So in the dining room, for example, we have Louis XVI chairs and a quirky, contemporary crystal chandelier. I designed the bookcases so that the wife would have plenty of space for books. I wanted them to be red, but sometimes red can go too red. To bring it down a bit, we started with an undercoat of high-gloss black, and then applied red over that. At the end of the process, we were hand-rubbing so that some of the dark showed through, which really added depth to the red. Photographer: Lucas Allen