Clive Lonstein

Inspired by the famed Hollywood interior designer William Haines, New York–based Clive Lonstein brought bicoastal sophistication — plus an appropriate touch of outdoorsy plaid — to this living room in a 1934 Georgian by architect Harrie T. Lindeberg in Seattle. “The client loves to entertain and wanted a grand living room that could accommodate a large party while still feeling intimate for a smaller group,” says the South Africa–born Lonstein, who cut his designing teeth at Studio Sofield and ran the in-house architecture and design studio at Tiffany & Co. before going out on his own. To achieve this, Lonstein anchored the room with a low-slung, tailored custom sofa upholstered in a Loro Piana tartan and a coffee table made from walnut and John Lewis cast glass. He points to how the contemporary design of the table “sets off the more traditional shapes of the vintage club chairs around it,” which include a 1940s French example in titian red and, flanking the fireplace, a pair by Fritz Hansen in pale blue mohair. Such 21st-century accents as a steel cocktail table by J.M. Szymanski, a table lamp by ceramist Peter Lane and artist Karon Davis’s plaster bust in a blue vitrine add striking focal points to a space that, Lonstein says, “has a minimalist, modern feel.”