Style and Substance: The Best of Elle Decor by Margaret Russell goes to furniture and accessories designer, Luca Rensi.

Photos from Decorative Style Kevin Mcloud

The inspiration came from Decorative Style

Rensi worked for Mark Hampton, where he took what he learned and created a beautiful apartment in New York. His mix of classical elements, decorative painting, chocolate browns and beige is elegant and timeless. After working as a senior designer for David Kleinberg and David Easton, he started his successful furniture and accessories company, Bungalow 5.

A page from the book that gave him the impetus to take on faux painting the walls.

The creation: a living room with decorative painting detail and accents.

The creation: Luca Rensi's old living room at 36 Gramercy Park East in New York.

He shared, "I think that my first foray into design was inspired by the book Decorative Style by Kevin McCloud. It was the late 1980’s/early 1990’s and there was quite a bit of glazing and decorative painting going on in New York City. I’d recently been to dinner at a friend’s mother’s home and was fascinated by the faux sandstone wall treatment she’d had installed in her entrance gallery. I ran straight to a bookstore and picked up the first book I could find with a credible looking faux sandstone treatment explained. As it turned out, I had a real talent for decorative painting and ended up painting my entire living room with faux sandstone blocks, marbleized baseboards and faux bois doors."

Marbleized baseboards add to the elegance of the classical and serene interiors.

Faux - painted sandstone blocks and marbleized baseboards in detail.