STYLE : INTERIORS : Altered States

How to make a grand entrance? Interior designer Lary Borkin rescued a table, mirror and wall from mediocrity and gave each a dramatic new reason for being. Now the entry to his Tapis Design studio and residential loft, situated in a former ink factory in downtown Los Angeles, is a striking setting, rich in color and texture.

To start, Borkin covered the wood top of a copper-legged table with a sheet of soft, pliable lead. “I laid the table on a sheet of lead and turned it right side up; the lead draped, just as it is now,” he explains. Then Borkin took an inexpensive Mexican mirror and altered its tin frame. “I didn’t like how it looked next to the pewter-colored table,” he says, so he had it bathed in copper sulfate and sulfuric acid, dabbed with potassium permanganate and sodium hydroxide and sealed with lacquer. The result is a frame that looks like burnished copper. Last, Borkin had the drywall primed with a stippled roller, painted five shades of green--ranging from celadon to teal--and sanded to resemble verdigris.

Viewed together, these pieces create an elegant entrance that lets guests know they have arrived.