NICOLEHOLLIS

Far from being wan or color-starved, the neutral rooms of designer Nicole Hollis come across as rich and complete, reflecting their surroundings with surefooted grace. In a Sausalito living room, cool light off San Francisco Bay translates into plangent grays and smudgy blacks on a range of high-texture objects: Italian mid-century lounge chairs, a Christophe Delcourt sofa in basketweave linen, burl-wood low tables by Nakagawa Mokkougei from Les Ateliers Courbet. In this reductive universe, Venetian plaster walls become paintings and design becomes sculpture, especially in the hands of Vincenzo De Cotiis (the mixed-media end table) or Markus Haase (the bronze-and-onyx wall sconce). Neutral, but not without a strong point of view.