Leyden Lewis Design Studio

“To me, the architectural interior is a stage on which I imagine my clients’ lived-out lives,” says Leyden Lewis, founder and creative director of his namesake Brooklyn studio. As an architect, designer and fine artist, Lewis recognized a kindred soul in the African-Caribbean multimedia maker Malene Djenaba Barnett — they’re both founding members of the Black Artists + Designers Guild — and built a backdrop for her that, he says, showcases “her joy for life and her love of patternmaking within her own artistic practice.” In Barnett’s Brooklyn living room, adorned with her pieces and collection of West African sculptures, the designer placed a 1960s Adrian Pearsall platform sofa, found on 1stDibs, with connected marble end tables. “It is so beautifully proportioned,” Lewis says. “And its visual weightlessness brings calm and openness to the space.” The designer’s own equally inventive seating, a custom-designed cork-and-leather bench, subdivides the room, creating what he calls a “more contemporary parlor space” that encourages socialization. The bench is anchored into Barnett’s Legacy Wall, a striking fireplace surround made of her intentionally fragmented terracotta tiles that, Lewis explains, “represents the importance for us to piece together our past and create a new narrative in celebration of Black culture.”