Sade Sets the Mood Inside Tiffany Howell’s ’70s-Themed Living Room (2023)

Welcome toRoom Envy, a series where we ask interesting people about a favorite room in their house. From minimalist living rooms to vibrant kitchens, we’re zeroing in on the best features of the most enviable rooms.

If you ask Tiffany Howell about her creative process, the interior designer will tell you about how music is the foundation. Before she establishedNight Palm as an interior design agency in 2017, Tiffany had a successful career as a music video director. As if she wasn’t busy enough running her own production company, Tiffany would also handle all areas of the creative aspect, including the set design, which usually ended with everyone asking the same question: “Would you help me with my house?” As she vividly recalls, “It happened very organically, but a lot of my first clients were musicians that I had worked with on music videos.”

When working with clients like Laura Harrier,Elaine Welteroth, andMara Brock Ali, the collaborative process begins with a sensory study to find out not just what inspires but really makes them feel alive. Together, they develop a mood board and a soundtrack that evokes a feeling connected to a specific memory. It’s less about curating an aesthetic and more about doing some serious soul searching to harnessthe true essence of the person. Somehow, Tiffany continues to turn all of those collective visions into manifestations.

As for her family’s home in Silver Lake, the designer envisioned the open concept space as a ’70s treehouse surrounded by windows and wood paneling. This idea really comes to life in the living room where she spends the most quality time with her husband and son. The Tiffany Howell signature is a moody, romantic, and lush atmosphere that is encapsulated by a combination of rich textures, materials, and fabrics. In terms of the color palette, she leaned toward cognac, cream, brown, and black to fill the room with a sexy and smoky effect.

Location:Los Angeles, CA

Square footage:1,000 square feet

Everyone knows the story about designing your childhood bedroom, but can you recall your earliest memory of music?

My mother had me at 19 and she was a backup singer for Ricky Nelson and other people, so music was everything. I probably knew the songs of people that my mother loved by heart before I was even actually saying sentences, music was in our house all the time. And then my dad was a musician and a disc jockey, he was a ’70s rock jock and his name was Doc Roberts—he obviously exposed me to very cool music. So that’s stuck with me all these years and I still have a fondness for it.

Everyone in my family actually were musicians—my brother was a musician too—but I was not born with too many musical gifts. I played the drums, but I was a dancer. Music was always the thread in my life. My nostalgia of childhood is we would all meet together during the holidays, we’d sing, and everyone would play instruments. It was a very social experience for us and there were always records playing.

My parents also liked country and the only person I related to was Johnny Cash. They took me to a Johnny Cash concert when I was little and it blew my mind, but it was more his presence. Everything about him, I was just like, “Whoa.” I had such an appreciation, even though my parents were listening to the ’70s, I was very attracted to it. Whereas other kids definitely were not, I had such a fondness for all types of music even at a really young age, I was absorbed with it.

Was there a pivotal moment or experience that made you want to change your career path?

I had a kid and was doing too many things at that time—I was still doing music videos, set design, interior stuff, and fashion styling. I was doing all these things that were very robust and creative, but then I had a child and I was like, “I can’t do all this anymore, I need to pick a lane and where does my heart lie?” I took a pause and stayed home with my son when he was a baby for a while, and during that time I did some spiritual deep diving and had the revelation that I absolutely wanted to pivot to interiors full-time. It was like once I made that commitment out loud we’ve been booked ever since.

I always say I couldn’t be who I am without what I did like that. Music videos and production and fashion, all that was my creative schooling because I was around such amazing people and mentors. I was fortunate enough to be around all these things that I was passionate about… I love the emotional landscape of people and dealing with people, and I love bringing sets to life and the story of things. I was like, “What can I do to make all these things come to life?” Interiors was a no-brainer for me, I live and breathe it. That’s the problem, there’s no way I can’t not do it.

How does music come into play with the work that you do now?

I use it so much with clients because, just as I’ve felt, music is a way to express how you want someone to feel if they can’t understand that visually. It’s like the first time I heard a Leonard Cohen song, it changed my life. It’s so weird, it’s just like that one voice, and his poetry…I was very young and I was like, “This person understands me.” It was like this connection. I know how profound music can be with people so it’s the foundational tool I use with clients. Every single one of them, you say, “I want this to sound like a Marvin Gaye song or whatever,” and they’re like, “That’s exactly what I want my house to feel like.”

What were some of the references when you were designing your living room?

There’s these old-school pictures ofYves Saint Laurent in his Paris apartment with wood paneling—I actually have those pictures in my living room, and that was the foundational thing. I also used all these pictures ofAnjelica Huston and Jack Nicholson—she has this brown on brown suit on and I wanted my living room to basically look like that photo. I also pulled this vintage Chanel all-brown fashion spread, an old Bazaar spread, and Sade’s “Sweetest Taboo” when she has on the brown jacket and the big hoop earrings; I pulled all these amazing visuals and then implemented that area to have that feel. I wanted it to be like a sexy cave or a love den. That is my sculptural love den because I wanted it to be so cozy. The whole brown on brown thing, that was intentional.

Are there any specific figures that come to mind when you think about the objects in this space?

The Chromeo chair is definitely Sade, 100%. [The Float sectional] is Anjelica Huston when she has on that chocolate colored tonal outfit and Jack Nicholson is with her in a camel suit and a black tie. Those were kind of the muses of everything. There’s an image that I have of Linda Evangelista and she has this brown leather button up jacket on; I wanted the space to feel like that jacket…. I do the same thing with fashion and music. I have this beautiful vintage huge YSL scarf with leopards on it and that was also something tangible that I used to match the tones around the space.

What does the concept of curating a vibe mean to you?

That’s all internal for me, at the start. Curating a vibe for me is how am I going to make somebody feel energetically in a space? Then I lead to sensory layering. So curating a vibe to me personally is how do I want them to feel? Is it lush? Is it sexy? Is it cozy? After that I layer on stuff, like, how is the lighting going to look? How is the tone of the velvet on the couch going to look with their skin? I get obsessive about stuff like that. The candles, the records playing… In my head, I create this whole story and then bring that to life.

What’s the story behind some of the furniture and decor?

Everything in the living room, I really tried to stay true to that vibe of 1970s [Italy]. I have these sculptural burl side tables that I am in absolute love with and have been holding on to forever and waiting for the perfect place to put them. I love the carpet fromWoven, the pile is just so yummy. Those palm trees are obviously vintage too and those are just special pieces of art. Sarah Ellison does a good job, her pieces do feel timeless. Although they’re very much on trend, it’s more because they’re beautiful versus following a trend. Her pieces also could be almost any era, her Float sofa could literally be the ’70s, ’80s, 2000s, whatever. That’s what I invest in and recommend to my clients.

One of my favorite things in that room really is my big huge oversized picture of YSL because he is my muse. When I got this house I had those pictures in my head with all the wood and tones and coloring. To be totally honest, I did design that room around those photoshoots, I picked out pieces based on his living room even though mine feels more modern. I was very inspired by that.

How do you navigate the fine line between inspiration and imitation?

When I’m doing mood boards for myself or clients it’s more metaphorical and poetic because I personally want to start with the romance and the story of ideas before I lean into the look of things…. I would never want to do a room that was similar to someone else. There’s so much stuff fed to us nowadays too that we don’t even realize we’re consuming all this information and all these things. That’s why I intentionally start with obscure things that have nothing to do with interiors because I want to build from that. For me personally, design is soulful. Take your time, you don’t want to follow trends, you want to follow your desires.

I always tell people to get to know yourself, sit with it for a little bit, and create a mood board not based on other people’s work or other interiors that [you] won’t be able to emulate in your house. Rather than that, go down the path of what are my favorite colors, textures, and shapes? Once you establish what turns you on essentially then you slowly lean into that and find those things. When people rush, all the stuff ends up leaving their home a year later, it really does. Timeless is what you want to invest in, and I’m not even talking investment monetarily wise—it’s more like what are you going to like looking at for a long time so that you don’t just buy a bunch of crap and put it into landfill or spend all this money.

What music have you been listening to lately?

I really love Weyes Blood right now, she issuch a vibe. You know what I discovered recently and am obsessed with? The Miles Davis jazz track. I thought I had all Miles Davis, but this particular one that Columbia put out, it isso sexy. If you have not listened to this record, you have to this weekend; pour yourself a glass of wine and get ready to fall in love with yourself. I’m very into slow and poetic…. I made this playlist called Unseen Love and it might be my favorite, of course it’s mostly all jazz as it always is. I’m listening to a lot of Afro Psychedelica like Witch, Rex Williams, and Few Bana Zambia.

If you could shoot a music video in this room with any musician, who would you choose?

Oh, gosh, this is so hard…. I’m thinking Andre 3000, but Solange would be a dream and so would Lana Del Rey.

Who’s on the guest list for your dream house party?

Okay, well, definitely Lana. If Leonard [Cohen] was still here, Leonard for sure. Definitely Andre, no question, I want him to hang out while he plays the flute. One hundred percent without a doubt Miles Davis. I’m thinking of an interesting conversation so definitely David Lynch and Brian Eno. Patti Smith I would want. Obviously, the head of the table would be Bowie for me. I think I’d be really overwhelmed, those are such big personalities; I would need really specific time with each of them. I feel bad I’m not really doing anyone too contemporary, but that feels like it could happen whereas this team right here that we just made, that’s never gonna happen so I’m gonna romance that.