Bare white walls and empty rooms: for most of us, this is a daunting prospect. For Thomas Bartlett, it’s one that beckons.

So when the famed Napa-based designer — whose work has been featured in countless books and magazines and on television — went to the Riverfront project in Napa to decorate one of the new condos for a client, it’s not entirely surprising that the next thing that happened was he’d agreed to decorate another newly finished condo as a showcase. Two other model units are being decorated in an understated, minimal contemporary style.

“Mine won’t be,” Bartlett said with a grin. “We’re going to tart it up.”

It will be a one-man show of possibilities, from Bartlett, who is typically one of the featured designers in the annual San Francisco Designer Showcase. He said he’ll be using materials, antiques and other furnishings from his warehouse and Napa showroom, Thomas Bartlett Interiors, as well as his own home.

Bartlett, a Napa Valley native, has built a career in design that takes him around the U.S., but he stays anchored in Napa, where he is a noted supporter of the arts, including the Napa Valley Museum and the Napa Valley Opera House.

“We’re very excited,” said Monica Benyo, director of sales amd marketing for the residential units in the innovative Riverfront, which will combine living and commericial space on Main Street overlooking the Napa River. With the scaffolding down, and commercial tenants moving in, a grand opening is planned for this summer. “It’s a fabulous opportunity for us. I think that Thomas and his team are the most extraordinary team that I’ve had the opportunity to work with.”

 Bartlett invited the Register along with him, as he and his assistant designer, Lisandra Torres, went to the condo to take measurements.

Benyo gave Bartlett his choice of units for the project, and he’d selected a     940-square-foot, one-bedroom, one-bath corner flat with two long sets of windows that open to a terrace on two sides from the central room. What attracted him to it, he said, was the abundant light, the terrance on two sides, and also that in this design, the kitchen is a separate room rather than one that’s open to the living-dining area.

“It’s small,” Bartlett said, “but I’m doing it with the idea that this is not a primary residence.  It’s a pied-à-terre for a New Yorker to use while staying in the Napa Valley — a place to come back to and entertain friends. We’ll make it handsome but comfortable. I’ll do it almost as if I were moving in.”

The first thing to go, Bartlett said, will be the caramel-colored carpet in the bedroom. In the space of three weeks, he said, he’ll paint the white walls, install new carpets and curtains, and move in the furnishings he has chosen.

  “It will be a ‘Napa Valley-European’ style,” he said, as he took the measurements of doors and walls, and Torres wrote it all down.

So intriguing was the prospect of what Bartlett would do with this small space, the Register jumped at the chance to follow him along on the transformation — so for the next three weeks, what this master designer does with this small space will be chrinicles in the Register.

Next week, he said, he’ll be doing the colors and carpet.

For more information about Thomas Bartlett Interiors, visit www.thomasbartlettinteriors.com. The Napa showroom is at the corner of Lincoln and Main streets.