This Art-Obsessed California Designer Got His Start Renovating on a Shoestring Budget
“I have been reading every shelter magazine I could get my hands on since I was about 10,” says Sean Leffers. It's an obsession that never subsided: While working at the publishing house Taschen just out of college, he began buying fixer-uppers and renovating them on a shoestring budget. The experience taught him the nitty-gritty of the construction process. “I even did most of the drywall and painting myself,” he recalls.
That nuts-and-bolts knowledge is a valuable foil to the love of art, antiques, and collecting he has developed since then, which is a trademark of his projects—and his own homes— today. Leffers is active with several museums and arts organizations and offers his art expertise to his clients. “I like to provide a framework for helping my clients understand what it is that excites them about the world and then identifying avenues of collecting that increase their passion, knowledge and enjoyment,” he explains. His ultimate goal? “I want the houses that I work on to be therapeutic sanctuaries for their inhabitants.”
Get to Know Sean Leffers
Favorite design era: English Country House Style.
Favorite thing to collect: Oh man, so much. Contemporary art, historic art, ancient and tribal art, textiles, silver...
Favorite room of all time: I absolutely adore the “Floral Bedroom” at Chatsworth house The 18th century bed with its pale blue silk canopy and intricate ruching is the epitome of aristocratic splendor and looks so chic against the red-earth walls. The attitude of the room is decidedly cozy though, aided by the casual treatment of a cheerful floral print used for the bed-curtains and bed upholstery. It’s quite an accomplishment to make such a stately room a space that’d you’d actually like to live in, and something that Deborah, the late Duchess did so well—bringing austere rooms down to earth and comfortable for modern living.
Favorite artist or artwork: Santiago Quesnel.
First design crush: Pierre Yovanovich.
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