SUZANNE SLESIN: There's such a nice calm feeling to this house. How did you get started on the design?

DAVID MITCHELL: I really liked the striped floors in the living and dining rooms, which were painted when the house was remodeled about 20 years ago. The owner, Jack Kelleher, thought we would want to strip them and turn them back into wood floors, but I felt they had such a beautiful patina that I wanted to keep them. I've learned to respect what is good in a house and improve on what is bad.

Okay, but the floors present a very strong statement that could overpower everything else. How did you deal with that?

I had to come up with another graphic statement to balance them out. I decided not to use rugs but to cover the two armchairs with a strong brown and white checked fabric that stands up to the floors, yet still keeps the soft atmosphere of the room. The tufted sofa and ottoman contribute to that, too. I especially like the way the ottoman slips under the rolled steel table, creating a contrast of textures. Layering is something we like to do.

I see you do that with lots of different patterns, using stripes, gingham, toile, florals -- could you call it a kind of minimalist layering?

I love patterns and how nowadays you can layer them. For a long time we lived in a monochromatic world of tone-on-tone. Now it's all about pattern and contrast. I think you can build more personality with pattern and color than you can with beige. Here, we're telling a story about pattern and texture in a range of colors. Every room has something graphic in it. The story might be subtle, but it's there.

The story is subtle in the kitchen, too. So simple and uncluttered!

Sometimes it's about how much stuff you can take away. In the kitchen -- actually I call it the anti-kitchen -- we kept the original stainless-steel cabinets and vintage restaurant stove and added marble countertops. I also loved the idea of having only one set of upper cabinets, and of hanging photographs on the tiles.

And I love how the tiles look rather irregular.

We wanted to cover the walls with inexpensive white subway tile, and we chose one that was handmade. Because it's made on a terra-cotta base, it has a little more irregularity than machine-made tile.

Even in this world of "anything-goes-with-anything," it's clear that it takes a certain amount of flair to put together things that seem to have really nothing in common. How do you do that?

My talent is mixing things, but I don't ever call my interiors eclectic. Because when you use the word eclectic, you don't have a point of view — and I do. And I'm really good at finding things and turning them into artwork. That's what makes the work more personal and unusual.

The dining room certainly feels personal. There's a wonderful mix of contemporary and antiques.

And found objects. It's a mixture of high and low. We used a French wine-tasting table, Art Deco chairs, and covered a pair of Jacobean chairs with a fabric that brings an organic feeling to the room. The print -- a fresh-looking floral done in grays and browns and something you don't usually see -- gives the antique chairs a new twist. I designed the cherrywood sideboard. I'd call it a modern version of a Mission piece.

Where does that handsome overscale light fixture over the dining table fit into the mix?

It's a great light because it does what I want it to do in the space. It's a brown bronze color, based on a traditional American chandelier, and has a great linen shade that encompasses it and gives it an edge.

Totally fabulous looking. Where is it from?

Now, why would I tell you? A designer is only as good as his sources!

How come there are ceiling fans in some of the rooms even though the house is air-conditioned?

Designers hate ceiling fans. People love them. They like the breeze, and they like sleeping under them. We're working on 22 projects now, and they all have ceiling fans.

I noticed that this house has a much quieter, less colorful look than some of your other projects.

I'm not interested in everyone's house looking the same and I'm really not a beige designer. We use a lot of yellows and pale blues. This was the right palette for the person who lives here -- browns, khakis, grays, and ivories. It's a neutral palette without being beige, a tailored look. Even though it's in a Long Island beach town, it's very much not a beach house. That's not what Jack wanted.

So this house is more about the owner's taste than the designer's.

My philosophy about design is that I want the house to reflect the person who lives in it. When someone comes into Jack's house, I don't want him or her to say, "David Mitchell did it." I want them to think "Jack, this is so you."