He then doused the round, turret room—one of the designer’s favorite spaces— in a dusty pink hue that complements the elaborate original moldings that trace the ceiling and floor. The pink acts as a bridge between the flamboyant Colonial Revival architecture and the art, namely a richly-hued photograph by Vik Muniz in the space.
Working the art collection into the interior design scheme was a collaborative effort. Lonstein conferred with the client’s art advisor, Bridget Murphy, on where everything should hang, both parties offering their two cents to charming effect. In the dining room another Muniz photograph after Gustave Courbet enlivens the neutral space, which features sheepskin upholstered vintage Saarinen chairs, a Noguchi light, and a Martin Eisler caned credenza from the 1950s.
So many ingredients were already in the pot when Lonstein arrived you would think it impossible to pull it all together as seamlessly as he has, but that talent is integral to his practice. “I aspire to minimalism, but that’s not my work,” he says. “What I like is the idiosyncratic.”
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