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HOME magazine Newsday's Guide to Design and Decor "Cozy Corner" by Beth Sherman Sipping herb tea in Robin Lennon's kitchen is about as close to tranquil as it gets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The walls are rose-colored, and the cabinets are painted in luscious tones of melon, periwinkle blue and sea-foam green. Rumpled cream and gold curtains spill from a curtain rod. In place of chairs, there's an upholstered banquette. On the table is a glittering Indian fabric. On the windowsill, an angel holds an urn in his chubby arms. "I've stopped trying to pretend I fit in," says Lennon, a spirited 41 year-old interior designer with red hair and a melodious voice. "Either people love the space or they don't get it at all." I'm in the first camp. After trudging through snow drifts and climbing five flights of stairs to get here, I'm ready to relax. Lennon knows just what will help. She instructs me to close my eyes, and take a few deep, cleansing breaths. Then she guides me through a visualization, where I imagine myself crossing a bridge, entering my ideal house, and picturing how the different rooms look--down to the furnishings and wall coverings. "Sometimes, people picture these dark, empty spaces," says Lennon, who uses this meditation technique with design clients to help them learn to trust their own sense of style and taste. Hers is a holistic approach, one that looks at decorating not as a "gee, I wonder what color couch would look good in that corner" scenario, but as an introspective journey, involving soul-searching and rule-breaking. A book she is writing called "A Home For Your Heart" touches upon everything from how to create a meditation area to how to recall and incorporate beloved objects from earliest childhood. The book will be published by Bantam early next year. Meanwhile, some of its contents are incorporated into a course at the New York Open Center in Soho.Lennon calls herself an "archaeologist of the psyche," which means she "digs for details hidden in the unconscious" and helps people "unblock their own creative vision."Draw up an irrational floor plan, she suggests. Steer clear of the "I want it now" school of decorating. Don't be afraid to fool with geomancy or feng shui. She lives in a renovated railroad flat, half a block from Gracie Mansion. Personal space, she believes, is "sacred." And indeed, there's a totemic feel to the lighted candle in the antique vitrine in her bedroom, and the clusters of pearls, tinsel, gauze and silver ribbons tacked above the bed.As Lennon defines it, a sacred object is one that defines who you are. "Sacred doesn't have to mean religious", she says, quietly, "It means whatever is really important to you. And that can and should change over time."For Lennon, sacred translates into her grandmother Julia's prized vitrine--once used to hold china and figurines, which is empty now of tchotchkes. It's the spirit infusing the antique baskets from the Philippines, and the wreath fashioned from baby's breath, ferns, peonies, pinecones and hydrangeas, which she created herself. Lennon is interested in geomancy---the art of placing sacred objects, where to put personal treasures so that the spirituality and karma is balanced and correct. The quartz crystals, in a basket in the living room, for instance, are arranged a certain way, so that north-south and east-west are aligned in terms of feng shui principles. A comfy oversized chair and ottoman provide the perfect spot to nestle under an afghan with a cup of tea and a good book. A home-office consists of a 19th Century walnut desk."Someone recently called me a woman-child," she muses, "because I have a playful, childlike quality."That side of her is apparent in the pink and salmon polka dots splashed on her bathroom wall, in the plastic dinosaurs she's placed in the windowbox outside ("I did it to keep the pigeons away") and in silver candelabrum dripping with Elvis figures."Certain areas of your home should reflect different areas of your life, and different parts of your personality," she explains.So what does it all mean, ultimately? What kind of statement is made in her personal space, where plastic grapes cluster on moss and where a corner cupboard's appearance is transformed with the help of pink and saffron paint? "It means using your intuition to know what you need and allowing yourself to need it. It means being true to yourself and what you love," Lennon says. "For me, it means saying that no other apartment on the Upper East Side looks like this---and I don't care." April 17, 1994
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