Musician-turned-designer Lenny Kravitz on why it’s worth investing in design

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Lenny Kravitz has sold 40 million albums and won four Grammys since his releasing his debut record, Let Love Rule, in 1989. Just as his music has incorporated a wide range of styles and influences – rock, jazz, blues, pop and reggae among others – the same can be said for his personal sense of style. He’s one of rock’s most iconic dressers. Born in Manhattan, Kravitz says his career in music and love of fashion led naturally to his interest in design. He loves how thing are made, how they set a mood, or vibe, and how they tell a story. In 2003, he launched Kravitz Design, a New York-based company that focuses on both residential and commercial projects, with a roster of clients that includes Swarovski Crystal, the Morgans Hotel Group and Dom Pérignon. For his latest project, the 55-year-old designed the entire seventh floor of the Bisha Hotel in Toronto. Inspired by the glamour of the 1970s, the “Kravitz Design Floor,” as it is known, includes 13 guest rooms and three suites, all designed in earthy tones to create a warm, intimate vibe. Kravtiz spoke to The Globe about how to live a well-designed life, how to find your own personal aesthetic and why good design comes down to self-expression.

What does it mean to you to live a well-designed life?

For me it starts in the home. My homes are very important to me. Where they are, how they feel, how they’re designed, how they work as far as inspiration. The furnishings, the textures, the colours, the art. For someone who travels so much, home for me is vacation. So home is refuge and inspiration and a place to make more art. Then of course there’s fashion, there’s design, there’s how you travel, how you dress, what you have with you, how you move from A to Z. Everything has an aesthetic value and a certain function.

So how to you pick items to decorate a room with, or even the clothes you wear?

I choose things based on how they function and how they look. How they’re made. What’s the story behind it? It’s all of it, down to the food you eat. I mean, you’re talking about a well-designed life, what are you putting in to your body? What are you putting in to your mind? Who are you hanging out with? What kind of energy are you dealing with? That’s design too, because we choose that.

But not everyone can completely choose those things.

I’m very aware of that. Just waking up in the morning and having another day to live life, that’s everything. The rest of this is gravy. I mean, I love things. But I keep them in perspective.

How did you develop your style over the years?

There’s so many different styles. If you see different projects you’d think they were different designers.

How can people find their own aesthetic?

Everybody has their own vibe, and that’s the beauty. I can go into somebody’s home and have nothing to do with anything that I would ever choose or like but I completely appreciate it and think that it’s beautiful because it suits them and their lifestyle. They’re being authentic to themselves. I think that’s what good style is, it’s anybody that is doing them. If you’re doing you authentically you can read it, you can smell it, you can see it.

Is that why it’s important to live a well-designed life, because it comes down to being true to yourself?

Yeah, that’s it. See, the other thing is, it’s not about the size of space. You could have one little room and make it the most beautiful little jewel box for your life because every detail is thought of and you can go in to a huge mansion that is horrible. A lot of times I like smaller spaces. I lived completely in an Airstream trailer for 15 years in the Bahamas. There’s something really comforting about it, there’s something about only having enough room to bring what you really, really need so you pare everything down to the basics. And it’s just cozy. It’s like a womb.

When you design a space what does success feel like to you?

If it feels the way you had intended. I just worked on my place in Paris. Completely emptied the place and redid it. Just like in music, I let it tell me what to do. So when the place is empty and I stand in the space the space tells me what to do.

So what did you do to the place?

It’s more about how the energy flows between the rooms. I’m very sensitive to how the energy flows in a place, how the light works, what you don’t want to block. Maybe you don’t want to block that window with a couch going behind it because you want that energy flow to go straight through. It’s a very interesting way to work. So success is when visually it feels right, it feels right in the way that in functions for people to gather.

Right, so you have to start with asking, how do I want to use this space?

Exactly. You don’t always have to take a large room and fill it up either. That was an old idea of wealth. It showed you were able to acquire. And now for me it’s gone in the completely opposite direction.

What’s the opposite direction?

Space and feel.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

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