Clive Lonstein conjures traditional rustic interiors for a Colorado log cabin
The American West is a place of wide skies, soaring mountains and deep ravines. It is a place where the seasons are extreme. The landscape morphs dramatically through the cycle of the year. Lush, pale springs turn to hot green summers. Golden autumns develop into deep, white winters. It was this landscape and its variations, more than anything else, that the South African-born, New York-based designer Clive Lonstein responded to when working on this holiday house for its owners.
Clive began his career at New York firm Studio Sofield, where he served as design director, working on high-end residential, retail and hospitality projects for clients ranging from Tom Ford to Boucheron. He was subsequently a vice president of Tiffany & Co, where he oversaw the company’s in-house architecture and design studio, before opening his eponymous business in 2015. As a creator of retail spaces, he was charged with conjuring an environment for a brand to live in. While designing a house is different in many ways of course, Clive suggests that when creating interiors tailored for a private owner and their individual lifestyle, there is also a brand idea at work.
In this instance, he knew from working with his clients on a previous project that they wanted somewhere that felt relaxed and that, as collectors, they would bring interesting objects to the mix, which would need space to be displayed and appreciated.
The property had been acquired a number of years earlier, well before the family decided to build. The land included a simple structure in some disrepair, which was connected to a horse barn. Once the decision was made to erect a new house, Clive identified an interesting structural element in the old building – a double-height gabled ceiling made from wooden beams – and decided to salvage it. It is now the main feature in the central living space of the new build, anchored by a soaring stone fireplace.
With a panorama of forest-covered mountains and grassland, the architecture is of the local vernacular, so the simple wooden cabin is clad in vertical sawn logs, with a pitched metal roof that echoes the original structure. ‘Colorado is not a manicured place. It is just naturally beautiful, and the land and the vegetation is the driving force of it all,’ he explains. ‘In each room, we wanted there to be a connection to the landscape, but we didn’t like the huge expanses of glass often seen in new houses here. We wanted the play between inside and out to be achieved more subtly.’
A warm minimalism pervades the house and it is this tension – what Clive describes as ‘the contradictions of texture and materiality inspired by the landscape’ – that makes it so inviting. The American West and its focus on craft feel familiar to the designer thanks to his South African roots. On a visit to a local metalworkers’ shop, Clive found a bar of metal in the perfect dimensions and had it distressed and blackened. It went on to become the stair railing: ‘The craftspeople who worked on this house transformed my designs in a remarkable way.’
Deep door architraves are lined in wood and panelling is used to break up plaster walls. The floorplan is centred around a main sitting area with all other rooms emanating from this space. A separate staircase leads to a second bedroom and bunk room for guests. The stone floor is laid out in a random pattern, which runs from inside to the porch. Its casual, primitive feel meets the reclaimed fumed oak floor, cut into wide planks and inspired by the interplay of boulders and trees. At the windows, bamboo chik blinds allow a view of the landscape even when half closed, and are contrasted in the main bedroom and bathroom with curtains and blinds in an earthy linen by Perrine Paris, chosen to pick up on autumn leaves. Colour, where it does feature, is drawn tonally from the setting – indigo, terracotta, black and cream. Delicate geometric patterns, plaid and the visual jolt of an antique suzani hanging on the wall enliven the browns of the wood.
In the sitting room, a leather Chesterfield sits easily next to a Fornasetti coffee table, which the owners moved from another house. Clive liked how it felt slightly out of place in the mix. In the study, a vintage André Arbus desk and Paul Dupré-Lafon lamp are combined with a Frits Henningsen chair.
A particularly beautiful view is captured by double casement windows in the bathroom. A freestanding bathtub is positioned so the bather can look out into the treetops and to the mountains beyond. The walls are clad in enveloping cork. Intentionally, the decoration has been scrubbed of a specific time period. Instead, there is a thoughtful house, resonant with its majestic setting.
Clive Lonstein: clivelonstein.com
William Jess Laird1/5The Frontier Stone floor, reclaimed wood cladding and blackened steel staircase create a suitably rustic feel.
William Jess Laird2/5In the dining area, a banquette covered in Le Manach’s ‘Djibouti’ fabric is teamed with a 19th-century oak table from Atelier Demiurge and spindle-back Lancashire chairs on a Moroccan Tuareg rug.
William Jess Laird3/5
William Jess Laird4/5Curtains and blinds in ‘Axel’ terracotta hand-woven linen mix by Perrine Paris from Alt For Living, a Swedish rug and a table lamp in the style of Paul Dupré-Lafon introduce earthy tones.
William Jess Laird5/5An antique suzani provides a colourful, eye-catching backdrop for an André Arbus desk with a Frits Henningsen leather chair and a wooden chair by Richard Riemerschmid.
