Whether it’s a Manhattan penthouse or a South Carolina Arts and Crafts bungalow, “each new project can paint a visual story about someone’s life,” says designer Stephen Shadley. “People, especially creative people, like to express themselves in terms of how they dress and how they live,” he says. As an interior designer, “you’re trying to create an extension of who they are.” Many of his clients, who include actors Diane Keaton and Matthew Modine, come with their own creative bent, he says, “and I love the challenge of expanding on that, of trying to bring what I know but not impose myself.”

He also loves the challenge of breathing new life into spaces that have been forgotten or abandoned. “It’s like taking in a stray animal,” he says. Among the rehabilitation projects that have recently captured his imagination is a 1918 stone house designed by Wilfred Buckland, Cecil B. DeMille’s set and lighting designer. Shadley, himself a former set designer and scenic painter, is drawn to the rich history of the house, which is near his own in New York’s Catskill Mountains. It speaks to his eclectic style, in which past and present mingle through antiques, contemporary works and pieces of his own design. Shadley, who heads a six-person Manhattan firm, attributes much of his ability to conceive—and reconceive—spaces to the supple approach of his mentor, Robert Bray. “If a client isn’t happy with a plan,” Shadley says, “there are always five other great solutions.”

Stephen Shadley

212-243-6913

www.stephenshadleom