Subtlety Aside

Interior Designers Randall Beale and Carl Lana

Randall Beale and Carl Lana pride themselves on making unforgettable interior statements with details. So when venturing into the Upper East Side apartment of the Beale half of the Beale-Lana design team, prepare for an in-your-face barrage of big-name photographs, eighteenth-century marble sculptures, one-of-a-kind contemporary art structures, creatures made of porcelain, disco and soccer balls, and Japanese plush toys. “There is nothing subtle about me,” Beale says. “There never has been, and there never will be.” While the variety of textures and shapes he collects in his home might appear incongruous without Beale’s skilled touch, he’s unified them with consistent color themes throughout, adding visual interest with splashes of the unexpected, either in scale, color, or humor.

The duo describes their work aesthetic as bad-boy chic, accented with high contrast, quality, and comfort. Staying true to his E3 (“exquisite, edgy, and elegant”) philosophy, Beale has assembled a visual kaleidoscope that gently guides the eye from detail to detail. His tenacious attention to unusual objects with tactile qualities allows him to secure tempting treasures from all over the globe, both old and new, thrift and antique.

A standout example in Beale’s home is a dramatic black-and-white corner in his living room, cast upon a $65 wood thrift table he painted white. At the back of the table, he placed a black Ching dynasty lamp that he salvaged from a Florida junk shop and freshened up with a white linen shade trimmed in black. Its dominant position among other black vases and vessels intensifies an appealing, unified shape that becomes the background for a white candleholder shaped like a tree branch by Ted Muehling for Nymphenburg and a white, fragile, one-of-a kind Sèvres rose he carried home from Paris. The result is a cohesive-looking group of objects that have little in common other than the two colors. “Like my life, my personal spaces just evolve,” Beale says. “I enjoy trying new things, and the contradictions emerge.” Throughout his home, Beale mixes collectable and priceless pieces with items that others might deem just trinkets, resulting in a happy space that’s full of stories and memories.

The Find, Stan Williams, 2009