STYLE : INTERIORS : Light Fantastic

Deciding what color to paint the walls or where to hang a picture is never a problem for Brian Alfred Murphy, a Santa Monica-based architectural designer and renegade recycler who is something of a Mad Hatter of new ideas. Take the 18 crimson chandeliers dangling from the living room ceiling of his iconoclastic Santa Monica Canyon home. The concept came to him in a dream, and then he acted on his vision. He liked the effect so much that he hung three more chandeliers over his dining room table and another in his downstairs bathroom. Soon, Murphy will be taking his idea to the max: An upcoming Lake Hollywood home will include 40 white chandeliers cascading down the center of a two-story-high, eight-foot-wide staircase.