LONDON CORDIAL

MIXMASTER LORENZO CASTILLO DECKS A CHELSEA TOWNHOUSE IN IMMERSIVE PRINTS, RADIANT SEATING, AND A WELCOMING SPIRIT THAT TIPS TO THE WILD SIDE

- CELIA BARBOUR

EIGHT HUNDRED MILES separate London from Madrid, but one family need only pass through the front door of their Chelsea townhouse to erase such distances and enter a realm where national borders dissolve and cultural cross-pollination flourishes. Created by legendary Spanish designer Lorenzo Castillo, the Art Deco-era home's interiors infuse English high style with a generous dose of Spanish vitality and passion-think Tempranillo in a porcelain teacup-while layering in pieces ranging from 18th-century French and Scandinavian antiques to Pop Art. It adds up to a dramatically beguiling atmosphere built on a foundation of deep scholarship.

"England holds a lot of weight in the history of interior design, so I wanted to pay homage to that heritage," he says, noting his appreciation for the Victorian period, a time "when using a profusion of materials and diverse objects was very fashionable." He mixes in rural elements-tin sconces, mohair blankets, bamboo, garden chairs-to cut the richness. "It makes a house more human, less pretentious." His relationship with these longtime clients began with a charming encounter that reads like a meet-cute lifted straight out of a Nora Ephron film: Twenty-five years ago, shortly after Castillo had opened his antiques shop in Madrid, a young couple burst in. "They asked to rent my whole stock," he recalls. "They had just moved into a new home, had no furniture, and were hosting a dinner party." His response? "I started laughing."