Last week, it was Napa designer Thomas Bartlett and his assistant, Lisandra Torres, surveying and measuring a one-bedroom flat, while he considered ideas to transform it into a “handsome and comfortable” pied-a-terre.

This week, when he arrived at the new Riverfront development in Napa, he was accompanied by the first wave of his “troops,” the artisans who will help him transform his plans into a completed work.

In a career that has spanned more than four decades and taken him around the world, Bartlett has assembled an enviable roster of professionals, many of whom are lending their expertise to this project of decorating one of the new, unoccupied flats and creating a local designer showcase — in a 940-square-foot, one-bedroom, one-bath flat. He plans to complete the project within a month.

 The residential units in this mixed-use building complex fill the second, third and fourth floors of the southern-most portion and range in size from one to three bedrooms. They all open into a quiet interior courtyard. Bartlett chose a flat on the second floor with a balcony that overlooks the Napa River and a side terrace.

On Wednesday, it was a veritable parade carrying bolts of fabric and buckets of paint up to the flat  On the agenda was deciding on the color for the walls and trying out the carpet and fabric samples.

Bartlett was carrying a massive encyclopedia of paint colors, and from it he’d narrowed his selection down to two choices — a sky blue and a sea-foam blue green.

Scott Williams from CSI Paint had brought paints, and Michael Gibson, owner of Fine Interior Finishes, was ready to paint.

Almost hidden by an armful off gold and white curtains was Sharon Lomonaco from Royal Drapery in Napa; carrying more fabrics was Barbara Beckman, whose Napa business, Beckmann Designs, creates hand-painted fabrics for clients around the world.

While Gibson swiftly painted a large swathe of the two paints on the flat’s white walls, Bartlett and Williams explained the health benefits of this particular paint, Pittsburgh Paints Environmentally Preferred Paints, which CSI carries. “Green certified,” the paints have no volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and so are free from the strong odors usually associated with freshly painted rooms.

“You could sleep in here tonight,” Bartlett said.

Bartlett said he’d worked his way backwards in choosing the paints, based on the furnishings he’ll be bringing in. After studying the two choices against the sample English chintz pillow and Beckman’s fabrics, Bartlett opted for the sea foam.

“It’s a nice tranquil color,” Lomonaco observed. “A home should always feel tranquil and serene.”

For those who feel more daunted by the task of choosing one color from thousands, Williams said, “I encourage people to buy a quart and get some on the wall. It can look really different than a paint chip.” And if you don’t like it after you’ve made up your mind, he added, “It’s only paint; you can do it again. It’s not like you’re moving walls.”

Bartlett and Gibson, meanwhile, were discussing the white baseboard. “I’m still debating about painting the baseboard,” Bartlett said. “If we paint the baseboard, then we’ll have to do the door trim, too.”

Gibson tried out a patch of paint on the baseboard, and Bartlett nodded.

He’ll use the one color on the walls throughout the flat, he said, including the painted space in the kitchen, the bedroom and the living-dining room area and the ceiling. “There’s a fallacy that a light ceiling makes the ceiling seem higher,” he said. “If I choose one color, I use it everywhere.”

The discussion then turned to the fabrics, as Bartlett held up the regal curtains that Lomonaco had made from his design for the dining room he did for last year’s San Francisco Designers’ Showcase. The alternating maize and white panels with a pearl stripe, painted by Beckman, have an intricate braid at the top and v-shaped bottom edges.

Bartlett held them up to the windows in the living area and everyone nodded.

The other Beckman fabrics were in shades of the blues and sea foam, subtle gradations of color created by hand-painted designs that will create an “Italian country feel,” Bartlett said.

 Beckman’s blue fabric, along with another, a lightweight stripe of white, pearl and blue, will be used in the bedroom, where Bartlett is taking replacing the existing brown carpet with a blue plaid design.

 “It’s not going to be all matched up, but layered,” Bartlett said, contemplating the assortment of samples. “If you get everything right on, it goes flat.”

Gibson’s team will be painting this week. Next week, Bartlett said, the next team will begin bringing in the furnishings, including an apple rush rug for the living area, an assortment of furniture, and “the lamps and things that make us feel like we’re at home.”

“It’s like me — subtle,” he joked.

Bartlett said the team work will allow him to complete the job on a such a short schedule. “But there has to be a coach,” Lomonaco added. “He’s the coach.”

Bartlett added the other consideration that’s moving the project swiftly is “I’m pleasing myself — I am the client.”

The design team

Thomas Bartlett

Bartlett Interiors

2151 Main St., Napa

(707) 259-1234

www.thomasbartlettinteriors.com

Michael Gibson

Fine Interior Finishes

partnersinpainting.com

(707) 252-4322

(707) 287-3176

Scott Williams

CSI Paint

257 Walnut St., Napa

(707) 255-5489

Sharon Lomonaco

Royal Drapery

3149 California Blvd.

(707) 226-2022

Barbara BeckmanN

Beckman Designs

1911 N. Kelly Road, Napa

(707) 226-8772

Monica Benyo

Director of sales and marketing

Riverfront residences

(707) 252-5463

Editors’ note: This is part two in a four part series following Napa designer Thomas Bartlett as he decorates a flat at the new Riverfront development in Napa.