Matt Blacke Inc

Behind this playful nom de plume is the multitalented designer, gallerist, stylist and entrepreneur Cliff Fong, whose educated eye often settles on the unexpected — and the unique. Studying the saturated color and modernist grid of a Stanley Whitney painting in his client’s collection, Fong rightly concluded that everything else in this Hancock Park, Los Angeles, living room should rise to its level of quality and aesthetic joy. A high bar, but the designer went for it, with rich results. After having the wood beams and floors stripped and sanded, he introduced classic French and Scandinavian furnishings, from sofas by Børge Mogensen (via Denmark 50) and Kaare Klint (his own Galerie Half) to a Serge Mouille sconce (JF Chen) and a Jean Prouvé Cité daybed (Galerie Patrick Seguin). “I was inspired by environments more commonly seen in European cities, where there’s a juxtaposition of modern and contemporary furnishings with art and much older, historically important architecture,” Fong says. From Europe to L.A., no problem.